Thing 10: Blogs & RSS in Education

As we have learned, blogs are a way for people to share information on a diversity of subjects, including the latest research in a field, best practices for managing projects, current news and advisory services and even for marketing a product or organization. Blogs have given people the ability to collaborate and gain access to those with common interests in order to share ideas in an innovative way, which is why they have become one of the most popular avenues for professional development.

With the vast amount of information that is now being shared across the web, RSS gives us a method for more effectively controlling the way in which we access and absorb this information.

Many colleges and universities worldwide have begun to explore ways in which they can better reach their students who are already immersed in online environments and are increasingly at ease with Web 2.0 technologies. Not only have blogs found a place in the classroom, they are also becoming more common with other campus services such as student life groups, club organizers, counseling services, marketing and public relations departments, and libraries.

Here are a few ways in which blogs & RSS can be used:

• College or Department News and Current Events
  
• New research on a topic or field
• Student Clubs
  
• Announcements and Reflections of Events or Services
• Alumni Relations
• Internal Staff Blogs
• Emergency Warnings & Updates
  
• Podcasts or Videos of Guest Speakers
• Classroom blogs that can be "subscribed" to by students for additional content and resources to use for their projects, assignments updates, anouncements, an open forum for discussions, and sharing papers & projects with the rest of the class
  

Here are a just a few examples:

• Norwich University Math Course Blog
  
• University of British Columbia School of Journalism
• Middlebury College
  
• Unity College: Environmental Journalism Class
• Additional Examples of Blogs by Type (marketing, event, scholarly, etc)
• Insider Higher Ed Article with links to more Academic Blogs
• BlogHighEd
  

Discovery Activity:

• Read this article about blogging in education and explore some of the blogs in the examples above
  

• Add a post to your blog sharing ideas of ways in which blogs or RSS could potentially be utilized at Marymount.

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