A weblog is an online diary on the web. It has four distinctive characteristics:
It is very easy to set up your own weblog. There are many free tools available.
Part of the problem has been generating or finding the images you need. Digital photography and simpler image editing tools are helping people tackle this problem., says one person
Someone shared an application they use for planning and visualisation called MindManager http://www.apcmag.com/apc/v3.nsf/0/0EB2305EE9D2FDF6CA256E6A00223B47?OpenDocument. It’s not cheap, but it allows you to build maps of ideas and then easily export them as jpegs or rtf files.
Tinderbox http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox is a blog tool using the MindManager concept.
The Diagrammatic Reasoning Site http://zeus.cs.hartford.edu/~anderson/ is a repository for information about the investigation of reasoning with visual representations.
Blogs aid communication
In a class, when someone expresses an idea, not everyone (or even anyone) is ready to respond immediately in a way that is helpful. Blogs increase the odds of because there is a much bigger pool of respondees.
Blogs are written in a conversational manner—the style of the mind—and this brings out the blogger’s inner struggles and desires. It’s these stories that manifest the learning process. Blogs encourage students to be free with their thinking.
Networks vs communities
John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid have made a distinction between Networks of Practice and Communities of Practice.
Tight-knit groups of people working to develop and spread knowledge within an organisation are termed Communities of Practice.
Loosely coupled groups of people from different organisations who share the same passion for their practice are termed Networks of Practice.
Blogs seem to be used in Networks of Practice but not Communities of Practice?
Blogrolling
See http://doc.weblogs.com/sitesIRead for a definition of blogrolling.
Many bloggers keep a list of their favourite references, termed a blogroll.
Blogrolling works in a similar to the way Amazon’s book recommendation system. You like a book and the system responds by asking "if you like this book, you might also like…" thereby drawing you into an implicit grouping…..
Blog Rolling is a term often used to describe the connection between weblogs. Bloggers create links to other weblogs in their communities so it's easy to check out all the sites that belong to the group.
Blogrolling enables an outsider to find his ‘company of friends’. Thus, if you are looking for sites to help teachers and researchers find and digest contributions, hop on the blogroll bus and check out http://seblogging.cognitivearchitects.com/
Blogs can build on Pierre Lévy's idea of "collective intelligence."
Some blogs the group suggested are worth a look:
Someone asked Maish how he finds “all his great stuff”?
Maish: I first look into my "favorites" folder. I have four categories: MONTHLY, WEEKLY DAILY and OTHERS. These folders contain links depending on the frequency of the publication. For example, Fast Company publishes a new issue every month, so I put that into the MONTHLY folder. Similarly, Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge publishes a new newsletter every week, so I put that into the WEEKLY folder. Similarly with the Daily folder, which usually contains links to other weblogs. The OTHERS folder usually contains interesting links such as journal articles, conference articles, interviews, etc…mostly interesting stuff that does not fit in the above categories.
The number of links in these folders keeps increasing as I keep adding new ones that I find while browsing. So much so that at times I have to sit down and edit them!
There are many secondary sources that keep feeding me with links. These are:
- Reader contributions
- Discussion group postings
- Newsletters
- Random browsing
There is this other implicit thing that I find myself doing? I chase links! At times I do this unknowingly, and it throws all my time management resolutions into the bin.
Contributors:
Tom Abeles, Frank Bate, Janine Bowes, Claire Brooks, Janet Burstall, Marty Cielens, Stephen Downes, Sebastian Fiedler, Steve Fisher, Louise Housden, Marie Jasinski, Carole McCulloch, Maish Nichani, Will Richardson, Bo Schafers, Bronwyn Stuckey, Hector Vila
