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.
