UNIVERSITY HOUSTON CLEAR-LAKE BLOGGER GUIDELINES

THE USE OF BLOGS IN LEARNING AND TEACHING

This page is copied from the University Computing and Telecommunications of the University Houston-Clear Lake in the United States of America (2006) to provide our part time lecturers at the Central University of Technology and its Regional Learning Centres with some guidance how to get started using blogs for themselves or with their learners.

"The use of blogs in instructional settings is limited only by your imagination". (Ibid)

Options for instructors using blogs:

Content-related blog as professional practice
Networking and personal knowledge sharing
Instructional tips for students
Course announcements and readings
Annotated links
Knowledge management
Options for students using blogs in your courses include:

Reflective or writing journals
Knowledge management
Assignment submission and review
Dialogue for groupwork
E-portfolios
Share course-related resources
Articles About Blogging
Scholars Who Blog from the Chronicle of Higher Education (June, 2003)
Weblogs in Education: Bringing the World to the Liberal Arts Classroom from the Newsletter of the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (Winter, 2003)
Writing with Weblogs from techLearning (Feb, 2003)
Weblogs In and Around the Classroom
Blogging communities' popularity draws students from the Minnesota Daily (March, 2003)
Crooked Timber - a blog entry about educational blogging
Example Blogs
mamamusings.net - and instructor's blog for sharing personal and professional commentary
Applied Calculus - using a blog as course communication tool
College Composition - a class blog with links to each student's blog
Writing Class Blog - for students to communicate and share ideas with other students
Weblogg-ed - a blog about educational blogging
Gangstories - **language warning**. This is the kind of emotion and writing we would hope to free students to express via this medium.
Blogs at Harvard Law - blogs for faculty and students
The Information Literacy Land of Confusion - a librarian's blog for sharing resources
The Shifted Librarian
Ned Batchelder - software engineering
Jim Berkowitz's e-Journal - marketing
Outside the Beltway - political science
Neuroeconomics - economic theory
Mildly Malevolent - history and politics
Bloviator - public health and policy
Research Blogs - an annotated list of weblogs of researchers and academics
Professors Who Blog - a list of blogs with general topic area
Blogwise - a list of blogs by category
City Comforts - mostly about architecture
Eatonweb Portal - another categorized list of blogs
Blog Writing Tools
Blogger.com - free, host on your server or theirs with advertisements
Easyjournal - free
Tribe.net - free
Crimson Blog - free, but might include pop ups
weblogger.com - not free
Radio UserLand - desktop software you buy - requires some server space for publishing
TypePad - not free
Xanga - free basic service
SchoolBlogs - not sure how long this has been or will be around, but it's free
Silver Logic - not sure how long this has been or will be around, but it's free
Aggregators
Aggregators are programs that gather your favorite blogs and present them in one, basic text format for quick review. Only those blogs that have RSS feeds can be read by an aggregator. Those blogs usually have a little orange XML graphic ( ) which links to the RSS feed. That is the URL you would input to the aggregator.

Amphetadesk - download and run on desktop
HotSheet - download and run on desktop
Feedreader - download and run on desktop
Snarf - runs on Internet Explorer
Bloglines - browser-based
For a list of more see hebig.org/blog or Backend.UserLand.Com.(Ibid.)

If you want to have your blog aggregated, RSSify at Wytheville Community College currently offers the service for free. You just need to follow the instructions to add the appropriate information to your blog template.

Tools for Advanced Blogging:

Blogrolling - helps to manage blog links;
BlogBack - free commenting system;
Haloscan - free commenting system;
SquakBox.tv - free commenting system;
BlogSpeak - free commenting system (only for Blogger users;
Blogpatrol - track visitors and add polls; and
Bloglet - readers sign up for email subscriptions to your blog.

For more information, contact the University Computing & Telecommunications at University of Houston-Clear Lake: mailto:itcsupport@cl.uh.edu