bloggy fever

I recently (tonight) updated BlendedEDU. It's where i keep my more professional musings of the world of participatory media & education. If you happen to have a moment, please surf on over and give it a look over. Feedback is always welcome.

It also serves as a "vault" for the vast amounts of information I run across on almost a daily basis. I'm doing literature review and research for my future doctoral dissertation on--ahem, blogging, of course. Specifically using blogs and other participatory media technologies in education to support learning.

I am also writing an article titled "Ten Ways to Integrate Blogger into your Classroom." As soon as I get it published I will post the link in BlendedEDU. My other article on blogs, and other participatory media is currently being reviewed by a journal (no, i'm not going to tell you which one! i don't want to jinx myself!) and I should have that link posted soon.

I've been busy blogvangelizing and trying (okay--pleading with one of my clients) to get student blogs integrated into their curriculum. Fingers crossed. They have student "privacy" issues. I understand that, and hope that our friends at Blogger are working on that in the future. I have lots of ideas on the Blogger product and UI spinning in my noggin. I know there are (shudder the thought) other blog options, but I really push Blogger on clients. Why? Well, for a couple reasons.

First, Blogger is so user friendly. I don't want students (or their teachers) to spend time fighting the technology. That defeats the whole purpose of using blogs as an education tool. Oh, and its free.

Secondly, its all about loyalty. Back in the pre-Google days when Blogger was a mere "blogfant" (blog+ infant...get it?oh, never mind) and I was trying to get it to work, I would email the Blogger team for help. Now these guys and gals were really busy and most likely flying by the seat of their pants trying to keep it all together. But you know what? They always took the time to respond! The time stamp on the email would be late, and i'm sure it was the last thing they wanted to do at 2am, but Jason or Ev always responded to my pleas for help. Now that's customer service. And that's hip.

Anyhoo, I spend my time reading about blogging, researching blogging, and of course reading actual blogs--my friends think i'm a freak, but hey--someday they will blog too (enter evil laugh here)! Luckily, now I have Flick'r to distract me.

It's all about balance dude.