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Many of us are struggling with how to blog as well as why to blog. From a teaching perspective I think the why is pretty obvious -- that elusive connection between writing (okay typing) and learning. Reviewing your thoughts and getting them down on paper helps place them in long term memory.
How is a little more difficult. For me, the most important aspect of blogging is to keep in mind that blogs are about conversation; they aren't a formal writing opportunity. You all have peer review journals for that.
The first step to blogging is to read blogs; today I read a blog post on how to blog - http://aquaculturepda.edublogs.org/2007/11/11/my-advice-on-being-a-more-effective-blogger/
That blog also has a link to a "how to" on Google Reader, a reader for blogs. http://aquaculturepda.wikispaces.com/Subscribe. Personally I use Netvibes (www.netvibes.com) as my reader, but Google is easy to use also.
Lisa
Alan Levine of new Media Corp/CogDogBlog has a wiki linking to demonstrations of 50 different tools you can use to tell a story (give a lecture, highlight some course material, excite your students, add interest to your class). To check it out go to http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools.
The directions for how to tell a story are great also - http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/50+Ways.CogDogBlog is online at
www.cogdogblog.com.
Lisa
While I am planning on continuing to review more types of Web 2.0 tools I wanted to pause and comment on why. All of the Web 2.0 tools have strengths and weaknesses. And it is undoubtedly true that they add yet another layer of technical complexity to our courses. However they also give faculty new ways to move learners out of the course box. We all believe that the material covered in our courses is needed for more reasons than simply to check off on a transcript that a learner fulfilled that particular requirement. Web 2.0 tools give learners more ways to interact with the content and to apply it to their own lives in their own ways. By moving outside of the course box we tell send a powerful message that this content is important stuff and it belongs in their lives outside of the classroom. So give it a try--- move a piece of your course out into the world of Web 2.0.
