::: XPLANA.COM ::: Exploring how we can learn and teach with technology
"Last week I did a quick survey of how the Internet and web publishing can completely change the way students write - the Internet gives students a real audience for their writing, it expands the content of their writing (images!), allowing them to link and be-linked-to, while promoting continual revision throughout the semester. Does Blackboard, a web-based course management system, take advantage of any of these features? It does not. "
Sunday
Blogs as Course Management Systems: Is their biggest advantage also their achille's heel?:
"Blogs as Course Management Systems: Is their biggest advantage also their achille's heel"
"Blogs as Course Management Systems: Is their biggest advantage also their achille's heel"
Saturday
Will Blogs Grow Class Management Wings? - cyberdash:
"Weblogs, as many people know them, are not going to be subsitutes for course management systems."
"Weblogs, as many people know them, are not going to be subsitutes for course management systems."
cyberdash - cyberteacher cyberculture cyberlearner:
Taking the Portal Plunge :
" writing researcher Matt Barton has been integrating technology into his courses for a while, doing some great work with using both wikis and phpBB in his teaching. If I weren't so busy using weblogs, I'd be following in his footsteps investigating their pedagogical value, too :)"
Taking the Portal Plunge :
" writing researcher Matt Barton has been integrating technology into his courses for a while, doing some great work with using both wikis and phpBB in his teaching. If I weren't so busy using weblogs, I'd be following in his footsteps investigating their pedagogical value, too :)"
mattbarton.net forums :: Home
Matt Barton uses a blog as a front page to a site that includes Wikis, forums, and much more...
Matt Barton uses a blog as a front page to a site that includes Wikis, forums, and much more...
Thoughts on Blogging by Will Richardson:
"To me, the process of blogging is, most of the time, an ongoing series of steps: 1. Find and read material that is relevant to your life. 2. Capture the essence of this relevant reading, give credit to its source, and synthesize those ideas into a piece of writing that advances a personal, perhaps greater understanding of that topic 3. Publish that writing for response and for perhaps pushing someone else's thinking on the subject. "
"To me, the process of blogging is, most of the time, an ongoing series of steps: 1. Find and read material that is relevant to your life. 2. Capture the essence of this relevant reading, give credit to its source, and synthesize those ideas into a piece of writing that advances a personal, perhaps greater understanding of that topic 3. Publish that writing for response and for perhaps pushing someone else's thinking on the subject. "
Tuesday
Saturday
Wednesday
Found Objects as collected by John Lawlor :: business blog marketing consultant :::
"Weblogs can be more than just personal journals. While we can say that weblogs turn people into webpages, we do not need to limit weblogs to personal journals. "
"Weblogs can be more than just personal journals. While we can say that weblogs turn people into webpages, we do not need to limit weblogs to personal journals. "
EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online:
"It seems to me that the multiplier effect that occurs in weblogging is at the center of what learning and scholarship are really about. Being able to share thoughts, share readings, share online resources, and then get the boost that comes from one person multiplying what is shared into a network of unpredictable connections and responses is just what every teacher wants students to learn about learning, i.e., that it's exciting to learn and exciting to share what is learned. "
"It seems to me that the multiplier effect that occurs in weblogging is at the center of what learning and scholarship are really about. Being able to share thoughts, share readings, share online resources, and then get the boost that comes from one person multiplying what is shared into a network of unpredictable connections and responses is just what every teacher wants students to learn about learning, i.e., that it's exciting to learn and exciting to share what is learned. "
Blogger Con::
"Weblogs. The unedited voice of a person! Will easy and inexpensive publishing technology change the face of politics, business, journalism, the law, medicine, engineering and education? Is a revolution underway, or are weblogs just the latest Internet craze? ...Educators are using blogs to help students express themselves and learn from each other. "
"Weblogs. The unedited voice of a person! Will easy and inexpensive publishing technology change the face of politics, business, journalism, the law, medicine, engineering and education? Is a revolution underway, or are weblogs just the latest Internet craze? ...Educators are using blogs to help students express themselves and learn from each other. "
WikiLog:
"What kind of person might like to run a Wiki Weblog instead of a straight WebLog?An individual who wants to write about ideas, relate them to each other, and refine them.
Someone who's been intrigued by the idea of Hyper Text might be interested.
I could see Vladimir Nabokov using a wiki instead of hundreds of index cards to develop a story. :)
Someone who's thought, 'This weblogging stuff looks interesting, but you're always just throwing away your notes as they slide out of view' might be interested."
"What kind of person might like to run a Wiki Weblog instead of a straight WebLog?An individual who wants to write about ideas, relate them to each other, and refine them.
Someone who's been intrigued by the idea of Hyper Text might be interested.
I could see Vladimir Nabokov using a wiki instead of hundreds of index cards to develop a story. :)
Someone who's thought, 'This weblogging stuff looks interesting, but you're always just throwing away your notes as they slide out of view' might be interested."
Blog Vs Forum: "Of course there are, and will continue to be, vibrant and successful newsgroups and discussion forums. But I'm convinced that destination sites and centralized message stores are not the future of online community. Blogs are. They solve a bunch of problems. They also create a few new ones, but these feel like really good problems to tackle."
shellen.com ::: updated once every 10 days whether it's needed or not: "BlogThis! for the Google Deskbar and a few more searches"
for the Google deskbar...
for the Google deskbar...
Educational Weblogs
"Wondering who is reading your blog? Well, if you are a student, you might think twice about pouring your thoughts and feelings about school, teachers and fellow students into the virtual world."
"Wondering who is reading your blog? Well, if you are a student, you might think twice about pouring your thoughts and feelings about school, teachers and fellow students into the virtual world."
mamamusings: Internet Librarian: 30 Search Tips in 40 Minutes
Tips on using search engines effectively...
Tips on using search engines effectively...
Sunday
AP Campbell :
"If anyone is interested in reading the report I wrote on our blogging experiment last spring, here it is:
The Experience of Computer Supported Cooperative Learning Using Weblogs in the University Classroom: a phenomenological case study
Thanks again to those of you who took part in the course and allowed me to research your activities and make the results available to those who might benefit. Comments are welcome."
"If anyone is interested in reading the report I wrote on our blogging experiment last spring, here it is:
The Experience of Computer Supported Cooperative Learning Using Weblogs in the University Classroom: a phenomenological case study
Thanks again to those of you who took part in the course and allowed me to research your activities and make the results available to those who might benefit. Comments are welcome."
Tuesday
Another Cat Cult student response
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
b) OK (depending the other alternatives)
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy (still don´t know how to do some staff)
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
b) sometimes (often)
4) Did you write because
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
3) Event
4) General Impression
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
b) OK (depending the other alternatives)
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy (still don´t know how to do some staff)
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
b) sometimes (often)
4) Did you write because
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
3) Event
4) General Impression
Saturday
WebLogs and Wikis
"Here are some lists of weblog sites based on popular weblog software - there are a lot of weblogs out there"
"Here are some lists of weblog sites based on popular weblog software - there are a lot of weblogs out there"
Cat-Cult blog - One more Student response:
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
a) always
4) Did you write because
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
6) Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
a) Place
b) People's opinions
c) Eventd) General Impression
Here you have my answeres. and I liked the assigment where you needed to talk to diffrent people. Because that is actually an exchange of culture. And I also liked that you put information about what happening in Barcelona on it.... ann in the beginning I was looking at the website every time I was on the internett, but then people stopped writing and it was not that interesting anymore.
Note: As this student says, a weblog that isn't updated regularly won't be read - it's vital for this kind of project that the blog is updated frequently and serves as a lively noticeboard for the course.
7) Please write any suggestions you have or comments...
Some things were in yellow, it was difficult to read - The messages were hard to find
(note: I changed the colour to make things easier to find - The assignment instructions were in red, the assignments they wrote in yellow. This was fine if you looked at the actual weblog, but from Blogger, the white background made them impossible to read - I didn't realise that a lot of the students read the entries from Blogger - they didn't go to the actual weblog, which is what I always do when I read a blog)
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
a) always
4) Did you write because
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
6) Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
a) Place
b) People's opinions
c) Eventd) General Impression
Here you have my answeres. and I liked the assigment where you needed to talk to diffrent people. Because that is actually an exchange of culture. And I also liked that you put information about what happening in Barcelona on it.... ann in the beginning I was looking at the website every time I was on the internett, but then people stopped writing and it was not that interesting anymore.
Note: As this student says, a weblog that isn't updated regularly won't be read - it's vital for this kind of project that the blog is updated frequently and serves as a lively noticeboard for the course.
7) Please write any suggestions you have or comments...
Some things were in yellow, it was difficult to read - The messages were hard to find
(note: I changed the colour to make things easier to find - The assignment instructions were in red, the assignments they wrote in yellow. This was fine if you looked at the actual weblog, but from Blogger, the white background made them impossible to read - I didn't realise that a lot of the students read the entries from Blogger - they didn't go to the actual weblog, which is what I always do when I read a blog)
Cat-cult Blog - Another student response:
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
b) OK
c) not interesting
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy
b) difficult at first, but easy later
c) difficult
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
a) always
b) sometimes
c) never
4) Did you write because
a) you wanted to?
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
c) a mixture
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
b) No
c) I don’t know
6) Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
a) Place
b) People's opinions
c) Event
d) General Impression
Comments: > To write about peoples opinions you got a lot of the same answers and if you compare your culture to the Catalan culture also. There are a lot of dutch people so in general the answers are equal. If you write about a place everybody mentions something else and that is interesting to read.
7) Please write any suggestions you have or comments...
> It was very nice to use the blogger, but it but be a bit easier to put the assignments together in a apart part at the block because now it looks a bit chaotic and it's a bit difficult to find something and if it's possible an apart block for the answers to the assignments. If you are searching for an answer to one assignment you have to read most of the things. That makes it slow to work and also a bit chaotic.
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
b) OK
c) not interesting
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy
b) difficult at first, but easy later
c) difficult
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
a) always
b) sometimes
c) never
4) Did you write because
a) you wanted to?
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
c) a mixture
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
b) No
c) I don’t know
6) Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
a) Place
b) People's opinions
c) Event
d) General Impression
Comments: > To write about peoples opinions you got a lot of the same answers and if you compare your culture to the Catalan culture also. There are a lot of dutch people so in general the answers are equal. If you write about a place everybody mentions something else and that is interesting to read.
7) Please write any suggestions you have or comments...
> It was very nice to use the blogger, but it but be a bit easier to put the assignments together in a apart part at the block because now it looks a bit chaotic and it's a bit difficult to find something and if it's possible an apart block for the answers to the assignments. If you are searching for an answer to one assignment you have to read most of the things. That makes it slow to work and also a bit chaotic.
Cat-cult Blog - Student reply:
1) I think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
b) difficult at first, but easy later
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
b) sometimes
4) Did you write becauseyou wanted to?
or because you you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)?
c) a mixture
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
6) Which assignment was most interesting?
1 ) Place: good to know what experiences people have had in different places, nice to recommend things to each other (or not...)
2) People's opinions: interesting for yourself, cause normally i wouldn´t ask this to someone, though it´s really interesting!
3) Event: like the first question: good to know what experiences people have had in different places, nice to recommend things to each other(or not...)
7) Any more comments?
I liked the catalan culture classes! Usefull information when you´re coming in a new culture that you dont really know
1) I think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
b) difficult at first, but easy later
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
b) sometimes
4) Did you write becauseyou wanted to?
or because you you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)?
c) a mixture
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
6) Which assignment was most interesting?
1 ) Place: good to know what experiences people have had in different places, nice to recommend things to each other (or not...)
2) People's opinions: interesting for yourself, cause normally i wouldn´t ask this to someone, though it´s really interesting!
3) Event: like the first question: good to know what experiences people have had in different places, nice to recommend things to each other(or not...)
7) Any more comments?
I liked the catalan culture classes! Usefull information when you´re coming in a new culture that you dont really know
Thursday
Catalan Culture Blog
I have been using a blog with a group of 28 ERASMUS students who take an introductory course in Catalan Culture to help them get the most out of their stay in Barcelona. It's now coming to an end, and I have asked them to report back to me, to tell me what they thought about using a blog as part of the course.
Apart from asking them to share thoughts and information with each other on the blog about anything they felt like, I also posted occasional information about what was happening in the city, using the blog as an online noticeboard, and to tell the students of links to websites that might be interesting for them. Although I didn't use this facility as much as I could have done, I think it was useful.
I also made the weblog the evaluation device. Rather than ask them to give me papers, I asked them to respond to four short assignments by publishing their answers on the weblog.
I have just asked them to respond to a short questionnaire, so I can start to evaluate the use of the blog on this course. Here are the questions I sent them:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
An Introduction to Catalan Culture
The Blog
Hi ______________ ! Now that we are coming to the end of the course, I would like to know how you feel about this new tool we have been using.
I would be very happy if you would send me the answers to these questions. This is important for me because it’s the first time I have used a weblog in this course and I want to know if it’s worth repeating with next year’s group.
Thanks for your time!
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
b) OK
c) not interesting
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy
b) difficult at first, but easy later
c) difficult
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
a) always
b) sometimes
c) never
4) Did you write because
a) you wanted to?
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
c) a mixture
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
b) No
c) I don’t know
6) Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
a) Place
b) People's opinions
c) Event
d) General Impression
7) Please write any suggestions you have or comments...
Thankyou very much!
I have been using a blog with a group of 28 ERASMUS students who take an introductory course in Catalan Culture to help them get the most out of their stay in Barcelona. It's now coming to an end, and I have asked them to report back to me, to tell me what they thought about using a blog as part of the course.
Apart from asking them to share thoughts and information with each other on the blog about anything they felt like, I also posted occasional information about what was happening in the city, using the blog as an online noticeboard, and to tell the students of links to websites that might be interesting for them. Although I didn't use this facility as much as I could have done, I think it was useful.
I also made the weblog the evaluation device. Rather than ask them to give me papers, I asked them to respond to four short assignments by publishing their answers on the weblog.
I have just asked them to respond to a short questionnaire, so I can start to evaluate the use of the blog on this course. Here are the questions I sent them:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
An Introduction to Catalan Culture
The Blog
Hi ______________ ! Now that we are coming to the end of the course, I would like to know how you feel about this new tool we have been using.
I would be very happy if you would send me the answers to these questions. This is important for me because it’s the first time I have used a weblog in this course and I want to know if it’s worth repeating with next year’s group.
Thanks for your time!
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
b) OK
c) not interesting
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy
b) difficult at first, but easy later
c) difficult
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
a) always
b) sometimes
c) never
4) Did you write because
a) you wanted to?
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
c) a mixture
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
b) No
c) I don’t know
6) Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
a) Place
b) People's opinions
c) Event
d) General Impression
7) Please write any suggestions you have or comments...
Thankyou very much!
Tuesday
Untitled Document
"Blog stands for Web-log, an informal personal Website. Thousands of people blog every day. (Blog is both a noun and a verb.) I’ve blogged for 18 months, and I’m convinced that blogs are destined to become a powerful, dirt-cheap tool for e-learning and knowledge management. "
"Blog stands for Web-log, an informal personal Website. Thousands of people blog every day. (Blog is both a noun and a verb.) I’ve blogged for 18 months, and I’m convinced that blogs are destined to become a powerful, dirt-cheap tool for e-learning and knowledge management. "
Monday
Index of Teaching Resources and Articles in Academic.Writing
Not specifically about blogs, but some interesting articles...
Not specifically about blogs, but some interesting articles...
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