1. What the Heck is a Blog and Do I Want One? Mike Ribble College of Education Ben Ward, Swasati Mukherjee & Shalin Hai-Jew Office of Mediated Education

2. What are Blogs Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines a blog as a “website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. Wikipedia goes on to talk about the range of blogs from “individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs, and corporations”.

3. http://davidwarlick.com/2cents

4. Where Did It Begin? Term “weblog” coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger then shortened to “blog” by Peter Merholz in 1999. Its precursors were AP Wire, Ham radio “glogs”, Usenet, e-mail lists and bulletin boards. Source - Wikipedia.com, accessed: 8/26/2005

5. http://www.httoday.blogspot.com/

6. How Did It Become So Popular? Political Influence - 2001-2002, fall of Trent Lott, rise of Howard Dean and Wesley Clark 2003, Iraq War - “Baghdad Blogger” 2004, “Rathergate” - bloggers exposed documents as forgeries Source: Wikipedia.com, Accessed 8/26/2005

7. http://www.weblogg-ed.com

8. Blogs Today 27% of American Internet Users visited a blog in 2005, up 58% from 2004 Blog readers tend to be young, male, well-educated, internet veterans 12% of American internet users have posted comments on others blogs up from 4% in 2003. Source: pewinternet.org, The State of Blogging Report (January 2005)

9. http://powerlineblog.com

10. http://wizbangblog.com

11. So How Can They Be Used In Education? Instructors - posting content related information, networking or knowledge sharing, instructional tips, announcements, annotated links Students - reflective journals, assignment submission, dialog for groups, share resources University - recruiting tool, announcements

12. http://www.erau.edu/db/journals/st5.html

13. Issues/Problems in Blogging Students can write just about anything - and sometimes do Things written today may be held against you in the future Where is the boundary between freedom of speech and my rights

14. http://www.xanga.com

15. I have given you some ideas to think about - now go and try some of them out. Always remember, start small and build on successes. Now let's hear from Ben, Swasati and Shalin on how to create and maintain a blog. They will also discuss the Instructional Design Open Studio blog that they've all started..found at http://ome.ksu.edu/id/blog