Correlating blogging with age

Oriental medicine has its place in the world. Blended with with Western Medicine it seems to make great sense but when there's a conflict between the two, my background suggests that Western medicine is better. One thing that I have observed about Oriental medicine is that if an action causes an affect, or seems to cause an affect, it is deemed as a fact and should be used forthwith. Here is one place where my thinking departs from the thinking in Oriental medicine; I lie controlled experiments before I draw conclusions.

The same is true when observing behavior between individuals and technology. The seems to be a relationship between age and how technology is used. For example, most of us are at an age where assignments should be clearly defined and delineated. This class isn't doing that exactly. I build my expectations, my thoughts about what makes this a useful experiment into my blogs. Generally speaking all students of this level of class should be self-motivated and self-directed seeking some collaborative guidance to define issues and solutions more quickly.

So here's a summary of a reasonable set of expectations. First hands on is going to be the best teacher so reading about creating blogs and how they work is only step one. Mainly we need to involving and doing.

To be involved we need to setup a blog. You have done that. Well, most of you have. You need to read blogs to see how other use them, and then you need to comment. That's critical in blogging.

We have done some research, in blogs and professional journals, and then we shared our reviews and reactions in a blog. And then we commented on them. What did we learn about how blogs are being used in general and more importantly what is professional research saying about the use of blogs in education.

Then I'm suggesting that we explore the gadgets and features of a blogs by setting up RSS's, lists of blogs we're interested in reading routinely, lists of websites we find interesting and think others may also appreciate. And lists of books and journals.

Next step is to add some media such as images and videos. Maybe find some code from another website and include that code in the blog. Include links within the blog itself. Use more than words.

Lastly we need to dive into marketing our blog. I know that just writing the blog, like writing a diary, can be satisfactory in itself, but having some read it is even many times better. How to start? Tell your friends and family and colleagues about your blog. Read other blogs and write comments including a link to your blog in your comment. Is there a portal online that lists blogs? Can you find that?

In summary for this class:

Read and comment

Setup blog

Write relevantly

Research

Add features and gadgets

Add media and links

I suspect a posting every of day is a good schedule.

Market your blog

How weather affects blogging

One would think that blogging would be independent of weather, much like newspaper and mail delivery. However, when weather closes airports and floods roads and basements, blogging suffers, probably because bloggers are sandbagging or debating options for the next flight home. I hope all of you and your favorite people are safe and dry. We are but there have been distractions.

I received an email with a blog blog that I am forwarding not so much for you to read in detail but so that you can see another use of blogging.

http://wcetblog.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/forging-the-future-how-much-affordability-can-higher-education-afford/

More from me after this morning's class.

Blackout by Wikipedia and others

I don't frequent Wikipedia but it does offer some quick information from time to time, such as the population of Tanzania. Today I visited the site to learn more about the blackout. Legislation is always hard to understand and this is no exception. I suspect I could find ways to argue both sides of this issue but it seems as if this may be an ill-constructed piece legislation missing the mark and causing more chaos then order.

I did submitted a letter to our representative suggesting that education, what we're trying to do here at WOU, is more important than regulation. Take a look. Today only. What do you think?

Subscribing with RSS and Atom

Some of you have been trying out the email subscriptions and similar features. Most of us can activate a subscription by clicking on "Scribe to: Post (Atom)" which should sets up something in you email or aggregator that notifies you when a new blog entry is posted. I use that to monitor your blogs.

There are also options where readers can enter their email addresses, or you can enter it for them, and they receive an email when there's a new entry. Typically the recipient has to approve the option before the emails are received.

Below are a couple links that talk about using subscriptions and RSS's.

http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/howtoreadsitefeeds.shtml

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/04/rss-10-rss-20-or-atom-how-do-you.html

Subscribing with RSS and Atom

Some of you have been trying out the email subscriptions and similar features. Most of us can activate a subscription by clicking on "Scribe to: Post (Atom)" which should sets up something in you email or aggregator that notifies you when a new blog entry is posted. I use that to monitor your blogs.

There are also options where readers can enter their email addresses, or you can enter it for them, and they receive an email when there's a new entry. Typically the recipient has to approve the option before the emails are received.

Below are a couple links that talk about using subscriptions and RSS's.

http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/howtoreadsitefeeds.shtml

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/04/rss-10-rss-20-or-atom-how-do-you.html

Gadgets and tags

This is the week of gadgets. Think of it as an adult playing with children's toys not only for the joy of playing with the toys to to better understand how the toy works and why it brings joy to the child.

I'd like to see a blog list on each site with a link to my blog at least; so I can link back to my blog easily after reading yours. Also consider including links to your classmates' blogs. Also consider linking to other related blogs which may be a separate gadget for organization sake.

I see some calendars, with advertising no less, and some news feeds. A list of favorite websites may be a gadget option.

Consider adding tags to your postings so you can categorize or organize them. Have you wondered what the facebook, twitter, and other popular icons are on some blog pages? How would you use them?

Reading other Blogs

The first advice for writing a good blog is reading other blogs. I hope that you are indulging your instructor and reading his daily, or at least every other day. I hope also that you are reading your classmates' blogs. They are offering some great insights into blogging. I just read the reviews from Elizabeth ( ealligood11.blogspot.com ), also linked on the left of this blog as "Elizabeth's blogging world."