cerebral odd jobs

1] Posted: 2006-10-29 I think people should examine why they want a blog before leaping into the blogosphere.

Some of the questions to ask are already in the forum.

Also, be very aware of the distinctions between commercial blogging platforms and volunteer (typepad and blogger vs wordpress, for example.)

Dario.be is a volunteer platform; small number of users; run by an individual.

Blogsome is similar to dario.be, more users; much less support than edublogses or wordpress.com; much greater allowance to mess up your individual blog (i.e., change of the scripts; add javascript) etc.

For most teachers/schools who wish to have absolute control over a non-Internet (by definition) blogging platform, I would suggest using WordPress MU on your own local server. It’s free. However, it does require an investment into the school’s tech support, including user support. The alternative is to invest in the proprietary webCT or Blackboard or First Class.

Blogger (blogspot.com), MSN space, MySpace, etc. may indeed be the best for bells and whistles, not WordPress. However, blogger/blogspot has severe reliability shortages as well.

Also, re: spam. Only Blogger (and TypePad, a commercial host) still uses a CAPTCHA (type in the funny words). This does NOT eliminate spam. All the wordpress blogging platforms use Akismet, which shuttles what it thinks is spam into another area (if you the blog owner tell it to.) If you moderate comments then the email you get is clear as to whether a legitimate comment or spam has been left.

Also keep in mind that the most reliable system is one you pay for at your own hosting server. If you have the money, Typepad or Moveable Type or one of the others on a secure, redundant server located in a major metropolitan area is best.

2A] Posted: 2006-10-29

I wanted a blog because it’s easier than doing the coding myself. Ideally, blogging should be like using a typewriter: you think of something, you type it up, badabing, it’s online. When you spend too much time dealing with the mechanics of blogging then you’ve essentially given up the advantages that blogging was supposed to provide (i.e., less thinking about technical aspects of webpages).

My primary reason for using edublogs in the first place was the fact that hardly anyone else was, which was important to me since it’s essentially neutral ground in my work with different blogging communities.

I also went with edublogs because this was my first blog and I thought it would be better to be on a community full of other first-timers; however, I barely used the forums and mostly figured out stuff on my own.

As for spam, I don’t want to auto-close trackbacks or comments since I’ve actually had people wanting to discuss posts weeks afterwards. A lot of my posts are also densely theoretical and the discussion on theory blogs tend to last a lot longer than on other types of blogs. I am wondering where the Akismet plugin is, since it’s certainly not on the plugin page, where one would think to look for it.

Anyway, the only thing left now is for me to decide where to get hosted. I’m not afraid of scripts, so there’s that out of the way. I like the idea of the greater flexibility on Blogsome, actually. I’m also considering Blogiversity. It’s like edublogs but you actually have to prove that your blog will be an academic blog and it is of sufficient quality. I’m not sure if I like the whiff of elitism that much, but there’s also Anthroblogs, which is specifically for anthropologists. Or I could just get hosted on my friend’s server space, though that’s more of a backup plan.

2B] Posted: 2006-10-30

That is why I encourage people to think about why they want to blog. There are many venues and people do indeed move as their needs change (I certainly have).

The two group blogs you mention I think might fall into the multi-user type of platforms. The specific software differs between them.

Many or most of these did not exist even a few months ago. (e.g., dario.be Even Wordpress.com only opened recently to anyone.) I would check the number of users for these hosts and who is the owner. Easy come and easy go.

One significant factor for those wanting a semi=permanent or public face– choose the blog name carefully. Anthroblogs will stick you with the A-word, maybe not such a big deal if one’s life is only other anthros however the A-word alone is sufficient to ban people from jobs they are otherwsie qualified for. But this is a topic for another forum than edublogs.

3] The other needed area, I think, is something along the lines of Philosophy, not so much a “how do” as a “why do”. This is essential before a blog is used (so one knows what is needed to set up the thing) and should continue to be re-thought as people use the blogs in their teaching.
http://edublogs.org/forums/topic.php?id=479#post-1960

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6. Encourage teachers to become a part of the virtual world.

According to Guhlin, the education necessary for Internet safety isn’t really about sites like MySpace, though. “It’s how to be ‘digital citizens’ and get along in the virtual world we have all created,” he says. Districts need to help teachers get over their fear of the unknown-in this case, the online unknown. San Antonio, for example, has successfully introduced teachers to blogging. The district held teacher workshops and set up a Web site, http://itls.saisd.net/scribe, where students and teachers share their work.

7. Use the many Internet offerings that can contribute to educational creativity, but do it inside a “walled garden.”

San Antonio has blogs, wikis, podcasting, and image gallery access for its students and teachers, but those Internet tools are on school servers. For example, instead of teachers using a site such as blogspot.com, where the next blog is just a click away, San Antonio installed b2evolution, a free “blogging platform.”
http://www.schoolcio.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604300

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