EDTC 6020 Principles of Instructional Design
Fall 2004

EDTC 6020 Annotated Bibliography

 

USES OF BLOGS

 

 

I.  Regular Sources:

 

1.  Cross, Jay (2002).  Blogs:  “Learn to blog, blog to learn.”  ASTD, 2002.  http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/apr2002/ttools.html

 

As the author notes, Blog stands for Web-log, an informal personal website.  Blogs are, therefore, personal and usually unfiltered by any particular organization.  Blog sites can be used to support learning by being a personal writing space to organize thoughts and share information as quickly as possible, if necessary.  In blogging, students get a virtual apprenticeship in journalism.   According to the author, blogs are engaging, current, and provide personal insight.  Because of time limitation, the author now spends less time reading magazines, but more time blogging.

 

2.  Klau, Rick (2002).  “How I learned to love the blog:  this new knowledge-management tool can make the collection and sharing of information easier.”  New Jersey Law Journal, October 28, 2002, Vol. 170, p. 30. 

 

The author introduces his short version of a Blog 101 course.  There are numerous Blog applications designed to produce easily updated web sites, while archiving past postings.  Using a standard code, blogs publish content so that other programs known as news aggregators can monitor and retrieve new items.  Blogs are known as knowledge-sharing platforms.  For example, Radio Userland aggregates day-to-day enterprise-wide knowledge weblog information (k-logs) for any firms’ internal use.   This is useful to the reader who wants to have the Blog information disseminated.

 

3.  “Networking by ‘Blog’” (2004).  Acent K-12’s Career Intelligence.  Education Week 3/10/2004, Vol. 26, p. 51. 

 

Webblogging is becoming a means for teachers to collaborate and trade ideas and resources, as well as to relate to those teachers in the same predicament, such as the first year teacher.  This Blog outreaching is world-wide.  This site is particularly useful to new teachers.

 

4.  Rapp, David. (2003)  “From Bulletin Board to Blogs.”  Technology Review, Sep 2003, Vol. 106, Issue 7, p. 88. 

 

     The author reports on the development of Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) and its uses for computer users.  Bloggers’ personal journals have used the popular blog application, Blogger, owned by Mountain View, CA, Google.  For the reader’s historical interests, Blogging started in January, 1978, with a computer program called “Xmodem,” which allowed people to exchange files via their brand new modems and telephone lines.  Later this system evolved through the Internet, e-mail, and newsgroups through CBBS.  Again, Blogs are useful as a type of community bulletin board.

 

5.  Robelen, Erik W. (2004)  “World Wide Wonks.”  Education Week 6/9/2004, Vol. 23, Issue 39, p. 28. 

 

This Blogger’s strongly criticizing opinions on the “No Child Left Behind Act” offer information and links to news analysis from the American Federation of Teachers on student proficiency.  The reader should note the author’s self proclaimed comments on restraining himself on writing about a limited number of topics in a limited time after normal working hours.  Readers must be cautious if using limited time to create and maintain a Blog.

 

6.  Toner, Mark 2004.  “‘Blogs’ Help Educators Share Ideas, Air Frustrations.”  Education Week, Vol. 23, Issue 18, p. 8. 

 

One of the uses of weblog is to receive and give professional advice/encouragement;  however, the reader should note in this article the consequences of the author’s voicing his personal opinions or venting about his actual work activities, which were read by colleagues and later relayed to the boss.  A Blogger, in drawing attention from other bloggers, especially from Bloggers at the same worksite, must be willing to suffer possible repercussions from his/her day job boss about his/her online published opinions.  Here the reader should be cautious in making Blog statements that interfere with the day time boss.

 

 

II.  Other Sources:

 

1.  Blood, Rebecca (2002).  Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your …:  The Weblog Handbook.  Cambridge:  Perseus Publications, 2002.  

 

This book is not merely a computer program book of creating and maintaining a weblog.  The author also discusses the spectrum of what a weblog can provide from journalism to participation/evaluation from it readers.  She also comments on what a Blog Community is and the Do’s and Don’t of a Blogger’s Ethics in the Blogosphere.  Overall, the book is essential for those Bloggers just starting out.

 

2.  Clyde, Laurel (2004).  “Some Current InfoTech Trends.”  Teacher Librarian, June 2004, Vol. 31, Issue 5. 

 

The author notes that Weblogs, as sources of news and opinions, are growing.  Community weblogs provide facilities for readers to post messages and comments, even “moblogging” for cell phones.  For educational purposes, weblog creation software is available free, as are weblog hosting services.  The use of RSS (Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication), allows blog news to be delivered to a “news aggregator” on the home computer, updated regularly.   This system may be more efficient than just sending out countless e-mails of information.

 

3.  Embrey, Theresa Ross (2002).  “You blog, we blog:  a guide to how teachers and librarians use weblogs to build communication and research skills.”  Teacher Librarian, Dec 2002, Vol. 30, Issue 12, p. 7(3). 

 

Weblogs are a cross between a diary and an online community.  Blogs, designed to make creating and updating a web site quickly and easily, have increased in popularity.  Blogs have resulted in new words being added to the English language, such as blogging, and blogosphere.  Blogs, originated as personal communication tools, have evolved into distributing computer source code software, providing computer bug reports, etc.  Blog popularity has spread  because of their interactive and community forming nature.  Some educators use blogs as alternatives to online newsletters. Blogs have potential as news aggregators or online resources and have developed their own web tools, such as search engines that search items in Blogs.  According to the author, until 2002, few books were published about blogging.   The reader must be anticipating new books on Blog use.

 

4. Fertig, Richard (2004).  “Content Delivery in the ‘Blogosphere.’”  T. H. E. Journal, Feb 2004, Vol. 31, Issue 7, p. 12. 

 

According to the author, Blogs are good for Pedagogy because they allow the student social interaction in learning online.  Student publication allows for subsequent reflection and analysis in revisiting and revising their articles.  Since Blogs are commented on, they allow feedback and evolving ideas.  With interactivity, the student-teacher relationship increases with frequent updating of content from other students’ feedback.  At any stage of the Blogger’s writing and reading skills development, blogging allows visiting to other classroom blogs, modeling blogs for others, and, being publicly available, for visits from friends, employers, or patents.  The Student Blog helps students become subject matter experts, increases students’ interests and ownership, as they also participate in helping other Bloggers to develop.  The site also offers helpful sites in getting started, showing Blog trends, and exposing students to major annual conferences.

 

5.  Jarvis, Jeff (2004. “Around the World in Blogs.”  Foreign Policy, Nov 2004, Issue 145, p. 36. 

 

The author offers information on the global expansion of the “blogosphere,” the world of Bloggers.   He reiterates the political opinions of Bloggers in asserting US foreign policy as a support for human rights and democracy.  The author also comments on international Bloggers’ themes from around the world by visiting 190 blogs regularly, averaging five hours of work per day.  The reader should note the time consumed in Blogging. 

 

6.  Nieman Foundation of Harvard University (2003).  “Blogging journalists invite outsider’s reporting.”  Nieman Reports, Fall 2003, Vol. 57, Issue 3, p. 76.  

 

In February 2003, the Station Fire Weblog was created and updated to collect links to news coverage of a particular fire.  The reader should note that the author conveyed news ad hoc, while also soliciting donations for medical expenses.  This Blog provided information three days ahead of the printed media and of more interest than the traditional stories gave.   For the author, a Blog of links is only a portal, but the Blogger’s interests and bias in links are shown in what he/she choose to point to.  The author also encourages participatory journalism from informed Blog readers.

 

7.  Palser, Barb (2003).  “Free to blog?”  American Journalism Review, June-July 2003, vol. 25, Issue 15. 

 

Some blogging journalists were told by their employers to stop their blogs because of conflicts of interest.  While some journalists blog in order to organize their “mental notes,” blogs may compete with the employer’s web site viewpoint.  Another concern is that the Weblog will siphon the journalist’s creativity and become an obsession.  Therefore, some employers are asking journalists to use discretion in what they blog for the above reasons.    So should the reader in deciding what to publish online.

 

8.  Rodzvilla, John (2002).  We’ve got blog.  Cambridge:  Perseus Publishing, 2002. 

 

Even if the reader does not enjoy narratives on various themes, such as Why I blog and Meeting Bloggers, the list of websites at the end is essential for initial interest in Blogging in such areas as Build Your Blog, Community Weblogs, and Blog Dictionaries.  The section of Weblog vs. Traditional Journalism is a source of interest for some people deciding if they should create Blogs. 

 

9.  Stone, Brad (2004).  “It’s Like a Blog, But It’s a Wiki.”  Newsweek, Nov 1, 2004, p. 34. 

 

As an alternative to the obsolete printed reference book, the Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, what created so that it could be updated by Internet users.  Visitors can change existing articles, which process makes this site the world’s largest encyclopedia for the casual user.  Wikipediaholics monitor changes and correct problems .  The reader should note that the author’s goal is to bring volunteers together to write online resources, which will also include Wiktionary (dictionary), and Wikibooks (textbooks and manuals), and Wikiquote (quotations).                           

 

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