What+are+Blogs?

Blogs (short for “Web logs”) are web-based diaries or journals — online thinking spaces where one can write their thoughts. A blog can be a private space or a place where readers can respond by writing their comments.



Weblogs have many applications in schools and their use has been growing exponentially. There are many reasons, most centering on student engagement and bringing out reticent writers. Students love using blogs and a lesson incorporating weblogs will engage students in ways traditional classroom work can’t. Blogs are also easy to to implement. It is free. More and more teachers and schools are starting to experiment with the technology as a way to communicate with students and parents, archive and publish student work. Think of a weblog as an online collaborative work environment where indiviudals or groups can work together on projects, conduct discussions or debates, share notes, and more. Share ideas with other teachers. Your blog might include reviews of games, films or tv shows, discussions about issues in the media, a diary of your thoughts on the games and products you work on at school, as well as links to interesting media sites.
 * RSS**

Rss a “tool” that is built in to most blogging software that many think will change the way we receive and process all of the information we get from the Internet. RSS-aware programs called news aggregators are popular in the weblogging community. Many weblogs make content available in RSS. A news aggregator can help you keep up with all your favorite weblogs by checking their RSS feeds and displaying new items from each of them.

For educators, the potential significance of RSS is huge. Teachers could use this syndication process to communicate with students, parents, newspapers, etc. In the classroom, teachers who have students create their own Weblogs can easily keep tabs on what those students are posting by subscribing to their students’ feeds and simply checking their aggregators regularly.

Teacher and students can “subscribe” to different feeds that are relevant to their teaching.

Students, similarly, can subscribe to the blogs of teachers to determine their homework, due assignments etc.

More and more Web sites are creating RSS feeds for their content. Many major newspapers, including //The New York Times//, //The Washington Post//, //The Miami Herald//, and others, now offer RSS feeds of major sections in their papers. Magazines are following suit.

There are a lot of aggregators available for free download. Remember that if you use more than one computer during the day, you will need to install the software more than once.

Bloglines [| **[http://www.bloglines.com**  ]], which is a Web-based, free aggregator that you can access from any Internet connection.

Where do you go from here? Start your own blog, and start aggegating RSS feeds. There’s no better way to understand the process and potential than to practice it yourself. Start thinking about ways that you can use it with your class (don’t forget the potential for collaboration).