Lee Lefever’s Common Craft site has an excellent piece on how to use weblogs with discussion boards in an online community. Many of his points translate directly into an educational environment. Here are a few examples:
- “With the
community manager[teacher] having complete control of the weblog, they can use it to develop a stronger voice in the community without interfering with the discussions. The weblog becomes a representation of themanager’s[teacher’s] thoughts and interests, which can help develop trust and culture more quickly.” - “Weblogs can be used by a
community manager[teacher] to point to specific discussions. This allows themanager[teacher] to recognize and link-to examples ofbest practices[outstanding student comments] and discussions that represent thecommunity’s[course’s] focus.” - “
Members[Students] may be motivated to post effectively by seeking to be recognized on themanager’s[teacher’s] weblog” - “Thanks to weblog categories, the
manager[teacher] can post a wide variety of subjects and still provide an archive ofcommunity information[the class’ insights] in an organized format.” [I love this one.] - “In times when
member[student] participation is slow or non-existent, themanager[teacher] can still provide content to members through the weblog.”
Good stuff!
(Found via Column Two.)
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