Tips for Bloggers
Topic: Blogging Basics

Pete Resco shared a link today to an interesting online tutorial. It's called 10 Steps to Citizen Journalism Online and was developed by the International Center for Journalists. The Flash tutorial includes a lot of common sense information. Slides 5 and 6 discuss safety and professional ethics. Although the content on these slides is really geared to journalists, it doesn't take much of a leap for educators to consider how the points made might impact them and their students.

Anyway, I think it's worth a look. 

Technorati Tags: blogging basics, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young, International Center for Journalists

 

Support Blogging Wiki
Topic: Blogging Basics
Steve Hargadon has created a wiki called Support Blogging. A quick review of the wiki shows areas entitled

* What Is Educational Blogging?
* Edublogs Vs. Social Networking
* Resources
* Readers & Feeds
* How to Start
* Student & Teacher Blogs

and more...

This looks like a great place to find and share resources.

Again, thanks to Will Richardson for pointing it out.

Great Online Resource
Topic: Blogging Basics
Anne Davis has created a wiki called Improving Instruction throught the Use of Weblogs. Many interesting resources are included here.

Thaks to Will Richardson for pointing it out.

Blogs and Wikis for collaboration
Topic: Blogging Basics
I'm working on an article about classroom use of blogs and wikis for an audience that tends to be on the beginner or early intermediate end of the technology use scale. As I read other articles and books, review blogs, and think about what's happened in workshops I've led where a blog or wiki was used a collaboration tool, I find myself thinking alot about digital accents and the ACOT levels of use.

My current line of thinking is that many teachers resort to using blogs as student journals or as a space to respond to prompts because they are trying to understand their possible uses through the lens of a digital immigrant. I think this is also why I'm seeing many postings about less than successful use of wikis. In order to get to the point where these tools could really make a difference with kids, the teacher has to be willing to move beyond thinking grounded within their own comfort zone. By the same token, automation of familiar tasks is part of the process to get to a new way of thinking.

I wonder what other educators are seeing happen?

Linkblogging
Topic: Blogging Basics
I find that I'm sometimes using my blog as a virtual sticky note-- a place to save links I want to return to later without using a bookmark.

Today I read about a service called del.icio.us. Once you've registered, you can drag a couple of tools to your browser toolbar and start building a list of links that may (or may not) be annotated and that you can access from any Internet-connected computer. Like Backflip, but much easier to use and access again later.

I've set up an account and have added a link to my fledgling list in my list of links here.

Blog Subscriptions
Topic: Blogging Basics
Bloglines is becoming somewhat addictive. I've complained about feeling as though I'm on information overload, but I am finding myself subscribing to a blog here and a blog there... So far I'm able to skim headings and introductory sentences to see whether or not I'm interested in reading the full posting, but as more and more of these listings catch my attention, the more time I'm spending reading.

I think I may be discovering the addictive side of blogging. I think it's not just writing one, I think it's reading and contributing to other blogs as well.

Bloglines Subscription
Topic: Blogging Basics
I'm enjoying Bloglines. It's easy to search when looking for new blogs and also easy to subscribe to a blog. The update feature is nice as well. Unobtrusive, but still gets my attention.

As you can see, I've added a button on this blog that allows people to subscribe to it through Bloglines. That was a bit of an adventure! My knowledge of html would fit on the head of a pin and leave room left over, but it took just two tries to figure out how to embed it where I wanted it.

I heat that some folks turn up their noses at Tripod, but I've set up blogs using several different hosts and I find that I have more, better control here than anywhere else. Of course, I pay $4.95/month to be ad-free, but it's worth it!

Keeping Track of Blogs
Topic: Blogging Basics
I've tried several different ways to subscribe to blogs and keep up with them. First, I downloaded an RSS program, but that seemed clunky. I kept forgetting to open it to check and didn't like keeping it open all the time. Next I tried Live Bookmarks using Firefox. Also kept forgetting to check those. Now I'm trying Bloglines.

It seems to be easy to use, it's free, the button in my toolbar is unobtrusive, yet tells me when there's been an update to something I'm subscribed to. Best of all, it's Web-based, so I can log into any Internet-connected computer and check my subscriptions.

What are other people using?

Digital Accents Aren't a Bad Thing!
Topic: Blogging Basics
Last week during a workshop I asked participants to do an activity that I've been using fairly often. After discussing the concept of digital immigrants and digital accents, I had them blog examples of their own digital accent. One person was totally stumped! She got the idea that having a digital accent- even a fairly mild one- was a negative thing. Didn't want to share any ideas about how hers might manifest itself. After reading what past workshop participants have contributed, she did allow as how she prints her online calendar.

I find myself thinking about the barrier this may create for this individual. A digital accent isn't a bad thing- it just is. If we can't recognize that, it will be difficult, I think, to understand why it sometimes gets in our way.

New Blogging Tool
Topic: Blogging Basics
MSN just released a beta version of a blogging tool called Spaces. I heard a piece about it on NPR yesterday. It seems that Microsoft is trying hard to position this for families and has some built in filtering that, for example, disallows certain words in blog titles.

The reviewer liked the tool overall, but did take exception to the user agreement which apparently states that Microsoft owns (and may use) the content of blogs created using Spaces.

Has anyone tried it?