Blogging+Tools

Blogging Tools
====When blogging tools first arrived in 1998, people asked “What’s a blog?” The word “blog” is a contraction of “Web log” and is used both as a noun as well as a verb. To blog is to write content to a blog. A blog is a Web-based personal diary with dated entries. The beauty of blogs and blogging software is that they enable a writer to concentrate on content by removing all the distracting details of publishing the content to a Web site. An author can simply write and publish in one easy step. No knowledge of HTML or FTP is needed.====

Quick Tour of a Blogging Tool
====Blogging tools are available as free or moderately priced services and as products you purchase and install on your own server. To start a blog, the author specifies a title and description. The author also specifies where the blog will be located and if a password will be needed to post or read messages.====

How to Use Blogs for e-Learning
====Blogs can provide a convenient way for learners to document learning experiences, such as interesting readings, the Web addresses of good examples, and questions and answers they have. Blogging tools remove any barriers to publishing to a Web site by allowing authors and learners to concentrate on content instead of technical operations.====

Blogosphere
====The term blogosphere was coined on Sept. 10, 1999 by Brad L. Graham as a joke. Blogosphere is the collective term encompassing all weblogs or blogs as a community or social network. Many weblogs are densely interconnected; bloggers read others' blogs, link to them, reference them in their own writing, and post comments on each others' blogs. Sites such as Technorati, Bloglines, Blogdex, Blogrunner, Blog Street, Blogger, BlogsNow, and PubSub use the links made by bloggers to track the interconnections between bloggers. (http://westwood.wikispaces.com/blogosphere)====

How many blogs are around the world?
====Technorati currently states it is tracking over 112.8 million blogs, a number which obviously does not include all the 72.82 million Chinese blogs as counted by The China Internet Network Information Center.==== The blogosphere is doubling about once every 6 and a half months. About 175,000 new weblogs are created each day. There are more than 2 blogs created each second of each day.

Blog vs. Journal
====Blogs are different from traditional journals in several ways: 1. Blogs are public. Others are invited to look at the blogger's thoughts and opinions on a regular basis. 2. Blogs are hyperactive. This means that blogs can link to other Web sites. 3. Blogs are interactive. As the lesson plan is being developed readers are also allowed to make comments. The teacher/blogger may post a decision to introduce material using a small group activity. (Michael Stach, "Introduction to Blogs and Blogging." TechLearning)====