Wednesday, August 13, 2008

What Is A Blog?

Most people have heard of blogs, but to really explain what blogs are and how they work check out this short video, Blogs in Plain English from the folks at Creative Craft.



Then go to the next post.

This is post #2 in the 'blogging 101' series.

4 comments:

Blogger In Middle-earth said...

Kia ora Claire!

Yup, I think I knew what a blog is.

It fascinates me the popularity of videos to convey information that can be conveyed in a few sentences in a txt, twitter or even on a blog. I wonder if the attraction of videos isn't a passing phase, that's already on the wane. They tend to be busy, and do not permit reflection the way a blog might.

And this is my point about this particular video. I'm not so sure that it is the best use of the medium. My recent comment on Dean Shareski's post explains more of my thoughts on this.

Ka kite
from Middle-earth

Claire Thompson said...

Hi Ken,

I've thought about the use of video in blog posts for a while, see here and here. When I look at the comment thread in Dean's post that you referred to, the sense that I get is that people are advocating that you have to use the right medium for the message. I definitely agree with that. When I selected the video above I thought that it gave a good description, and that the visuals helped to reinforce the idea of what a blog is. In addition, there is an element of humour in the video (with the hand gestures and the quick brushing off of the paper graphics) that I thought would provide a little levity for the intro to my session.

"It fascinates me the popularity of videos to convey information that can be conveyed in a few sentences in a txt, twitter or even on a blog." So my question is how do you explain blogging to beginners? I could give the following explanation, but I'm not sure it totally encapsulates what a blog is:
A blog is a website where the author can post text, video, audio, and or images. The 'posts' are displayed with the most recent one at the top of the webpage. People reading the posts can leave comments. The comments are like the conversation pit of the blog.

What do you think?

Thanks for leaving a comment Ken; it's definitely made me think a bit more about choosing the right media for the job!

Blogger In Middle-earth said...

Kia ora Claire!

There is no doubt in my mind that every person sees things in different ways. What permits one person to see clearly and understand something can seemingly confuse another. It is this strange property of diversity, and it is often far more diverse that we'd believe it to be.

Many have attempted to analyse it. Myers-Briggs personality assessment is just one attempt that tries to explain the patterns in peoples behaviour and thinking ways.

I am a visual person. That's to say I like to see pictures, but I'm also good at interpreting words and sentences if they're well written.

I am aware that for those whose word acumen is not as good as their visual perception skills, the fine description you gave in text may tend to confuse some, leaving them none the wiser.

BTW I like your description! Thanks for spending the time on it :-)

Ka kite
from Middle-earth

Jodie Reeder said...

Hi Claire, I myself am a very visual learner and I find the commoncraft videos simple and easy to understand. I think that using media like this enables a teacher to reach many more learners than just using the written word, and young learners in particular are growing up in an environmnet where multi-media presentation of information is what they are used to.