A weblog is a text based website that is usually regularly
updated by an individual using particular blogging software.
They take the form of commentary on news and events, political platforms,
voices in professional communities, personal journals, reflective learning
logs and much much more.
Essentially a weblog is a powerful way for a person to express themselves
and communicate with others online.
A weblog usually takes the form of a site with individual postings with a
date and/or time presented with the most recent at the top.
Weblogs are usualy read through their webfeed using
a news aggregator.
In education weblogs are have been used as reflective journals, online
learning environments, project spaces, e-portfolios and independently
of structured
courses. In a well known example Dave
Winer set up Weblogs@
Harvard to
facilitate communication between different elements within the University.
For more ideas and information you would do well to read Educational
Blogging by Stephen
Downes (visit his site too!), think about weblogs compared to discussion
boards in James Farmer's Communication
Dynamics or look through the collection: Into
the Blogosphere (collection).
Nucleus is a sweetly simple weblogging tool which, as well as a host
of other features, allows users to create multiple blogs (with a minimum
of coding). Try it out here - U: admin P: admin
WordPress is possibly the most popular open source weblogging tool. Collaborative
or individual blogging, try it out by creating
an IncSub blog here.
We can also help out with the educational application of freely available
tools like Blogger and the webfeed aggregator Bloglines.
