1. Prof. Burks Oakley II Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Director, University of Illinois Online Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Illinois January 2006 The What, Why, and How of Blogs and Blogging

2. 2004 Word of the Year

3. Definition of Blog & Blogging A blog is a website for which an individual or a group, frequently generates text, photographs, video, audio files, and/or links, typically (but not always) on a daily basis. The term is a shortened form of weblog. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging”. Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts”, “posts”, or “entries”. The person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

4. Blogs – The Basics Blogs are web pages Read in reverse chronological order – the most recent postings are read first Continue to increase in popularity - a new blog is created every second Popular in part because of the simple software used to create them –simple to create –simple to update –neatly organized –free!

5. Blogs & Blogging - Media Media used with blogs –Most blogs are text-based –There also are photo blogs, audio blogs (podcasts), and video blogs (vodcasts)

6. Blogging – The Author Create a free account at Blogger.comBlogger.com

7. Blogging – The Author Enter blog posting on a web-based form

8. Blogging – The Author Publish the blog at Blogspot.comBlogspot.com

9. Blogging – The Reader View the blog posting directly on the web –http://burkso2.blogspot.com/http://burkso2.blogspot.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for the blog using an RSS feed aggregator –http://feeds.feedburner.com/b2onlearninghttp://feeds.feedburner.com/b2onlearning

10. Why Would You Want to Blog? Writing practice Creative outlet Crystallize wisdom Contribute Connect Speed familiarity Capture learning history http://decker.typepad.com/welcome/2004/10/why_blog_7_reas.html

11. Growth of Blogging

12. The Blogosphere “Blogosphere is the collective term encompassing all blogs as a community or social network. Many weblogs are densely interconnected; bloggers read others’ blogs, link to them, reference them in their own writing, and post comments on each others’ blogs. Because of this, the interconnected blogs have grown their own culture.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogosphere

13. Interesting Blogs Online Learning Update Techno-News Update Reflections (photo blog) Reflections Burks On Learning (audio blog) Burks On Learning Lanny on Learning Technology Chronicle Wired Campus Tama’s e-Learning Blog Boing-Boing

15. How to Find Blogs Google blog search Yahoo! blog search Technorati Bloglines

16. Blogs – Great Resource Seven Things You Should Know About … Blogs – from EDUCAUSE Seven Things You Should Know About … Blogs –What is it? –Who is doing it? –How does it work? –Why is it significant? –What are the downsides? –Where is it going? –What are the implications for teaching and learning?

17. Teaching and Learning “Blogs are an increasingly accepted instructional technology tool. Blogs can be used for reflection about classes, careers, or current events; they can also capture and disseminate student- and faculty-generated content.” “Blogs offer students, faculty, staff and others a high level of autonomy while creating a new opportunity for interaction with peers. Blogs provide a forum for discussion that goes beyond coursework to include culture, politics, and other areas of personal exploration. Students often learn as much from each other as from instructors or textbooks, and blogs offer another mechanism for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and acquisition.”

18. An (Optional) Assignment Go to Blogger.com and create a free account.Blogger.com Create a blog [MyBlogName]. Compose your first blog posting. Publish it at: http://[MyBlogName].blogspot.com http://[MyBlogName].blogspot.com Let all your friends, colleagues, and family know the URL. You now are an official blogger!!

19. The What, Why, and How of Blogs and Blogging Burks Oakley II web: http://www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/http://www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/ e-mail: oakley@uillinois.eduoakley@uillinois.edu Submit questions to Rob Reilly: reilly@media.mit.edureilly@media.mit.edu This work is licensed under a Creative CommonsCreative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial - ShareAlike 2.5 LicenseAttribution – NonCommercial - ShareAlike 2.5 License.