Guidence for blogging

Foundation Portfolio in Media

Aims & Objectives – Todays Lesson

•Introduction to blogging

•Introduction to blogging tools

•You will start blogging

• Example• http://asmedia1314sam5.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Marc?updated-max=2014-03-04T12:55:00Z&max-results=2

0&start=20&by-date=false

• My Blog• https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6773806116803475798#overview/src=dash

board

With the proliferation of technology, Blogs will probably be replaced by something else at some point.

But the skills learnt from their use are essential in the 21st Century

• Analytic thinking• Critical thinking• Collaborative working• Referencing skills• Producing texts with clear fluidity• Competent use of technology

Blog Benefits

1.Deeper learning – getting students to think for themselves

2.Encouraging you to reach out to each other – sharing knowledge

3.Easy to manipulate – easy technical understanding. Elastic in design. Convenient and engaging

4.Encouraging a more reflective individual

5.Creative platform – potential to use a wide range of tools/widgets etc

6.Students can shape their own contributions to suit their styles/audience

Nonsense blogging

• Students sometimes embrace the journal aspect of blogging during a project a little too much. Random jokes, recounts of arguments and general content which is not applicable to the project can often dominate.

• Whilst we don’t want to restrict personal response and deter you from the flow of blogging, the content of the blog needs to be a balance of personal reflection and direct accounts of what has taken place during the project.

Text-heavy blogging

• We (OCR) too often see blogs which are dominated by text – almost like the posting of mini-essays throughout

• However, blogs have the potential to be an innovative and interactive forum combining visual, audio and written communication forms and this should be actively encouraged.

Cluster blogging

• Like retrospective blogging, cluster blogging is very obvious. It’s not just spotted through the date indication but also recognised through the depth of the recount of the process.

• It is easy to forget something that happened or was carried out when you are blogging together in a bulk. This approach also encourages text-heavy blogging as panic sets in.

Scanty blogging• Like limited powerpoint slides, posts which fail

to include any specific detail or lack depth often do not contribute to the journey.

• Obviously, at times you want to post if there has been a complication. However, such posts need to move beyond exclamatory statements and provide detail to the occurence!

• E.g. – ‘Today we did our filming.’ ‘Lost all our footage!’

Colloquial blogging

• Remember the importance of formality and to consider your audience.

• Over-use of slang and colloquial terms will not do you many favours, especially during the evaluation stages.

• You should always proofread, checking for spellings and punctuation.

Great start, poor finish blogging

• The risk with blogging is that this happens. You get lots of research evidence, then some planning and then the next post is the final product.

• You blogging needs to be consistent throughout the project!

Key to a Successful Blog is:

1. Organisation2. Detail3. Media specific terminology 4. Web 2.0 tools5. Frequency6. Consistency of quality7. The journey

Transforming the blogging experience

First POSTS• POST TITLE: The Brief

• Label: Genre Research • POST TITLE: Initial Genre research – watching

Fear Itself and reflections

• Label: Audience Research • POST TITLE: Initial Primary Audience research

and reflections