Blogging geyser
This sudden growth was like a geyser: dramatic, unpredictable, and trending vertical. Henning (2005)
Weblogs are as varied as their maintainers, and they are creating a generation of involved, impassioned citizens and articulate observant human beings.Rebecca Blood (2002)
Six pillars of blogging
1. Publishable
2. Findable
3. Social
4. Viral
5. Syndicatable
6. Linkable
Scoble & Israel (2006)
… critical thinking skills, writing skills and
information literacy … chance to reflect …
carry on writing about a topic over a sustained period of time,
maybe a lifetime … engage readers and audience in
a sustained conversation … synthesise disparate learning experiences and understand their collective relationship and relevance.
This just seems to me to be closer to the way we learn outside of school, and I see those things sorely lacking anywhere in traditional education. Richardson (2004)
The blogger’s brain
… the learning cycle arises naturally from the structure of the brain.Zull (2002) The art of changing the brain
We learn by both getting information from the outside through our concrete experience and by putting information back to the outside by our actions.
We learn from the outside in, and from the inside out. Zull (2002)
Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction.Drs Fernette and Brock Eide (2005)
Input-outcome model of reflection (Moon, 2004)
I nputs to reflection Outcomes of/ purposes for reflection
Reflection
There is also the capacity to ‘be reflective’, which seems to be an orientation to the activities of life
rather than a mental process as such.
"A LOT of people spend a lot more than $US3000 a year on their hobbies," James Farmer says, laughing.
His hobby may be better described as a quasi-religious quest: he preaches a gospel of interactive learning.
At his web portal, edublogs.org, teachers and students can set up free blogs using WordPress, an open-source tool.
http://incsub.org/
Research tool
Their blogs soon developed beyond digital ethnographers’ journals into a hybrid between
a journal, academic publishing, storage
space for links and site
for academic discourse.
Torill Mortensen & Jill Walker (2002)
Blogs are dynamic learning spaces. They can break down the isolation of distance learning through ever-expanding virtual learning communities.