The Academic Blog

Weblogs serve a duel purpose in the social constructivist pedagogy: they serve as an interactive component in which the students can post thoughts and research, blog.txt the work of others and respond to those other works; weblogs also serve as a shared space for students collaborating from distant campuses or even opposiate ends of a single campus.

Why blog? Will Richardson discusses a variety of uses of blogs in the classroom.


Class Blogs

A writing workshop blog
A suprising shape for a blog - this is one very long scroll of a window into which the students posted over the course of a term. Rather than break the posts in a chronological form the students just posted to the single entry.

A Journey Back
A student essay project on women in India.

Academic Blogs

  • Miriam Burstein
  • Juan Cole - Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion
  • Crooked Timber represents a group of academics. You will find entries available by subject.

Creating Your Blog

  1. go to http://blogger.com (opens in a new window)
  2. Click on the link to "create your own blog now"
  3. Fill out the form (username, password, display name, email address)
  4. click on the box to accept their terms
  5. click on the link to "continue".
  6. On the "Name your blog" page, enter
    1. The name of the blog (this will be the page title)
    2. The URL name for the blog
      I used edmiston.blogspot.com
  7. Choose a template and click on "continue"
    The blog registration is complete
  8. Click on Start Posting.

Resources

Blog Software Breakdown [Blog Comparision Chart] http://tinyurl.com/3yvpn. Viewed online May 7, 2005.

Chang, May. I've gathered a basket of communication and collaboration tools. Computers in libraries. 24(8) September 2004. 6-8;61-64

Clyde, Laurel A. Weblogs - are you serious? The Electronic Library. 22(5) 2004. pp. 390-392.

Glenn, David (2003). Scholars Who Blog: The soapbox of the digital age draws a crowd of academics. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 49:39, A14. http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i39/39a01401.htm Viewed online 6 May 2005.

Kairosnews:A Weblog for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology and Pedagogy http://kairosnews.org/. Viewed May 10, 2005.

Winkler, Owen (no date). Blog Software Breakdown. http://tinyurl.com/3yvpn. Viewed online May 10, 2005.