Authors: Suha Tamim and Clif Mims

Table of Contents

What is a Blog?

Blogging is the creation of an online journal that is shared by others on the Web. The format of the blog varies and its purpose differs with desire of the blogger.

• Blogging: A Brief History and Overview

Several definitions have been given for "blogging" and "blog". Here are a few:

• Blogs in Plain English

• Definitions and examples
• 7 things you should know about blogs.

Blogging Tools

There are many tools to create a blog. Some of them are free of charge and some are not.

• Start blogging

• Blog Publishing tools: Recommendations from Josh Staiger.

• Examples of publishing tools: Blogger, Edublogs, WordPress.

• Quick demonstrations:

1. How to create a bolg using Blogger
2. How to create a blog using WordPress
3. Video presentation on how to use Edublogs

Searching for a Blog?

There are search engines available to locate blogs:

• Technorati (Blog search)
• Google blog search
• Icerocket
• Blogdigger
• Clusty
• Blogarama

More tools

• Jott: Jott converts your voice into emails, text messages, reminders, lists and appointments.
• Talkr: Talkr allows listening to text-only blogs on iPod.
• Live blogging
• VoiceThread: a tool for having conversations around media

• 50 useful blogging tools for teachers
• 10 habits of bloggers that win

Notes

• Blog safely.
• Call for a blogger's code of conduct.

Blogs in education

Teachers are discovering the advantages that blogs have on teaching. Several of them share in their blogs their experience on the matter and post their classroom activities on them.

• Blogs and pedagogy.
• Uses of blogs in education and what it does for students.
• How to teach about educational weblogs : Insights of Anne Davis.
• How to grow a blog a visual tool teaching students how to blog Konrad Glogowski.

Read this document on Scribd: How to Grow a Blog

Resources

• A variety of bloggers blogging mostly about blogs and blogging - examples blogs of teachers, administrators, students and others.
• International Edubloggers directory.
• Edblogger World - Facilitating connections and community for educational bloggers.
  
• A school teacher shares his suggestions on classroom blogging to enhance learning and teaching.-Tom Barrett.
• K-12 resources and example blogs for teachers on blogging.
• Blogs in education : articles, tools, examples and aggregators for teachers' use.
• Bloggers to learn from.

More examples of educational blogs

• Mrs. Larsen's class blog - in her elaborate blog, Mrs. Larsen connects students and parents to her classroom activities.\

• Brian Crosby's class blog - Mr. Crosby's fifth grade class, piloting a 1:1 laptop program.
  

• Example uses of weblogs in various education settings from K-12, to college and university, to educational workgroup settings
• Webquest on blogging - Anne Davis, uses webquest to introduce her elementary students to blogging
• Examples of lower, middle, and Upper school blogs
• Links to schools' bloggers.

Ongoing Conversation

Notes, resources, ideas, activities, etc., related to this topc can be posted here by anyone in an effort to continue the conversation.

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