Xenoblogging

—Xenoblogging (Google) Last week when I posted on a course web page a detailed explanation of how I plan to evaluate student blogs, I coined a phrase and googled it. Nobody seems to have used it before. Now, thanks to the reach of KairosNews and a few popular bloggers who read it, several other edu-bloggers are…

LCC professors explore weblogging in English classes

The popular online pastime known as blogging has found its way into the English classrooms at Georgia Tech. In an innovative approach, Dr. Charles Tryon and Dr. Doreen Piano have both integrated blogging into their English 1101 classes this semester for the first time. —Jeff Wei —LCC professors explore weblogging in English classes (Technique) I’m afraid…

When Blogging Goes Bad: A Cautionary Tale About Blogs, Emailing Lists, Discussion, and Interaction

While there were times in which some students wrote longer messages, more often than not, the posts were short, merely links to other documents, or text that was “cut and pasted” from another source. There was very little writing that could be described as reflective, dynamic, collaborative, or interactive. There was almost no exchange or…

Framework for a Weblog Portfolio

Your online participation is evaluated mostly by your portfolio — a collection of your best blog entries, that represent your developing intellectual engagement with the literary works we have studied. —Framework for a Weblog Portfolio (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I’m using weblogs in my American Lit course. I thought the experiment went well when I did it…

The Real Threat of Blogs

What made the early Internet so very threatening to the mainstream media was not just the new opinions being expressed, but the fact that people were spending hours of their lives doing something that didn’t involve production or consumption in the traditional market sense. Families with Internet connections were watching an average of nine hours…

Computer Writing and Permanence

Television started as a powerful community-building force. If you had a TV set, you would watch what was broadcast, discuss it among the family at home, and also with the wider context of friends, relatives, neighbours and colleagues. If you encountered someone else with a TV set, the immediate assumption would be that that you…

The Blog-Only News Diet

After a week, Rubel — a blogging aficionado and practitioner who writes about the narrow topic of how blogs and participatory journalism are affecting the practice of public relations — says he definitely lacked the depth of knowledge of current events gained in a normal week. “I felt a little naked,” he says, having received…

Impact of blogs seen as slight

Somerby’s comments would seem like blasphemy in the so-called “blogosphere,” but many online writers and observers agree that blogs, with a handful of exceptions, have had virtually no impact on the national conversation, mainstream media coverage of politics or large, orchestrated events like the parties’ quadrennial nominating conventions. —Kevin Canfield —Impact of blogs seen as…

Dark Skyline

toronto’s western skyline seen from the cn tower’s lookout area. —Dark Skyline (Top Left Pixel) Julia, a friend of mine from my Toronto days, sent me a link to this photoblog, which features the sights of a city I remember fondly. This beautiful view from what some call a skyline-dominating tourist attraction (the CN Tower) was…

Campus Coming Alive Again

Campus Coming Alive Again (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) The Seton Hill student blog site, blogs.setonhill.edu/nmj, has seen activity from several intrepid souls who used their blogs to keep in touch since saying good-bye in may. It’s also interesting to see comments from an increasing number of visitors who don’t have blogs themselves, but who obviously know the…

Schmexas Hold-em Schmipitor

Schmexas Hold-em Schmipitor (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Grrr…. On blogs.setonhill.edu, over 400 comment spams for some gambling game I’ve never played and some drug I’ve never heard of. Thank goodness for MT-Blacklist. Similar:RIP Metaverse, we hardly knew yeI am curious enough about cockatoos that…AcademiaHow We Can Help Students Survive in an Age of Anxiety Today’s students have…

Vacation Blog Pause

Vacation Blog Pause (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I’ll be on a little family vacation until August 1. My access to the Internet will be sporadic at best. Feel free to chat among yourselves while I am away. And enjoy the postings from “buup114” and the other spam that will doubtless collect in my absence. Similar:Smalltalk through masks…

Political conventions to welcome bloggers

More than 30 independent Web journalists have been accredited to cover the Democratic convention, and the Republicans said Friday they’ll also credential so-called bloggers. It’s the first time bloggers will be joining the thousands of newspaper, magazine and broadcast journalists at the quadrennial presidential-nomination events. —Political conventions to welcome bloggers (CNN/AP) A few people have mentioned…

More Weblogs are turning a profit

Webloggers are turning a profit, sometimes unexpectedly, reports the Chicago Tribune Online. Blogs such as TalkingPointsMemo, Wonkette, and RightWingNews are securing enough advertising to turn a profit. A firm called Blogads has been connecting advertisers with bloggers and enabling them to reach an 18 to 34-year-old demographic that is dwindling from traditional media outlets. Recent…