And Then There Were Blogs
I have worked at Golden West College, in Huntington Beach for the past ten years as an Instructional Associate and more recently as on Online Instructor, which prompted me to return to school. So, this past January I decided to“dive in” and begin the pursuit of my Master’s Degree in Education, Online Learning at California State University.
When I think back about eight months ago, I was returning to school for the first time in years and the term blog was just that, a term. Eight months and several classes later a blog is something I use weekly to communicate with my instructor, brainstorm with classmates and as I am presently doing, becoming a part of the campus online community by creating a blog for the Classified Connection.
Like it was yesterday I remember how nervous I was posting to my first discussion board and trying to be articulate, after all, we were told the expectations are to write like graduate students so I was relieved when I was provided the definition of a blog by one of my classmates, who, posted the response to an another student’s inquiry, “what is a blog” as if they were reading my mind.
Learning early on Wikipedia’s definition of a blog “(an abridgment of the term web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog” proved to be helpful since I would be hearing the term quite often as well as I was becoming a blogger myself. (Blog, 2008).
Blogs are hot, movie stars, rock musicians, politicians, educators, and kids, are blogging and quite often making money for doing it. According to Sifry (2007) “Technorati tracked 500,000 blogs in June 2003 and by March 2007 more than 70 million weblogs were tracked and we’re seeing about 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. That’s about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day.”
In addition to the popularity, “blogs can function as personal diaries, political analysis, advice columns on romance, computers, money, or all of the above. (Drezner & Farrell, 2007). And the blog’s popularity will not be slowing down any time soon according to (Akbulut & Kiyici, 2007) “one of the most popular and increasingly growing features of Web 2.0 is Weblogs. Web 2.0 “ refers to second generation web services emphasizing online collaboration and sharing among web users. These services provide a perceived transition from static and isolated information chunks to a self-generated and open communication where the authority is decentralized through allowing end-users to use the web space as a conversation field.”
I couldn’t deny the popularity of blogs but I was still unclear as to what piece of the puzzle blogs played in education. Before stepping into the education blog arena I needed more information. Gratefully I came across Oatman (2005) who proclaims, “The educational community’s infatuation with blogging isn’t an isolated phenomenon. It’s part of a quiet revolution in the way people relate to one another online. Around the world, millions of people are creating online communities among people of like interests. And they are doing it with a passion so intense that the term “blogomania” has been invented to describe it.”
With the combination of my newfound knowledge and a flailing Classified Connection, which I co-chair, I decided to make some changes to the “connection” by recreating it as the get reacquainted blog and throwing in some oomph. By seizing this opportunity, the Classified employees will be a part of an online community. The online version will allow Classified employees to particiate, although in the past they have been encouraged to meet once a month for an hour to share with each other the highlights of what is going on campus, in recent times, unfortunately nobody comes, either becuase they are busy or there area lacks replacement staffing.
I can now envision the formulation of the circle of “learning how to create a community;”; the starting point being the discussion forum and my introduction to blogs with the ending point being the Classified Connection and their introduction to blogs (for many.) The online Classified Connection will provide many classified to reconnect via technology. Blogs are becoming extremely popular as an communication tool in the education arena as a means to bring educators together which helps builds a bridge for educators who are isolated from each other (Colgan, 2005).
As my quest unfolds, I am fortunate in having the opportunity to learn from other’s experiences so I pay close attention to what the creators of the Infodoodad’s blog did in creating their own. The Infodoodad blog which was created by a group of Librarians in 2006 and now has more than 800 bloggers. The librarians initiated discussions as they were building the framework deciding on what tools of interest they would make available such as mapping out directions and the location of shopping centers and local restaurants. They had ongoing talks with each other on technicalities such as what writing styles they would use, how they should manage their time being spent on the blog, as well as who would answer what questions and so on (Rempel & Gronemyer, 2008).
Online communities come in many different shapes and sizes. We have the opportunity to create our own corner of a community at home or on the job. On the other hand, we can be visitors although sometimes you might need an invitation. However, blogs or Web 2.0 are here to stay and growing with an endless amount of ways for people all over the world to communicate and learn about each other as if we are all neighbors.
References
Akbulut, Y., & Kiyici, M. (2007). Instructional Use of Weblogs. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education , 3.
Colgan, C. (2005, December 1). Computer Blogs: Boon or Bane?. Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 71(4), 57. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ741209) Retrieved July 31, 2008, from ERIC database.
Drezner, D., & Farrell, H. (2007). Web of Influence. Foreign Policy , 3.
Oatman, E. (2005, August 1). Blogomania!. School Library Journal, 51(8), 36. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ786272) Retrieved July 31, 2008, from ERIC database.
Poling, C. (2005, March 1). Blog On: Building Communication and Collaboration Among Staff and Students. Learning and Leading with Technology. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ697316) Retrieved July 31, 2008, from ERIC database.
Rempel, H. G., & Gronemyer, K. (2008, April 16). Infodoodads. Retrieved July 23, 2008, from building a new blog community: www.infotoday.com
Rusbridger, A. (2008, June 20). Retrieved June 27, 2008, from pda: the digital content blog: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2008/06/_future_of_journalism_arianna.html
Sifry, D. (2007). The State of the Live Web. Technorati. Retreived July 31, 2007, from http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved July 23, 2008, from List of Blogging Terms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blogging_terms