How the blog works

If you are familar with blogs and the ‘blogosphere’ in general then this page is probably not for you and you can start subscribing, browsing, commenting and adding useful articles to your favourite social bookmarking tools straight away - but if that all sounds a bit strange please read on.

What is a blog?

The word ‘blog’ is short for Web Log. Basically it a special kind of website that is like a diary and is made up of articles called ‘posts’ that usually appear as a list with the latest one at the top. New posts are generally added every few days and sometime more often. You can always find the latest articles by just visiting the blog homepage at http://blog.prometheanplanet.com or better still you can ’subscribe’ to the blog so that the latest posts appear wherever you want them to and wherever you are (more about that magic further down)

You can navigate in several ways:

By Scrolling: Read all the posts in reverse order and see more with the Previous Entries link at the bottom.
By Category: Each post is tagged with a topic or theme. Click one you are interested in the list on the right and you will get a list of each post tagged that way. Click a title to see the full article.
By Date: The Archive lists all the posts made in any given month.
By Contributor: Choose a contributor from the category list or from the contributor list at the top.

Unlike most websites - users are encouraged to interact around the content of the blog. If you agree or disagree with the content of a post or have something to add you can add your own comments. Many experienced bloggers reply to blog posts using their own blogs and this helps to build up a large network around similar thoughts and ideas.

This type of social networking (or Web 2.0 technology as it is sometimes called) means that readers can quickly find multiple viewpoints around an issue and use that to develop their own opinions. They can also use the tools to forge new professional relationships and networks of practice. The collection of blogs and bloggers creates a medium called the ‘blogosphere’ and it is now a key part of the way the Internet now works.

Why has Promethean made one?

Promethean Planet has grown to be one of the biggest sites of its type allowing over 130,00 teachers to download share lesson ideas and resources and ask each other questions. The Activeducator blog is the next step in improving the communication tools Promethean offers the teaching community. With a focus on the classroom and learning technology issues, it provides a state of the art medium for sharing of ideas and the development of the ‘next practices’ that teaching and learning in the 21st Century require.

We can use this blog to share some of the things we discover and for our users to share their stories and successes with you and each other to improve the learning opportunities of young people and their teachers everywhere.

What about the Promethean Planet forum - isn’t this similar?

They are similar and users can make use of either. The forum is really great for getting quick answers to questions and responding to those of others, but not all that great for developing a big story around a single idea. Linking to forum posts to help make your points online can also be a problem (other users need to be logged in) but with a blog you can link and browse it just like a website.

The blog is also much richer than the forum… YouTube and TeacherTube videos can be embedded in articles along with slideshows and audio along with any number of gadgets and widgets such as polls and surveys.

Will my comments appear immediately?

If it is your first comment, probably not. We moderate comments to prevent spam and abuse. If you have a comment approved, then you should be able to post future comments quicker. We ask for a name and e-mail address to prove that you are for real - but we never share that information with users it is simply used to confirm that those commenting are legitimate.

Will I get spam?

No. Visiting or using the blog will not lead to any e-mails messages, etc. You have an option to ’subscribe to the blog’ if you want constant updates - but you control that.

OK. I get it. So what about this ’subscribing’ thing?

The phrase ‘Web 2.0′ was invented to differentiate the latest type of internet experience from the previous one. The new WWW is much more personal (think of it like a form of personalised learning). In the past you had to visit a website… now the website content can be sent to you in abstract and you can choose if you want to read an article or not. This is called syndication or sometimes ’subscribing to an RSS feed.’

Most modern web browsers offer a way to ’subscribe’ to a blog’s RSS feed. To try it, just click this link

You should see the content of the RSS feed and should get an option to subscribe using your browser or another tool. Once subscribed, you will always get the list of the latest post titles perhaps with a brief summary so you can decide if it is interesting. You can always unsubscribe later.

Perhaps I should be using this technology with my students?

Absolutely! A class or subject blog is easy to set up and you can post notices, links and news for your students to subscribe to. They may also make their own blogs, alone or in teams, to support projects and problem based learning.

You may be surprised to find your students are already well into this with bebo, myspace and facebook accounts (personal online spaces) and a virtual network of friends. They will be able to show you what they have done. A number of great (and often free) services are now available if you want to explore the world of blogs and Web 2.0 in class and you may find you school or district has such tools available if you ask.

If not, here are some places to start:

Your feedback welcome

There is an option to comment on this page… so let us know if we are meeting your needs.

Happy blogging,

The Activeducator Team