Edinburgh Castle - Scotland
Bamburgh Castle - Northumberland
Bamburgh Castle - Northumberland
England - Scottish Boarder
Ruined Watchtower - Hadrian's Wall
Durham Cathedral
Bamburgh Castle - North Sea Coast
Hadrian's Wall
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Blogging Best Practices
A blog becomes a place to create a community. Like any community there should be guidelines or rules that govern the interaction. Searching the web for "Blogging best practices"
and "Safe blogging" returned a host of links and articles all sharing different ideas.
Reading through them you begin to understand some of the best practices
of blogging.
Some of the ideas I picked up about blogging best practices from http://lauraleewalker.wordpress.com seem to be pretty straightforward. They include things like:
Some of the ideas I picked up about blogging best practices from http://lauraleewalker.wordpress.com seem to be pretty straightforward. They include things like:
•
Use bullet points, italics, and bold
font.
•
Reference your articles.
•
Be interesting and have fun.
•
Post frequently
These seem to be some pretty good ideas. At
least they were points that stood out to me and that I noticed as I was reading
various blogs. The ideas listed above seem to pull the eye in, keep
things light, and fresh. Some of the blogs I read were only updated once
in a rare while and some had not been updated for over a year.
The take-away for me is to first be aware of your audience or who you audience may be. Additionally it is important to be aware of the kind of information you are sharing. Personal information, or information that could be used inappropriately should not be share, especially for younger bloggers.
So given the basics of blogs and some best practices then what? How does this apply to instructional design? Good question. In a corporate world it becomes a great place to share best practices. Especially in the company I currently work for, with over 35.000 employees. How do we all connect and share best practices? A blog allows instructional design practitioners to create a form in which to share thoughts, ideas, and best practices in a less formal way.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Blogging pedagogy and applications
I always like to start with a good foundation. It must come from the years I spent working in construction. If the foundation wasn't started correctly nothing else lined up and that made things pretty miserable. So I would like to start this the same way.
Blogging Pedagogy - While I was researching this topic I discovered a pretty cool Prezi,
outlining the pedagogy of blogging. This was created by Christopher Long, a Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean at Penn State University. What I learned by viewing Dr. Long's Prezi was that a blog is a publishing platform that can be used to build community and ultimately blur the lines that have previously defined a classroom and the length of a student teacher relationship. A blog becomes a place that allows a broad community to interact and exchange ideas in a form that otherwise would not exist.
Blogs seem to differ based on application. What I mean by this is that when used in education they are a place for students to discuss assignments and projects. My interest is a little different, that of instructional design. In this arena blogs become a place to share best practices, ideas, and tools. One example is this blog, http://christytucker.wordpress.com. The particular article linked here talks about how the number of blogs available have increased over the years. It also includes links to many of them, which makes the point of blogs being a place to share ideas and tools. Another example would be this post from upside learning that highlights the top online resources for instructional designers to keep up with. http://www.upsidelearning.com
I believe blogs are useful and an opportunity to collaborate and share outside of more traditional forms.
outlining the pedagogy of blogging. This was created by Christopher Long, a Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean at Penn State University. What I learned by viewing Dr. Long's Prezi was that a blog is a publishing platform that can be used to build community and ultimately blur the lines that have previously defined a classroom and the length of a student teacher relationship. A blog becomes a place that allows a broad community to interact and exchange ideas in a form that otherwise would not exist.
Blogs seem to differ based on application. What I mean by this is that when used in education they are a place for students to discuss assignments and projects. My interest is a little different, that of instructional design. In this arena blogs become a place to share best practices, ideas, and tools. One example is this blog, http://christytucker.wordpress.com. The particular article linked here talks about how the number of blogs available have increased over the years. It also includes links to many of them, which makes the point of blogs being a place to share ideas and tools. Another example would be this post from upside learning that highlights the top online resources for instructional designers to keep up with. http://www.upsidelearning.com
I believe blogs are useful and an opportunity to collaborate and share outside of more traditional forms.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)