University of Western Sydney – College of Arts

School of Education Blog

“21st Century Learning” http://learning21c.wordpress.com Link from SoE home page

uws.edu.au/education

What makes a blog a blog? Web-log: like an online public diary /

outlet Regular, self contained posts Each post usually has a topic / theme Need to be fairly current (at least one

per month) Open to public comment Can be text + video + images + links etc

but primarily text-based.

Why a blog for SoE?

Desire to provide an outlet (like most blogs) that was:PublicTopicalUsefulHighlighting the school research output

To create a forum on education research, via the commenting functionality

Potential Problems

Initial excitement followed by steep decline in interest:

Potential Problems

Initial excitement followed by steep decline in interest

Confluence not suitable – which system to use?

Do we have enough material and authors to maintain the blog?

The plan

Schedule of blog authorsCreated & maintained by Assistant to HOSEach author given time and reminders to

provide their postHOS expectation of timely submission

HOS to write first article & moderate all articles & comments

School e-learning technical officer to provide support

The System – wordpress.com Free online version World’s #1 blogging tool

(~ 14 million blogs) Ease of use Simple approval system Stats, plugins, trackbacks etc It’s a community!

Why did it work?

Ongoing executive support Careful planning and scheduling of posts Clear reason for existing Large pool of authors Constant stream of quality source material Ease of use Promotion