School of something FACULTY OF OTHER Medical Academic Education Unit School of Medicine Blogs – and the Net Generation John Sandars Senior Lecturer

What are blogs? Why should we be interested? How are young people using them?

Blog “ is a type of website where entries are made (such as in a journal or diary), displayed in a reverse chronological order.”

Typical Blog Title main title, or headline, of the post Body main content of the post Permalink URL of the full, individual article Post Date date and time of the post Comments Categories (or tags) Trackbacks links to other sites that refer to the entry

Things are changing! The Neaten The Net Generation “ Demographic revolution meets the digital revolution” Learn, work, play and shop differently Digital natives / Digital immigrants

Creating a blog – it’s incredibly easy! Blogger Free

Finding a blog - Blog search engines Bloglines Google Blog Search Technorati

Blogs Read Write Course page Individual – Journal / E portfolio / File store Collective space Interact

197 medical students 80 psychology students (Sandars & Morrison 2005) Blogs /wikisyes % no % Have you ever used a blog/ wiki? 2970 Have you had your own blog/wiki? 1483 Blogsyes % no % Do you mainly read blogs?1874 Do you write your own blogs?783 First-year undergraduate students in the first semester 230 medical students 2006

How are young people using blogs?