A blog is a Web site on which someone writes about personal opinions, activities, and experiences (Merriam-Webster Learner's dictionary). It can be used as journals or as a place to publish creative writing for larger audiences (Richardson, 2010). It is structured in a way to enable the reader contribute to the content by offering the opportunity for questioning, clarifications and suggestions. This way, both the author and the readers are continuously engaged in the publication. The last time I visited Dan Meyer's "Why I Don't Assign Homework", it had 354 reader comments questioning and making recommendations about the author's opinion.
Richardson (2010) makes it clear that blogging, unlike the other forms of writing, is continuous. The author reads and cites his sources, providing links that offer instant access to the various sources. Readers are continuously linked to webpages, photos, video and audio files as wells as blogs published by other authors. To buttress her argument, Vicki Davis provided 32 links in her "Spies Like Us". Although blogs are typically short, the links broaden the scope of reading whist reader comments call for constant revisit to the publication for update of facts. A reader becomes an author. However, the purpose of both blog reading and other forms of reading are so indistinct that none of them should be taken as the panacea to the reading needs of students. Both seek to provide similar information as the other forms are made relatively longer to make up for the missing links and comments.
The aim of establishing a dialogue in blogging makes the author pose questions that would require potential readers, be it in the classroom or any corner of the globe, to share their experiences on the subject. That notwithstanding does not make the author leave the establishment of facts only in the hands of the readers. Authors read before writing to establish themselves as credible as possible. Kris Bradburn demonstrates this in his blog "How To Prevent Another Leonardo da Vinci" by citing a friend's blog he had read and the book "How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci". Blogs serve as online archives that can be assessed by anyone for reference purposes and so they require a little more attention in the quality of organisation. Like all other forms of writing, blogs aim to inform readers but authors go to the extra mile of seeking to be informed.
The opportunity to comment on blogs ensures collaboration between authors and readers where readers potentially become authors and authors become readers. The content of the publication therefore becomes a collective ownership. The otherwise a simple blog eventually becomes enriched as readers constantly post comments in the for form of clarifications and questioning for the author to make further research for editing.
Blogging requires the skill of identifying relevant sites of information and linking them in the post where necessary. Besides that, being literate in blogging also requires knowing about how to use the comment tool to help in the development of the post. Readers and writers are constantly motivated to research and analyse contents before posting them.
Richardson (2010) makes it clear that blogging, unlike the other forms of writing, is continuous. The author reads and cites his sources, providing links that offer instant access to the various sources. Readers are continuously linked to webpages, photos, video and audio files as wells as blogs published by other authors. To buttress her argument, Vicki Davis provided 32 links in her "Spies Like Us". Although blogs are typically short, the links broaden the scope of reading whist reader comments call for constant revisit to the publication for update of facts. A reader becomes an author. However, the purpose of both blog reading and other forms of reading are so indistinct that none of them should be taken as the panacea to the reading needs of students. Both seek to provide similar information as the other forms are made relatively longer to make up for the missing links and comments.
The aim of establishing a dialogue in blogging makes the author pose questions that would require potential readers, be it in the classroom or any corner of the globe, to share their experiences on the subject. That notwithstanding does not make the author leave the establishment of facts only in the hands of the readers. Authors read before writing to establish themselves as credible as possible. Kris Bradburn demonstrates this in his blog "How To Prevent Another Leonardo da Vinci" by citing a friend's blog he had read and the book "How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci". Blogs serve as online archives that can be assessed by anyone for reference purposes and so they require a little more attention in the quality of organisation. Like all other forms of writing, blogs aim to inform readers but authors go to the extra mile of seeking to be informed.
The opportunity to comment on blogs ensures collaboration between authors and readers where readers potentially become authors and authors become readers. The content of the publication therefore becomes a collective ownership. The otherwise a simple blog eventually becomes enriched as readers constantly post comments in the for form of clarifications and questioning for the author to make further research for editing.
Blogging requires the skill of identifying relevant sites of information and linking them in the post where necessary. Besides that, being literate in blogging also requires knowing about how to use the comment tool to help in the development of the post. Readers and writers are constantly motivated to research and analyse contents before posting them.