Weblogs, teen diaries or reflective learning tools?

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Weblogs, teen diaries or reflective learning
tools?

• Dr David A Davies
• Medical Education Unit

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A presentation in 4 parts

• Introduction to weblogs
• Weblogs in education including ePortfolios as
  reflective learning tools
• Personal content management
• Discussion

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Part 1 Introduction to weblogs
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What are weblogs?

• Online journal or diary
• Single author
• Reverse chronological sequence
• Simple one-click publishing
• Syndicated via RSS

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Finding interesting weblogs

• Youre probably already reading some
• e.g The Guardian weblog
• www.weblogs.com
• www.daypop.com
• Search engines
• www.technorati.com
• www.feedster.com

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Managing weblog overload

• Syndicated RSS news feeds
• RSS RDF Site Summary
• RDF Resource Description Framework
• alternatively Really Simple Syndication
• Aggregators
• Example NetNewsWire

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Starting your own weblog

• LiveJournal
• Blogger
• Moveable Type
• TypePad
• TinderBox
• Radio Userland

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New directions for weblogs

• Mobile weblogging
• MoblogUK
• Picture weblogs
• Fotolog
• Group weblogs
• Wiki

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Part 2 Weblogs in education
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Weblogs in education

• Teacher weblogs
• Student weblogs
• Class weblogs
• Institutional weblogs

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Educational technology weblogs

• Too many to list!
• Try searching the MedWeb Ed Tech aggregator
• or Stephen Downes EduRSS

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Weblogs as ePortfolios

• Characteristics of ePortfolios
• Reflective learning tool for the student
• Monitoring tool for the institution
• Generates employment opportunities?

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Example weblog ePortfolios

• Iceland University of Education
• Net based Teaching and Learning Dist. Ed.
• All students keep a weblog - a learning journal
  for four months. The journal became one part of
  the portfolio.
• Chandler-Gilbert Community College
• Phoenix, Arizona community colleges
• www.eportfolios.ac.uk
• FDTL4 - Newcastle University undergrad medicine

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More work needed

• Develop a reflective learning culture
• Encourage student uptake of weblogs
• Closer integration with VLEs
• Develop interoperability standards
• Monitoring of reflective learning
• Validation accreditation

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Part 3 Personal content management
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Personal content management

• Manage your stuff
• New uses for weblogging tools
• Learning content
• VLEs
• Reusable learning objects RSS
• Demo

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In summary

• Personal publishing revolution
• Communities of practice
• Reflective learning
• Personal/desktop content management

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Part 4 Discussion
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Additional information

• RSS 1.0 and Dublin Core
• http//web.resource.org/rss/1.0/modules/dc/
• ePortfolios and weblogs one vision for
  ePortfolio development
• David Tosh Ben Werdmuller, The University of
  Edinburgh
• http//www.eradc.org/papers/ePortfolio_Weblog.pdf