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The What, Why, and How
of Blogs and Blogging
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
2004 Word of the Year
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
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!
Blogs & Blogging - Media

Media used with blogs
– Most blogs are text-based
– There also are photo blogs, audio blogs
(podcasts), and video blogs (vodcasts)
Blogging – The Author

Create a free account at Blogger.com
Blogging – The Author

Enter blog posting on a web-based form
Blogging – The Author

Publish the blog at Blogspot.com
Blogging – The Reader

View the blog posting directly on the
web
– http://burkso2.blogspot.com/

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the blog
using an RSS feed aggregator
– http://feeds.feedburner.com/b2onlearning
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
Growth of Blogging
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
Interesting Blogs
Online Learning Update
 Techno-News Update
 Reflections (photo blog)
 Burks On Learning (audio blog)
 Lanny on Learning Technology
 Chronicle Wired Campus
 Tama’s e-Learning Blog
 Boing-Boing

How to Find Blogs
Google blog search
 Yahoo! blog search
 Technorati
 Bloglines

Blogs – Great Resource

Seven Things You Should Know About
… Blogs – from EDUCAUSE
– 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?
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.”
An (Optional) Assignment
Go to Blogger.com and create a free
account.
 Create a blog [MyBlogName].
 Compose your first blog posting.
 Publish it at:
http://[MyBlogName].blogspot.com
 Let all your friends, colleagues, and
family know the URL. You now are an
official blogger!!

The What, Why, and How
of Blogs and Blogging
Submit questions to Rob Reilly: [email protected]
Burks Oakley II
web: http://www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/
e-mail: [email protected]
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