Tuesday, June 19, 2007

371.33 Blogging Class: What We Learned

We are having a great time talking about blogs. We reviewed some vocabulary and some history of blogs and then we dissected the "parts" of a blog. The group is made up of Librarians and Friends of Libraries of SBISD.

Now we are investigating different types of blogs to see what they have in common and how they are different. It is a noisy activity, but they are having a great time looking and learning!The PPT that introduced the subject is available here. Some participants search thru blog rolls on sample blogs for blogs to review and some decided to track down "new" blogs by searching the WWW.

All agreed that the blogs are all as different as the people who create them. Personal taste and personal needs are reflected in the posts and in the blog rolls and other link lists that appear on the side bar!
Some of the blogs reviewed include:
A Library By Any Other Name & its mirror site
Librarian Philospher thought-provoking topics on librarianship 2.0
Book Book Book Title says it all! bunches and bunches
The Fidra Blog Edinburgh, Scotland book seller, reviewer, book lover!
Charlotte's Library archaeologist, Friend of her public library and a book lover
Blue Skunk Blog long-time, well-established blog + LOTS more!! website
TechBlog Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle
New Scientist blog for magazine of same name
Super Students Blog classroom blog, more by other students
4K Class Blog very clean format
Toolmonger all about power tools!
/
Other blogs covered in the class discussion:
Just One More Book podcasts galore!
Room 9 Nelson Central class blog 6-7 yr. olds from New Zeland. Ccheck out their video about blogging.
A Chair, A Fireplace & Tea Cozy graphic novels list noted, but there is o-so-much more!
Cool Cat Teacher super blogger (when does she sleep?)

We talked a little about RSS and readers like Google Reader and the types of things that you could use one for--groups of blogs, web pages, news sources...anything that you want to keep up-dated on.
We also reviewed how a blog gets started, looked at some basic information to think about when creating a blog and briefly looked at the two services, Blogger & edublogs that are open in our district.
The afternoon flew by and we had to leave some topics on the table for another time.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Here are the blogs I found!

Any Blog that uses one of my favorite books as a title has to be good!
http://bookbk.blogspot.com/


http://charlotteslibrary
I found this and liked it but forgot why and now I can't bring it up again so it's lost in the blogsphere!

British - reprinting some of my favorite authors -which is wonderful for readers but not good for my business
http://www.fidrabooks.com/blog/blogspot.com/

http://www.technorati.com
I'd love to see this one but it's BLOCKED!

Unknown said...

http://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com/

Oops - had the link wrong! She's an archaeologist and an FOL memeber and a reader

Anonymous said...

VWB, you are a great teacher! I am so glad you are at the helm of the blog teaching today!

Unknown said...

Fun as always, thank you for not sending your most ADD student to the Principals office - not that he could do anything about it either!

Anonymous said...

Great class, great teacher (VWB is awesome!), great information, great fun! Thanks for the blogging hints and tips...

Anonymous said...

Thank you Vaughn, this was great and so much fun!! I learned a lot and look forward to going home and playing around with the info shared to create my own blog.

You're a wonderful presenter with a great sense of humor!

All the best,
paw

Anonymous said...

Best learning afternoon I've had in a long time. Presentation was organized and delivered w/knowledge based on experience. Level met each person's need, expecially since my level was beginner! Hands on the computer in real time was perfect w/instant help. Thanks to VB and Library Information Services. LLH

Anonymous said...

Remember the movie the "Blob". I was frightened the first time I saw this movie as a child. I came into this afternoon's workshop with that same feeling. The word "blog" just sounds creepy. I'm now laughing at myself as I do when I see the movie today. Creating a blog is soo easy. Thanks VB for the sound info and the hands-on approach.

VWB said...

To Blob Commentor,

I am SO glad you are not scared of blogs anymore. Super easy aren't they and just so many choices, there's a match for everyone I think!

Hardest part of reading blogs...knowing when to STOP!

Catalogablog said...

So will you be presenting at the TLA District 8 Fall Meeting? There is talk of having a blogging panel, maybe you, me, Library Web Chic, and others in Houston? I love the Fall Meeting, the size is good and it is nice seeing local folks.