English & Journalism Weblogging

There are a number of features that are making web logs popular. Traditional sites often take a considerable amount of planning and building before they can be launched. Web logs can be launched almost immediately and are expected to grow and mature as they age. They are expected to have a lot of links on the front page, which means that they don't have to be thought out quite as much. Traditional websites also are usually somewhat inflexible as new content demands new pages or space on current pages. Web logs are very easy to keep current as they are hungry for new content by nature and automatically roll old content off of the site or into an archive.

This new medium is being explored most fully it seems by those with journalistic ideals. In fact, many discussions have been had, forums moderated and papers written regarding web logging's maturity into a whole new type of peer-to-peer journalism. At both the high school and collegiate level, English and journalism classes are exploring how web logging can be used to communicate news and ideas quickly and easily.

Sites to Explore

Hunterdon Central Regional High School · Flemington, NJ
Will Richardson is a teacher in New Jeresey making great use of web logs in his classroom. He is making better use of web logging than any teacher that I have come across.

Look at: http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/journ1/

Click on the "J-Talk" link in the right column for student entries and discussion.

His Modern American Literature class read and discussed The Secret Life of Bees. You can read their discussions at: http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/

While you are reading that book discussion, don't miss the link in the right column to read the author's own response to the students' posts.

Laura Shefler
Laura put together a sort of guide for teachers that may want to use web logging.

Centenary College · Shreveport, LA
Bryan Alexander's English 332: Seminar in the Novel class uses web logs pretty extensively. The quality and depth of these postings are obviously something much easier to pull off at a post-secondary level, but these logs certainly demonstrate a method of integrating web logs into the classroom experience.

Weblogs in Education @ Schoolblogs.com
This site hasn't been posted to recently (relative to the time this was written) but still contains some great archived discussion between educators regarding the future of web logging and its use in classroom activities.

Web logs being used in professional journalism
Finally, here is a site that lists many web logs maintained by journalists with well-known, and lesser-known, media companies.