Blogs in education

Web logs ("blogs") are really taking off. They've been popular among Net-heads for some time but they're now going mainstream. They were originally used as online diaries (and they still are) but they're now finding all sorts of alternative uses. Blogs are becoming particularly popular as a sort of alternative news medium - and some stories are breaking on the blogosphere before they appear on TV or in print. Lots of famous people have a blog. There's a blog search engine. Even business is trying to get in on the act. 

 

Education is also finding uses for them. Blogs are appearing on all sorts of educational topics - such as plagiarism and e-learning. Teachers are using them for project work. Students are using them as online log-books. They're particularly good for online collaboration between students. 

 

Once you've found a few interesting blogs, it can be a pain to check them one at a time. However there are online services that will do this for you. These "aggregators" allow you to watch various blogs and tell you when there are new posts. Bloglines is one of them. You simply tell Bloglines which "feeds" you want to "watch" and you'll be told whenever there are new messages. Newsgator provides a plug-in for Outlook which allows you to read blogs within that program. You can even use Bloglines and Newsgator for your e-group subscriptions. 

 

More information here.