Kaitlyn Edens
Tremayne McCray
Alesia Schwenke

Ideas:
1. Vlogging- video blogging
2. Twitter
3. Wordpress/blogspot


Definition: a website usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other materials such as graphics or videos; a contraction of the term "web-log".

History:

Blogging- It's hard to believe, but the first blog went out in 1993. It was done using Mosaic, which compiled links and codes. However, it was in 1998 that blogging began to really take off. By 1999 and 2000, blogging had taken to the entire world wide web, but at the beginning, only the developers could make personal encodings for the blogs. Once blogging went public and anyone could do it, personal links were created so that the bloggers could make their pages their own, as well as making it so that others could find their pages and read what was posted. Blog spots like www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com are two main sites were bloggers often go.

Twitter- Work on the project started on March 31, 2006. @Jack is Jack Dorsey, who was the Ceo until recently. Originally, it was known as Twttr.

Twitter has been around for over three years. Twitter was founded by Biz Stone, Jack Dorsey, and Evan Williams, and was unknown to many until the 2008 presidential election — which catapulted it to stardom.

From the geeks, to the election, to celeb involvement and now the general public (there are currently around six million registered Twitter users), Twitter's popularity is certainly soaring.

http://www.manolith.com/2009/06/21/the-story-so-far-of-twitter/




Key Features:

Twitter- Because Twitter uses 140 characters or less to tell what is happening or what you are doing, it cuts out long statuses. It keeps people informed of current events without getting lengthy. It is also a good way to keep up with celebrities, politicians, and also friends. Due to the fact that tweets can be sent to your phone, it makes it highly mobile.

Blogging- All bloggers will find that when they start, they can create a theme for their blog. They will also find that unlike Twitter, longer posts can be made, often resulting in no character or word restrictions. Most bloggers tend to stick to their themes, but they can deviate if they choose. When a new user signs up fo blogging, which ever blog site he has chosen will have set instructions to getting started, making it easier for the user to slide right on into blogging. The more a person posts, the more readership he can gain. Readership can help the blogger in popularity with what he posts.



Educational Value – How can it be used in the classroom?

Twitter- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OxIz_3o3O0

Twitter can take many technologies that teachers currently use, such as listserv and emails, and turn it into one. The updates can be used to remind students or tests, make an announcment, or a way to quickly cancel class. Because Twitter updates can be sent to your mobile phone, news travels faster and a computer is not necessary to find out class information. There are many other applications that can be used along with Twitter. PollDaddy can be used to get a quick and effective poll of fellow classmates. Students and teachers can also follow politicians, keep up with current events or news stories with sources such as @CNNMoney.

Blogging- Many think that blogging cannot be encorporated into a classroom setting, but one site, created for teacher use, has come up with many reasons why a blog is helpful in classrooms. Here are a few ways that Edublogs.org has encorporated blogging into classrooms:

- Post materials and resources
- Host online discussions
- Create a class publication
- Replace newsletters
- Share lesson plans
- Give/get feedback

Other ways blogging can be benificial in the classroom is for teachers to blog about what was talked about in class that day for students who were absent, may need a reminder about assignments or tests that are coming up, or for students who just want to recap on what was said in class. Also, teachers can use blogging as an assignment. Assignments for blogging can either be long term or short term. One way a teacher could use a blog is as a feedback journal. Instead of asking the students to write in a journal about what the understand or didn't understan about a lesson, they can ask them to do so online, which helps with organization for the teacher. Plus, it helps with giving easy feedback to the students, and for the teacher.


Resources for Future Learning - Provide 3 digital resources (URLs) such as tutorials, templates, software downloads, etc. which will assist classmates to independently learn the new technology at a later date.

Twitter- http://help.twitter.com/portal

Blogging- http://www.ehow.com/how_2032323_blog.html



Future Teaching - Provide 5 URLs that support classmates using the innovation for future teaching in a variety of situations (e.g., lessons, handouts, articles).

Twitter- http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/

http://makingconnectionsfye1220.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/assignment-48-hours-of-twitter/

Blogging- www.educblogs.org (for teachers)

http://bgenglish.blogspot.com/2008/01/short-story-blog-assignment-comment.html (an example of an assignment that could be done using blogs)



VLOGGING