CA9.1 - desktop research

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In this activity your task is to research the use of blogs in education. You should locate a variety of sources that might include some or all of the following: - journal articles - news articles - blog entries - podcasts - case studies and examples - conference papers.


Having started this activity later than everyone else (on the forums), and having read the information they have posted, it seems rather futile to spend a great deal of time on this activity.

So I've googled "education blog"; "education blog UK"; and "what are blogs used for". There is tonnes of information out there and many many people have already provided their answers to the questions posed. It simply seems illogical to try to make my own categories of blogs for education when other people have made perfectly good categories already. I can't believe that we are being required to work "hard" instead of "smart".

Wikipedia (2009) defines a "blog" as:
A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Then goes on to say:
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.[1] With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.

Wikipedia lists types of blogs as:

Personal Blogs
The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog.
Corporate Blogs
For business purposes. Blogs, either used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes are called corporate blogs.
Question Blogging
A type of blog that answers questions
By Media Type
A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog.[4] Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs.
By Device
Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a moblog.
By Genre
Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs, house blogs,[6] [7] fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog.

Further down the same page wikipedia talks of an "edublog" and defines it as (wikipedia 2009b):

a blog written by someone with a stake in education. Examples might include blogs written by or for teachers, blogs maintained for the purpose of classroom instruction, or blogs written about educational policy. The collection of these blogs is called the edublogosphere by some, in keeping with the larger blogosphere, although that label is not necessarily universally agreed upon. Others refer to the community or collection of blogs and bloggers as the edusphere.

It goes on to list:

Notable Edubloggers
Stephen Downes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Downes]
Michael Feldstein [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Feldstein]
Will Richardson [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Richardson]
James N. Farmer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_N._Farmer]


Multiuser edublogging platforms
Free Edublogs - Widely used edublog by teachers. [http://edublogs.org/]
Classblogmeister - Widely used free edublog for students and teachers. [http://www.classblogmeister.com/]
EduSpaces - Social networking site for educators which includes blogs. Uses the Elgg platform. [http://eduspaces.net/]
TeachFor.Us - Teach for America teacher blogs, running Lyceum [http://TeachFor.Us/]
Teacher Lingo - Community of teacher blogs. Uses Community Server platform from Telligent Systems. [http://teacherlingo.com/]


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Jim in (http://discuss1.open.ac.uk/Login/FAVC-002C5775/FAVC-002C577B/FAVC-002C577C/I09C6F084?Templates=Printable) wrote:

"Educause ‘Additional Examples of Blogs’, Educause Learning Initiative, [online] Available from: http://www.educause.edu/ELI/ELIDiscoveryToolGuidetoBloggin/AdditionalExamplesofBlogs/13561 (Accessed 5 January 2009).

categories mentioned
* slices of life
(stream of consciousness writing by a blogger)
* topic blogs
(politics, library issues, learning technology)
* marketing blogs
(usually by a small business, providing extra information on a service or product - i.e. a new book)
* event blogs
(chronology of things happening at a conference, meeting, broader event from the perspective of the blogger)
* learning journals
(to gather reflections)
* scholarly blogs
(to share ideas related to a specific field)
* how to or best practices blogs
(how to create effective blogs)

I thought all of these categories could be linked to education in the broadest sense. At least five of them could be linked to "formal" educational use - topic blogs, event blogs, learning journals, scholarly blogs.. and how to / best practices. They could be further reviewed from the perspective of a teacher, student, administrator - each of these would have a different reason or point of view in how the blog might be used. "

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Nigel S, has used:
Personal) Reflective blogs
Collaborative blogs
Advisory/ informative blogs
Archive blogs

Source: forum message
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Keely has used:
Sharing general educational news
Blogs to learn from (informative blogs)
Sharing experiences
Advisory blogs
Reflective blogs (students engaged in courses)
Sharing resources and links
Learning & technology information news

Source: http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/viewpost.php?post=5498
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Colleen has used:
Advisory blog written by educational organisation
Blog maintained by an individual with expertise in learning technologies
Reflective blog written by a student on a course
Blog maintained by teaching practitioner to share good practice
Publicly available blogging opportunities for teachers and students

Source: forum message

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for CA9.1 @ 09-01-09

I tried to access the links given in the unit resources in order, but http://technorati.com/blogs/tag/education , http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1 and http://edublogs.org/ would not open but http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs did. I read the first paragraph on the oedb site page that opened (oedb, 2009) and it supported my understanding that my research can only be peek at what the internet has to offer because there are far too many blogs on the internet for me to carry out detailed research. The first pragraph states that "There are over 30,000 blogs hosted at edublogs.org alone" (oedb, 2009). Jim and Nigel S also commented in the forums on how necessarily incomplete our research must be due to time constraints.

The oedb page went on to list its "Top 100 Educational Blogs", and separated the list into 10 categories. I used the listed categories as a starting point for my own search.



References
oedb (2009) http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs (accessed 09/01/09)

wikipedia (2009a) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog (accessed 7 January 2009)
(wikipedia 2009b) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edublog