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Lecture 9Blog (Weblog) Phenomena

Introduction to Information Technology

With thanks to Dr. Supratip Ghose

Dr. Ken Tsang 曾镜涛Email: kentsang@uic.edu.hkhttp://www.uic.edu.hk/~kentsang/IT/IT3.htmRoom E408 R9

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Outline Weblog and Webpages What is a blog What does it look like Some basic Blogging Jargon Common Features of a blog What makes Blog attractive Why are Blog pedagogical toos Types of Blog Blog as E-learning tools Blog as a community forum Blogger tools (Recent development)

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What is a blog?

a personal journal online, informal in tone

a powerful tool allowing you to express, communicate and share ideas online.

web loglogbook blog

Jorn Barger ( 1997)

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Weblog- What is a blog A blog is normally a single page of entries.

There may be archives of older entries, but the ‘main page’ of a blog is all anyone really cares about.

A blog is organized in reverse-chronological order, from most recent entries to least recent.

The entries in a blog usually come from a single author is responsible for site’s content (Personal editorship)

The entries in a blog are usually stream-of-conciousness.

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What does it look like?

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Blog Basics Online Diary

Basically, a blog is a lot like an online journal or diary. Many blogs are full of interesting links that the author has found. Contain stories or little snip of information.

Free-from or Focussed Blogger can be interested in technology.

Online Memory Often used as a scrapbook, to remember things,

makes it a searchable electronic medium.

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Basic Blogging Jargon

to blog = to write messages and post them online

a blogger = a person who blogs blogsphere= the collective world of

blogs, the blogging community. blogroll=a list of links to blogs read and

visited regularly

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Common Blog Features A title and an aim, freely accessible content. Dated posts listed in reverse chronological

order, hyperlinked post structure. Automatic archiving of past posts, frequent

updates. A comment and favorite link area Possibility to personalize layout

(skins/template) Syndication of content

RSS feeds enable you to get update notifications delivered directly to your desktop through the news aggregator software program of your choice

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What makes blogs attractive Access/immediacy Interactivity Flexibility Accessibility Simplicity Personal publishing and feedback cost

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Why are blogs teaching tools? Provides “visibility” to student work Give students a “a voice of their own” Give students a broader and authentic

“audience”, who may comment on their posts

Can be individual or collaborative, disciplinary or multidisciplinary

Can be used with all age groups Promote digital literacy and fluency

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Types of Blogs

TeachersStudents

collectiveindividual

tutor learner

open closedpersonal class

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Personal blogs can be used… To evoke moments of your daily life to comment on a trip, book, film, song To share links, interesting material To invite people to react to topical issues To create an academic/professional

portfolio To reflect on what has happened to you

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Blog as E-learning tools to post their assignments to create their own filing cabinet to comment on their readings and illustrate

them with images and links to write using new vocabulary and

expressions to post additional information and research to comment on other posts to record their experience in the classroom to reflect on their learning process

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Tutor with E-learning as a message board to post tips, advice

and suggestions to share useful material on the content

you are developing to concentrate on a specific skill to bring up specific problems that arise

in the classroom to interact with your students

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Blog as a community learning Open Blog

As a meeting place to interact with others after class

As an exchange plaza during interclass intercultural projects

For mystery guests/content-area experts to interact with the students

As an online community of practice with diverse teachers and students helping and learning from each other.

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Blog as a community learning Closed Blog

To establish a meeting/exchange point for interdisciplinary work at school

To develop a school jounal and chronicle the various steps of a common project

To do collaborative writing and peer review.

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The Bloggers Bloggers are driven to document

their lives, provide commentary and opinions, express deeply felt emotions, articulate ideas through writing, and form and maintain community forums – Bonnie A. Nardi-communications of the ACM [1].

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Behavior in the BlogSphere Blogsphere means a tight interlinking

interweaving among blogs. Bloggers activities in the blogsphere can be

characterized by four ways Linking- Jumping from one blog to another. Posting- Posting an article Navigating

Random Browsing Responding

User responding an article through comments Trackback is a mechanism that allows the author of the blog

to see who has seen the original post and has written another entry concering it. It’s a summary of the target blog, together with a URL and the name of the blog.

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Blogger Tools Web based Toolsets

Google BlogSpot.com (blogger.com), Xanga, TypePad, LiveJournal, Slashdot, Msn Livespace

Some of the sites provide additional features for publishing blogs for a price

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How to publish a Blog (Editing)

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Publishing a Blog with Blogger.com

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How to Publish a Blog (API) Blojsom A java based, full-

featured, multi-blog, multi-user software package that was inspired by bloxsom. Blojsom API has the ability to run multiple blogs as well as database with a single Blojsom installation.

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Publishing activity with Blogs Exploring

Serendipitious findings from trusted or known blog content or blog search survey.

Pushing Use you own blog to push information and

knowledge out onto the world. Like linking, commenting, writing original posts.

Pulling Check external links to assess the weight of your

content. Reading

Blog reading helps to strengthen relations with people, help exploit their natural tendency to generate new knowledge.

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Recent Developments Audioblog

Adding soundhttp://beeonline2.blogspot.com

PhotoBlog Your life in Photos- http://www.photoblog.com/

Videoblog

Podcasting Podcasting lets you create your own syndicated

online talkshow or radio program, with content of your choosing.

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References1. Why we Blog by Bonnie A. Nardi, Diane J.

Schiano, Michelle Gumbrecht and Luke Swartz- Communications of the ACM.

2. Howstuffworks.com- How Blog works3. Personal knowledge publishing: Fostering

interdisciplinary Communication. Esma Aimeur and Gilles Brassard, University de Montreal- IEEE intelligent Systems.

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Summary Explained the basic difference between blog

and webpage? Explain the phenomena blogging? Explain the jargon of blogging? Explained the common features of a blog? Explained the application area of blogs? Explained the recent development Blogger

tools

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Next week we will give lectures on Hacker Culture (Thanks to HP) and the Blog Phenomena (thanks to Nick).

The links to the pdf files are here: http://www.uic.edu.hk/~davetowey/teaching/CS/it1010/lectures/8.Hacker.Culture.pdf http://www.uic.edu.hk/~davetowey/teaching/CS/it1010/lectures/2x2_8.Hacker.Culture.pdf http://www.uic.edu.hk/~davetowey/teaching/CS/it1010/lectures/9.Blog.Phenomena.pdf http://www.uic.edu.hk/~davetowey/teaching/CS/it1010/lectures/2x2_9.Blog.Phenomena.pdf

Please update your webpages accordingly.

Please also note that I will be on leave from November 1 to November 5, and Mark Clulow will give my Thursday (8 am to 9:50) lecture (in B 320) for me. Please give him all your support.