Deborah Wells-Clinton: Blogging

Weblogs for Literacy

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 21:55:14 GMT

David Huffaker's research, as documented in an article called "The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom", in the online journal, First Monday, has received some coverage by the BBC. I'm glad to see weblogging getting some attention in terms of its educational potential.

Sun, 22 Feb 2004 13:45:53 GMT

Jenny's Blog and RSS Presentations. One of the best things about this community is its willingness to share. Jenny has put up her two recent presentations on blogging and RSS in .pdf format, and they are both worth a look if you're thinking of doing any training on this stuff or if you just want to clarify your own practice a bit. Great stuff! [Weblogg-ed News]

Wed, 18 Feb 2004 22:19:03 GMT

Bot A Blog.

People invariably ask me for resources that will e-mail them new entries in weblogs (this usually happens after I push aggregators). I usually point them to Bloglet, which has been around for a while (although I'm still not sure if it is still running), but now I can add Bot A Blog, which has similar features.

Bot a Blog will only work with sites that have RSS feeds. You enter the URL for the site (Bot a Blog has auto-discovery so no need to know the URL of the feed) and your e-mail address and it will e-mail you whenever the weblog is updated. I signed up for my blog, so hopefully I'll receive an e-mail shortly after I publish this.

[Library Stuff]

RSS Basics

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 12:32:55 GMT

Still Baffled By RSS?. For those of you who may have missed this on the myriad of other blogs posting on this, Karen G. Schneider (a.k.a. Free Range Librarian) has posted a "no-brainer" tutorial on RSS... [TechnoBiblio]

Sat, 15 Nov 2003 05:12:13 GMT

Bibliography of weblog articles.

Amanda has a nice list going of articles dealing with libraries and weblogs, with some RSS stuff thrown in as well. If you know of an article that you think should be in there, give her a buzz.

[Library Stuff]

Tue, 11 Nov 2003 12:54:35 GMT

Blogs and your library.

Darlene Fichter has written an article about using weblogs to market your library. She mainly discusses Weblogs 101, which is the same old stuff that has been written about many times before. The marketing aspect is at the end.

There hasn't been alot written about librarians using weblogs to market themselves as professionals which, in some aspect, is what my article discusses. I'll try to write about that subject here from time to time. (link via Be Spacific)

[Library Stuff]

Yes!

Sat, 08 Nov 2003 13:50:03 GMT

Weblogs for currency.

In her rant entitled, "What Has Your Blawg Done For You, Your Clients, Your Profession, Lately?", Denise writes:

"One of the biggest benefits I derive from Bag and Baggage, and people are constantly surprised by this, is the way it keeps me informed as a lawyer. I guess it's non-obvious if you're not doing it. By this I mean, for the last two years I've found blogs to be incomparably more effective at keeping me up to speed on developments (societal, business, and legal) touching on my practice than the combination of newsletters, newspapers, magazines, and CLE events which used to serve this function for me on their own. The benefits of having information filtered by people you trust to recognize what you would probably find important if you read it firsthand are enormous. I used to sift through a mishmash of paper and online resources to make sure I knew quickly about developments that might affect my clients or my practice. I still check those things, but now they take a back seat to reading what some knowledgeable blogger already has written up."

Very nice, Denise. As Jenny would say, you "get it". I have mentioned so often here that it bores me sometimes, weblogs are one of the easiest mechanisms for keeping current. When I preach about weblogs, I ask the audience to try reading 5-7 library related weblogs everyday to see if they are more up-to-date in less than half the time. To me, its a no-brainer.

[Library Stuff]

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 11:20:10 GMT

Usability WebQuest With Student Blogs.

"This project was created for a graduate-level course called Designing Web-Based Learning. It's a WebQuest about web-site usability for high school students and it includes a student blogging component. We framed it as problem-based learning, having students play the role of usability consultants for a fictional firm. A description of the process can be found at HeadspaceJ. Although it's not an extensive activity, we thought it might help other educators develop related activities of their own." {via Jeremy Hiebert.]

[ebnWL News]

Thu, 04 Sep 2003 10:13:26 GMT

Rajesh Jain came up with the awesome.... "Rajesh Jain came up with the awesome Blog Street (a bunch of utilities for webloggers)..." [The Scobleizer Weblog] [ebnWL News]

Weblogs in Education

Sun, 31 Aug 2003 13:43:39 GMT

Blogging across the curriculum.

Excellent resource: "Cyborg Mommy has created an online resource about blogging. It's designed for students, but I think it's good for anyone who's new to blogging." [via Kairos News & various others] [ebnWL News]
This site has received a lot of interest in the last week. I think I should add it here so I don't lose track of it. Next time I talk to a teacher or other colleague about weblogs, I'll have this resource handy.

Tue, 26 Aug 2003 08:10:04 GMT

A New Primer About RSS [ResourceShelf]

Tue, 26 Aug 2003 08:07:39 GMT

Weblogs Article from Technology and Learning. > Education Web Logs > August 1, 2003" href="http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=4DSZ2KPTOVAGUQSNDBCSKHSCJUMEIJVN?articleID=12803462">Techlearning > > Education Web Logs > August 1, 2003 Thanks to free blog publishing software that masks the programming code underlying Web Log creation, virtually anyone can "blog" or practice... [Education/Technology - Tim Lauer]

LiveJournal Possibilities

Sun, 24 Aug 2003 13:12:21 GMT

Using LiveJournal to Syndicate Daily Content.

... this is a "daily content" tool that any teacher can use - you don't even have to know how to run a website! I'm using it in conjunction with a website, but you could actually run the whole thing using LiveJournal without knowing a thing about HTML or website design.

[Xplana]
I need to spend more time on this. Would this be a way to update a webpage? Add a "Link of the Week?" Or is it more likely something I can use with the students as some sort of communication tool?

Blogging for Kids

Sun, 17 Aug 2003 22:29:02 GMT

Surfing the Net with Kids: Blogging Tools. Writing is essential. And what better way to encourage writing than with an online journal. Whether you call it a blog or a diary, I've tested the best of the free options, and created a sample journal in each. Take a look and decide which one is right for you. Remember, not all blogs are written for a family audience, so be careful out there. [Surfing the Net with Kids Headlines] Several blogs have pointed out that Surfing the Net with Kids has an RSS feed, to which I have now subscribed. I hope to share this site with my colleagues and figure out a way to share it further with parents. This post, about blogging, suggests good sites for kids or families to try out.

Fri, 01 Aug 2003 15:21:54 GMT

aim bots. For a few weeks I’ve been playing with an AIM bot called Smarterchild, which I found via a student’s blog (thanks, David!). You add it to your buddy list, and can then send it queries for evrything from movie show times to weather forecasts to dictionary definitions. It’s got an “Eliza”-like natural language interface that fascinates my kids—they can’t quite wrap their heads around the fact that this is a software program rather than a person, and have spent long periods of time “talking” with it. After a month of free trial use, I’ve decided to pony up the $9.99... [mamamusings]

Thu, 31 Jul 2003 21:28:53 GMT

RSS Explorer.

RSS Explorer - "RSSExplorer is a tool that looks for RSS feeds while you browse. On every page you visit it looks for the autodiscovery link. If it finds one it displays it. You can then subscribe to the feed by clicking a button." (via Yahoo Groups - Aggregators)

...And it works for Radio. I'm going to test this out as soon as I can. The problem is that I hardly surf the Web anymore. Everything I want comes in via my aggregator. Still, I can't wait to try it out.

Update - I couldn't wait, so I downloaded it. It works like a charm. I threw my URL in there and it grabbed my RSS Feed and with two clicks, I added it to Radio. Wowser!!

[Library Stuff]

Thu, 31 Jul 2003 21:27:11 GMT

RSSMaster.

"RSS, Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication, whatever you call it, is the easiest way you can make your news and/or articles available to a much wider audience."

"RSSMaster is a .NET class library which helps you generate RSS feeds for your web site with a few lines of code. It supports both 0.91 (the most popular) and 2.0 (the newest) versions of RSS. RSSMaster is fully customizable and totally FREE. (via Feedster)

Or, you can make it easier for yourself and use a blogging tool like Radio, MovableType, etc and your feed will be created automatically for you. GASP!!!

[Library Stuff]

Wed, 30 Jul 2003 22:17:28 GMT

How to Make Your Own RSS Feed. How to Create an RSS Feed With Notepad, a Web Server, and a Beer . The ultimate low-tech guide to creating your own RSS feed. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, July 29, 2003 [ OLDaily , via Seb's Open Research ] Why should you care? Because you can be Blown Away by RSS Feeds & Blogs [via Scripting News ]. I'm sure Steven will be reading this one closely, too! [The Shifted Librarian]

Wed, 23 Jul 2003 18:33:40 GMT

EduTech Bloggers.

Months ago, I posted list of bloggers focusing on education/technology. I had quite a few responses and additions to my original list. I've transferred the page to its new permanent home. If you want to add someone (or yourself) let me know.

[elearnspace blog]

Wed, 16 Jul 2003 13:09:35 GMT

Bloglines.Bloglines is a FREE, server-based aggregator that operates from your browser. It's easy to set up an account and easy to use.
As an educator, a service like this has tons of potentials and means there's now access to selected news feeds by individual students or teachers or admins from any online computer. Very cool is that links can be read from a separate browser window, bookmarks can be made, folders managed and comments posted right from within the aggregator.
A teacher can set up an account, manage and categorize student feeds, professional feeds, comment postings, etc., right from within a browser, which means no longer being tied to a specific desktop aggregator. [Edublog News]

Adding a Book List To a Blog

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 00:42:08 GMT

In a weblog about how to use a weblog for readers' advisory services, one post gives directions for adding a list of books or other media to a blog. I'm collecting items like this to possibly use in a redesign of our library website.

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 00:18:39 GMT

blog and RSS LOs at MLX. blog and RSS LOs at MLX
The Maricopa Learning eXchange has a couple of new learning objects of note for edubloggers: How to Create an RSS Feed and Creating a Free Online Blog [[alterego]]

Blog Maps

Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:30:09 GMT

DC Metro Blog Map. An article in Slate by Brian Montopoli, City Wide Web - City "blog maps" enable point-and-click sightseeing, discusses the premise behind blog maps. His example, D.C. Metro Blog Map, [is] a subway map of Washington, DC, which denotes "blogs" in the vicinity of Metro subway stops.
Might be interesting to do something similar with a school map. By moving the mouse over a school map, student and teacher blogs would pop up... [by way of...Smart Mobs] [Education/Technology - Tim Lauer]
I like this idea, especially since the new design for our library web pages starts from a map of the school. Hmmm.

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 14:11:47 GMT

Collaborative Online Book - ABC's of Weblogs for Educators. .....Why use weblogs in my course?.....What Tools to Use?......lrn | lrn >> learn :: relearn :: network..... [Use and Abuse of IT]

Weblogs Defined

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 14:03:48 GMT

Need to answer the "What is a Weblog" Question. I have been meaning to write that basic article to answer the questions that keep coming up these days....... "What is a Weblog"......Looks like I don't have to do it....here is a nice set of articles that address this exact question. The whole site looks like a valuable resource.......Weblogs Compendium - Definitions [Use and Abuse of IT]
Now I really have to get a search engine on this blog. Did I post this resource before or not?
BTW, Jim, you need to proofread your postings. This one was a mess. :-)