The Art of Blogging

George SiemensMADLAT

http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/blogging/artofblogging.htm

It’s all about change!

Standard opening lines when talking new technologies:

How we acquire, use, and trust information is changing.

Blogs and RSS are indicators (not drivers) of a much larger change in the information ecology.

Why?

• Previously, society of information keepers derived value from ability to erect and maintain barriers

• Information structure has been under pressure since 1960’s from info keepers to info sharers

• Change initially restricted to small subset of society

• The Web brought the change pressures mainstream

So what?

• Catching up with needs

• Tools are being developed to reflect new information structure and user needs

• Innovations build on former model, until core changes are sufficiently distributed to allow the innovation to stand on its own merits

Some trends• Two-way flow• Questioning bias• Increased dialogue/discussion• Voices given to individuals• Decentralized• Increased equality among nodes• Modularization• Pliable connections (or connected specialization)• History is created for knowledge/learning that

used to vaporize

Media

Media

Media

Learning

Learning

Most important point for educators/trainers

Learning is not simply a content consumption process. Learning is also a content creation process. This can’t happen if the flow of knowledge is one way.

What is valued in an information ecology/economy?

• Time

• Connections

• Openness

• Diversity

• Currency

• History (searchable)

• Scalable

Characteristics of various media

Characteristics of various media

Connections, history, speed, ability to search, dialogue, two-way, end user control - highest balance is found with blogs.

What is the best environment for learning?

• Variety– Content expression– Means of experiencing content– Community– Small group– Individual– Connections

A different way to learn…

Traditional Blogs and RSS

Definition of Blogs

• A simple website

• Frequently updated

• Dated links

• Commentary

• Archives

• Two-way (comments, trackback, cross-linking)

Blogs

Blogs are tethered conversations – parallel, not direct, scalable

Example of Blogs

• http://www.elearnspace.org/blog

• http://www.downes.ca

• Dave Barry

• http://blogs.msdn.com/

• http://www.elearningpost.com

• Dean for America

Applications

• Learning and teaching

• Knowledge sharing

• Relationship forming

• Advocacy

• Personal Knowledge Management

• Community building (relationship forming)

• Marketing

How to blog

• Start

• Know your motivation

• Link, comment on other posts

• Experiment – find your voice

• Express your personality

• Learn to write well

• Write for a reason and an effect

Getting Exposure

• Blog regularly

• Link and acknowledge others

• Get involved in the conversations (comments, trackback)

Getting Started

• Hosted: Typepad, Blogger, LiveJournal

• Remote Install: Drupal, Movable Type

• Desktop: Radio Userland

For more examples see: http://www.blogroots.com/resources.blog

How it works…

Blogging with Movable Type

RSS

• Lightweight XML format for sharing content• Ties together conversations – allows for review

of many resources• Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication• Atom is alternative format• Pull, rather than push• Trackback is subset (but is prone to same abuse

as email) – basically “I said this about what you said”

Aggregators

• Desktop standalone: http://www.sharpreader.net/

• Integrated: http://www.newsgator.com/

• Web-based: http://www.bloglines.com/

What does an aggregator look like?

Sharpreader

Bloglines

Finding Feeds

• Technorati

• Feedster

• Daypop

Reality

• RSS will be bigger than blogging.

• Not everyone is a blogger

• Everyone is a potential RSS subscriber

• Personal blogging and work may not always be wise

How does this translate into learning, personal knowledge management,

knowledge sharing, conversations???

• Instructors can engage learners…and introduce learners to others in the field (i.e. tap learners into a learning pipeline that lasts beyond a “course”)

• Learners can develop own reputation (eportfolio)

• Institutions can share knowledge via simple, social tools

Next steps for newcomers

1. Start a blog

2. Get an aggregator

3. Find RSS feeds of similar interest

4. Blog

5. Comment, link to other bloggers of similar interest

Blogging Resources

• http://www.elearnspace.org/enabling/blogs.htm• http://grumet.net/writing/web/deep-thinking-abou

t-weblogs.html

• http://radio.weblogs.com/0110772/stories/2002/10/03/personalKnowledgePublishingAndItsUsesInResearch.html

• http://www.weblogg-ed.com/stories/storyReader%24414#how1

• http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml

RSS Resources

• http://www.downes.ca/files/RSS_Educ.doc• http://channels.lockergnome.com/rss/• http://www.lights.com/weblogs/rss1.html• http://www.larkfarm.com/rss_resources.htm• http://blogspace.com/rss/resources• http://www.faganfinder.com/search/rss.shtml• http://www.infotoday.com/online/nov02/OnTheNet.htm• http://www.sls.lib.il.us/infotech/presentations/blogging/

index.htm• http://www.mnot.net/rss/tutorial/