Fun Learning

Definition of a blog

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Blog is whatever you want it to be. It is a website, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis.

New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what is new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. In other words, blog is a website where a person writes regularly about recent events or topics that interest them, usually with photos and links to other websites that they find interesting.

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History

On August 23, 1999, Blogger was launched by Pyra Labs. As one of the earliest dedicated blog-publishing tools, it is credited for helping popularize the format. In February 2003, Pyra Labs was acquired by Google under undisclosed terms. The acquisition allowed premium features (for which Pyra had charged) to become free. In October 2004, Pyra Labs' co-founder, Evan Williams, left Google. In 2004, Google purchased Picasa; it integrated Picasa and its photo sharing utility Hello into Blogger, allowing users to post photos to their blogs.

On May 9, 2004, Blogger introduced a major redesign, adding features such as web standards-compliant templates, individual archive pages for posts, comments, and posting by email. On August 14, 2006, Blogger launched its latest version in beta, codenamed "Invader", alongside the gold release. This migrated users to Google servers and had some new features, including interface language in French, Italian, German and Spanish.In December 2006, this new version of Blogger was taken out of beta. By May 2007, Blogger had completely moved over to Google operated servers. Blogger was ranked 16 on the list of top 50 domains in terms of number of unique visitors in 2007.

How is blog used for teaching and learning?
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In the field of education, blog or weblogs are being used to satisfy a variety of communication needs to favour e-learning practices.

What are the educational benefits of blogs?
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Help students to communicate and collaborate.
Provide opportunities to read and write.
Postings can be created by students any time, any place.

Are there other advantages of using a blog for teaching and learning?
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Teaching can be done anytime and anywhere.
It makes education participant-centered.
It encourages learners to be active throughout the course period.
It helps learners improve their writing competencies.
It captures changes in thinking, bring in new ideas.
It makes education more informal.
It involves also external people.
It facilitates the use of images.
It reduces costs.
It encourages people to continuously try things out.

What are the problems or disadvantages of blogs in education?
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Other learners prefer one way teaching and to be told what they must do.
Supply orientation is still a part of education culture at many schools.
As everyone can participate on a blog, biased or inaccurate information may occur.
Some education participants are less open than others.