Cori Martin

SLM 521

Course Module

Web Blogging: My Blog or Yours?

Objectives: Students will become familiar with online blogging.

Students will be able to set up their own blog.

Students will be able to access other students’ blogs.

Introduction: Although Blogging is not a completely new phenomenon, it is gathering momentum as more and more sites become dedicated to it and to making blogs more accessible. Completely lost? You don’t have to be! The following activity is designed to acquaint new users to blogs and to their distribution on the World Wide Web. Blogs are personal expressions, much like diaries, however they are posted online so that other people can read them and respond to them. They can be deeply personal, but most people use them as ways to keep in touch with friends as to their daily activities and as a way to vent their frustrations. Read on for more.

Activities: Visit the following sites to read up the definition of blogging and how it works and how it is affecting modern journalism.

Definition this site is a quick and easy look at blogging and has various links to start your own blog. http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/blog/

CNN an article on how blogging has become so popular, that companies have to take notice. http://www.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/05/25/blog.adverts/index.html

What does it mean? Wired’s take on what blogging could do for the do the internet. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.05/mustread.html?pg=2

Now that you’ve read the articles, go to one of the following blog sites and set up your own blog. These are free sites and all that is required is an email address. What is posted on the blog sites is not subject to intellectual scrutiny, but will be for your own records. This activity is graded on the presence of the blog entries, not the entries themselves. Also respond to one of your classmate’s blogs.

blogger – Easy to navigate and includes a tour. http://www.blogger.com/start

Myspace – The largest friend community on the web, easy to subscribe to and find other friends’ blogs. http://www.myspace.com/

Xanga – Interesting to say, nice layout. http://www.xanga.com/

Submission: Email the instructor the link to your blog site with at least 3 entries, and the link to your classmate’s blog entry that you responded to.

Resources: Blog tips- Some helpful tips on starting your own blog and on upkeep. http://www.livingroom.org.au/blog/archives/cat_blog_tips.php