Knowledge is learning

It’s the talk of the town, state,

country, world!But can Blogs be a Learning Tool?

A Short introduction (this wouldn’t be a slide, but verbal conversation with the audience)

Let me start with this; I love to teach. I find teaching is, if done well, part of learning. Today I’d expect to learn something from one or more of you and hope today you’ll take home something from me. (I’d be asking the audience the following)

How many of you surf or use the web for fun?How many of you surf or use the web as part of your job?How many of you use the web for getting information like trying to find out what’s on TV

tonight, banking or bill paying, or just to find an answer for a question you or a friend have?

How many of you use the internet to shop?Now, how many of you ever thought the internet can be used as a learning tool keeping in

mind it is full of information and knowledge to be gained, stored, and saved for later?I personally use the Web for all of those, not only to get, but also to collect information. Your

mind likes to collect information, especially new information, interpret it, try to mix it with old information, and finally absorb, save, and store it.

I was surfing the Web to get information about blogging, trying to integrate that with learning tools, and found two sites that got my attention. The first one I found was Technorati and the other was Onomy Labs.

Let’s start with the second Onomy Labs.

NOW WE’RE BACK TO THE SLIDE PRESENTATION

Onomy Labs

They seem to be dedicated to developing learning tools that require hand and eye coordination using computer screens and objects that people can interact with.

Here are a few I thought to be quite interesting:– Reading Wall, this device has a panel that glides with you and tells you the

history of reading.– Tilty Tables, this table allow you to move and manipulate shapes with your

hand which then are drawn into words.– The Story of Harry the Ape; by using fluid technology the story starts as a

simple paragraph and then grows by a simple touch of the hand.– Walk-In-Comix; here you follow different threads by looking up, down,

crawling on the floor, and looking into peepholes.(More talking on my part)

Now, there are many more, but does this have anything to do with Blogs?Let’s answer that after I talk about the first item I found, which was:

Technorati Media

Technorati collects, organizes, and distributes the global online conversations as stated by their link “About Us” from their front page.

– Time Magazine quoted “If Google is the Webs reference library, Technorati is becoming the coffee house.”

The basic function of Technorati is a blog search engine. Technorati’s Blogger Central indicates some very interesting

statistics.

Technorati State of the Blogosphere

These statistics include the demographics of:– A Global Snapshot of Bloggers.Global Snapshot of Bloggers

Demographics

U.S. Bloggers European Bloggers Asian Bloggers

(N=550) (N=350) (N=173)

Male 57% 73% 73%

Age      

18-34 years old 42% 48% 73%

35+ 58% 52% 27%

Single 26% 31% 57%

Employed full-time 56% 53% 45%

Household income >$75,000 51% 34% 9%

College graduate 74% 67% 69%

Average blogging tenure (months) 35 33 30

Median Annual Investment $80 $15 $30

Median Annual Revenue $200 $200 $120

% Blogs with advertising 52% 50% 60%

Average Monthly Unique Visitors 18,000 24,000 26,000

Technorati State of the Blogosphere

Segment Snapshot of Bloggers

Demographics

Personal Corporate Professional With Advertising No Advertising

(N=1015) (N=156) (N=590) (N=695) (N=595)

Male 64% 70% 72% 66% 66%

Age          

18-34 years old 52% 45% 48% 53% 45%

35+ 48% 55% 52% 47% 55%

Single 36% 24% 31% 34% 34%

Employed full-time 52% 51% 55% 49% 56%

Household income>$75k 37% 49% 42% 40% 37%

College graduate 70% 74% 74% 69% 72%

Average blogging tenure (months) 35 35 38 35 33

Median Annual Investment $100 $200 $150 $100 0

Median Annual Revenue $120 $250 $300 $200 0

% Blogs with Advertising 53% 64% 59% 100% 0%

Average Monthly Unique Visitors 12,000 39,000 44,000 46,000 4,000

The demographics of:– A Segmented Snapshot of Bloggers.

Technorati State of the Blogosphere

Also the demographics of:– Bloggers by Gender.

Global Bloggers by Gender

Demographics

Female Male

(N=438) (N=852)

Personal Blog 83% 76%

Professional Blog 38% 50%

Age    

18-24 years old 9% 15%

25+ 91% 85%

Single 29% 36%

Employed full-time 44% 56%

Median Annual Investment $30 $60

Median Annual Revenue $100 $200

% Blogs with advertising 53% 54%

Sell Through a Blog ad Network* 16% 7%

Have Affiliate ads* 41% 32%

Have Contextual ads* 61% 73%

* Among those with advertising on their blogs

So, What is a Blog?

There were a few definitions I found, but here’s my interpretation:– A Blog is the slang term for Weblog with internet publishing containing

a single page of information, a journal per-say, constructed in a chronological order with the most current information first.

– The information is maintained in a social networking environment. Social networking is basically shared public information.

– It is much like an ecosystem phrased as “Blogosphere” – the world of cross-linked blogs where anyone you want can visit, converse, and provide feedback across the amazing world of the internet.

Blogs main concept, as I see it, is a digital diary with the capabilities of providing personal information, images, photos, videos, and links to others as you wish it.

Blogging!

Simplicity is one of it’s main attractions:– Easy to get started, usually takes only a few steps.– Most of them provide simple templates, constructed with

various text windows filled with whatever you want. Allowing simple editing and publishing capabilities.

– Others will allow some creativity and editing functions for a more robust appearance. Providing side bars, dashboards, drop-down menu content, and videos.

– From what I could tell, there are some security precautions already implemented by the blog site, but for the most part fairly open so it would be advisable to be careful whom you allow in.

Creating and using a Blog

I Began by selecting an application site, more or less a startup page which seems to fit my personality and goals.

– I chose netvibes because it starts out in tune with you, it gives you the feeling you’re right at home.

AND– Gives you a chance to see a preview of your page without

having to sign-up right away, you can do it later.PLUS

– You will be using some of the, convenience tools as I call them, widgets, a private and public page, choice of URL, and account type (personal or pro).

Start at web address (this is what I referred to as the URL - Uniform Resource Locator) I mentioned earlier:

http://www.netvibes.com Enter your city, state, and region (defaults to USA).

nextnext Select the interest categories of your choosing.

nextnext – Now you’re almost ready to view your page. Be careful to

view the current window entirely because you can choose not to set this as your home page when you log onto the internet and suggested widget you may not want.

Show me my pageShow me my page

Let’s get started!

Change the title header by just clicking on it.Suggestion:

You might want to think this one through, although you can change it later.

Sign up nowSign up now Enter the information in the sign up box; username (make that

unique to you), valid email name, password (at least 6 characters), and you’ll also have to confirm the password. Check “I Agree with the Terms of Service”.

Sign upSign up

You’ll have to respond to your email to complete the registration and you will also receive another email confirming your active

account which will log you into your home page.

Let’s continue!

Create your public page by selecting “Go to Public Page”. The next window will ask you to add your full name and age (month/day/year).

nextnext Now you get to make a choice of what URL (in layman's term –

web address) you would like and account type (personal or pro - default is personal).

FinishFinish Go to your public page. You’ll now have walls instead of

widgets. Walls allow you to enter personal information in the form of text and then you can publish it for all to see.

At this point you can modify the look of your blog by going into setup. This is something you’ll need to experiment with on your own. You can add an appropriate title just like your private page.

And finally…

Important aspects of netvibes:

You have the ability to link to many interesting sites including other blogs, yours or anyone else's.

This application can avoid “Tech Overload”. It may not be rated in the top 5 for blogs but it’s easy to

modify by adding widgets, making walls, and adding most anything any other blogs can.

It works directly with the most common search engine and it’s many other features, Google.

Plus it has a professional appearance about it.

Just for the record - According to Technorati’s research: (as of May 1st, 2009)

Here are the 5 Top Blogs:– Breaking News and Opinions on the Huffington Post.– TechCrunch.– Engadget.– Boing Boing.– Mashable!

And…

Here are the 5 Favorite Blogs:– Boing Boing.– ProBlogger Blog Tips.– TechCrunch.– LifeHacker – Engadget.

Summary

So as I said from the start, “I love to teach and I love to learn”.– Doing research helps me gain knowledge.– There are a myriad of resources out there.

They can be found in a book, at libraries, in videos, on the radio, and within the vast world of the internet.

Libraries aren’t just a building full of books now, they are found on video and digital recording devices, in museums, on television, and now electronically where you can access a world of information.

– Here’s a quote I just picked up; “All knowledge is learning and learning is good.” This was in the movie called D.A.R.Y.L.

– I believe blogs can contain many elements of pertinent information that you can gain knowledge and learn from as long as you can weed through the personal stuff and take what is relevant to your needs.

– The educational system is using it for interaction with students and teachers.

– The government employees have blogs.– The entertainment world uses blogs.

With my blog, I would have a link to the Onomy Labs site, this would hopefully influence someone enough to pass on that information to someone whom could put that information to good use.

My suggestions: Visit or link to blogs that are; prepared well and that post

important, interesting, and vital information you can use. Research Web 2.0, a Web development and design tool that

works with blogs, wikis, and a slue of other social networking sites.

Create your own blog, work with it, and see for yourself if this is useful.

– You can access my Blog at; http://jrdidntdoit.blogspot.com and this will have a link to my NetVibes Blog.

If anything else it’s entertainment in which millions of other people are using in a social and sharing environment.

This is how I justify a Blog as a learning This is how I justify a Blog as a learning tool.tool.

Knowledge and Learning

References

Technorati Media. (n.d.). Technorati collects, organizes, and distributes the global online conversation. Retrieved May 1st, 2009 from

http://technoratimedia.com/ Technorati. (n.d.). Blogger Central / top 100 blogs. Retrieved May 1st, 2009 from

http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/ Technorati. (2008). State of the Blogosphere / 2008. Retrieved May 1st, 2009 from

http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/ Onomy Labs. (n.d.). Onomy Labs. Retrieved May 2nd, 2009 from

http://www.onomy.com/blue/interactives.html Onomy Labs. (n.d.). Reading Wall. Retrieved May 2nd, 2009 from

http://www.onomy.com/blue/gallery/interactive-09.html Onomy Labs. (n.d.). Tilty Tables. Retrieved May 2nd, 2009 from

http://www.onomy.com/blue/gallery/interactive-10.html Onomy Labs. (n.d.). The Story of Harry the Ape. Retrieved May 2nd, 2009 from

http://www.onomy.com/blue/gallery/interactive-01.html Onomy Labs. (n.d.). Walk-In-Comix. Retrieved May 2nd, 2009 from

http://www.onomy.com/blue/gallery/interactive-07.html