Blogs

After using a blog for the past two months, I realize that blogs are very beneficial for everyone, no matter what profession one has or which school one attends.

Blogs can be used in a variety of areas in a school. In a classroom setting, blogs enable the teacher and students to subscribe to rss feeds on the subjects that they are learning. Blogs enable teachers to post additional information on the subject taught in class and the homework assigned. Blogs also allow students to communicate with each other at all times to discuss the material or post interesting links which other students can benefit from. Blogs teach students critical thinking skills, collaboration skills, communication skills and writing skills. Blogs enable students to become more media and information literate, a tool which is necessary to succeed in today’s technological environment. Blogs also teach students how networks function, how to hyperlink, how to cite the work of others and how to comment appropriately. Finally, blogs help develop students’ confidence and self expression, skills which are integral in all aspects of a person’s life – after all, it is not only the teacher who sees and comments on their work, but the other students or possibly even strangers!

Blogs can be beneficial outside of the classroom as well. Blogs can help schools communicate internally. School committees or school groups can archive the minutes of meetings, continue dialogue between meetings, share links on relevant information and store documents and presentations for easy access later. Blogs essentially enable users to manage and communicate the knowledge that is within a group, be it a student group such as the cheerleading squad, a parent group such as the PTA or an administrative group such as the curriculum coordinators. School boards can use blogs share ideas, lesson plans, worksheets and projects with the schools in their district. This enables teachers and administrators to view the material on their own time and to comment at their own pace. In addition, schools can have blogs in addition to the school website – and some would even argue that the blogs can replace the school website. This is very beneficial because it enables every department to update their blog whenever they want and make changes whenever necessary without waiting for the webmaster to do it. The school blog can also be used to post information, announcements, school projects, photos, school events and the school calendar. Simply put, a school blog can be used as a means to communicate with the school body, school staff and parent body.

Many of the abovementioned benefits can be used in any other professional setting as well. As a student studying business, I would like to add some other areas where blogging can be beneficial to a business. Business blogs can be used as powerful marketing and communication tool. Blogs can help companies build better relationships with their customers, shareholders, suppliers, the media and the general public. It is important to note that setting up and maintaining a business blog costs virtually nothing and, when used correctly, the results can be astounding. One benefit of business blogs is that they are constantly updated, which leads Google to reindex the site more frequently. This enables people to find the blog more easily which, in turn, gives the blog’s rankings a boost. In addition, a company which has a blog has the advantage of having direct communication with clients and potential clients. Clients can comment in the comment section and subscribe to receive updates. In the same vein, a business blog is a great way to build up the company’s brand and get the word out to thousands of people who may have otherwise never even known the company existed. The company can also blog about sale promotions or new products which, in turn, can generate excitement from customers and potential customers. A company can write whatever it desires in their blog – which gives the company the ability to show clients and potential clients what differentiates it from the competition. In the same vein, a company can post honest, transparent and heartfelt articles to instil trust in potential clients and manage its online reputation. Finally, a blog allows the company and its readers to build a personal relationship; the readers can comment, the company can respond and a relationship can ensue. Perhaps this is the single most important benefit of a business blog; it facilitates the relationships with stakeholders and, in the long run, it is the relationships a company builds which determine its success or failure.

My thoughts on blogs have not changed very much since I started using a blog. However, I now realize just how beneficial blogging is to schools and companies. Previously, I had not realized how easy it is to use a blog and to customize a blog for the purpose one desires. I also had not realized how easy it is to edit and modify a blog. I would venture to say that, after working with a blog for the past two months, any organization which does not capitalize on this great resource is missing out tremendously!

This first piece of media that I embedded into my blog was static pictures. I chose three pictures, taken from a trip to Israel. One was of the beach in Natanya. The other two were overlooking the hills of Jerusalem. Then, I embedded three youtube videos. The youtube videos contrast the fireworks in Canada, The United States and Mexico on national holidays. Finally, I embedded three Google maps. The first map was a satellite view of Times Square. The second was a map view of Hollywood, California. The third was a map view of Miami Beach, Florida.

Then, I had to choose three other types of media and embed them directly into my blog. I researched media on the Internet to discover what types of things would fall under the definition of media. Once I had chosen my three types of media (a slideshow, a news web page and an mp3 clip), I had to research how to embed them onto my blog. This was a time consuming process and, even after I discovered the correct codes, it took a while to figure out how to embed them onto my blog.

The fist type of media I embedded was a slide show. Slide shows are often used in presentations, be it business, professional or fun and they are an informative and easy-to-use type of media. Because I had already created a flickr account and was unsure of copyright laws applied when taking pictures from the Internet, I changed my flickr pictures into a slideshow. Then, I pressed share, which enabled me to get the html code. I copied the code and pasted it into my blog and, voila, my flickr slideshow was embedded on my blog.

The second type of media I embedded into my blog was a web page. Newspapers and news web sites are a very important source of media. It took me a long time to figure out the correct code to embed a webpage into a blog. Finally, I discovered the correct code. By putting in the correct URL, I was able to embed a CNN.com news web page onto my blog. I had to change the width and height to fit into my blog. The sidebars enable the reader to see the entire page by scrolling up and down or back and forth.

The third type of media I embedded into my blog was an mp3 clip. Today mp3 clips are an important source of media, especially for young people who own mp3 players. Again, it took me a while to discover the correct code to embed mp3 clips into my blog. Finally, I discovered this the correct code. I researched the URL of Lady Gaga’s song, Bad Romance, and inserted it in the correct spot. Again, I had to play with the width and height to get the width and height that I wanted on my blog.

Some of the information in this post has been taken from Web 2.0 by Ann Bell.