One of the really significant opportunities in blogs is the multi-directional flow of communication they facilitate. Blogs aren’t just a way to deliver content in the way websites are. They’re mechanisms through which interaction can occur between readers and bloggers – and importantly between readers as well – to the point where a vibrant interactive community develops around the topics covered in the posts.
In this sense the ability for a blogger to present their initial thoughts is important, but the conversations that emerge from this information is arguably …

As I’ve touched on recently, I’m very interested in exploring the capacity of blogs to enhance and support the educational process, both from the standpoint of independent learning and exploration, and adaptation to more traditional classroom activities. However while the former is easily implemented, the latter requires much more consideration and there have historically been some holes in my vision that needed fleshing out.
With Monday’s launch of Prologue, a new possibility has been injected into the mix that I’d like to explore here for a moment.
Pedagogy and learning objectives …

Wordpress launched Prologue today, in a move that many technophiles and bloggers have immediately heralded as the death of Twitter. Personally, I think the hype has gotten the better of far too many people.
Twitter and Prologue are both very solid applications that offer a tremendous amount of value to users, however they serve distinctly different purposes and have few real similarities. As a result, Prologue is likely to appeal to a completely different user niche than Twitter, and won’t pose any major threat to its market share.
Before …

I’m extremely interested in the idea of using blogs in higher education and believe the opportunity to create, organise and maintain their own blogs could provide students with a tremendous opportunity for deeper exploration in subjects of interest. My theory is that the creation of their own unique virtual space would inspire a greater sense of ownership in not just the course, but the subject matter as well; and this could in turn lead to a greater synthesis, appreciation, and retention of information.
In reality however I am currently unfamiliar …

ZDNet.com is currently running a series of posts on a book called “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything“; and if the descriptions in their posts are any indication, it’s a phenomenal work.
The case studies presented are absolutely extraordinary and encapsulate the power and speed inherent in the new web. Ordinary users, previously relegated to the role of information consumer only 10 years ago, are now being afforded the right of information provider, interpreter, critic and commentator – and they are doing it en masse.
A case in point from the …