Communication+and+Collaboration+Through+Blogging

=Communication and Collaboration Through Blogging=

You can access my blog using the following URL:

@http://dcubb72668.blogspot.com/

=Summary:=

For this assignment, we were charged with the task of creating a blog and filling it with introductory information. The purpose of this assignment was to introduce the students in our class to the idea of blogging and explaining the tremendous benefits that it can have in an educational environment. In addition to creating an initial post, we had to translate that post into another language and add a relevant RSS feed to our blog's primary page. Ultimately, I think that the primary objective of this assignment is to remind students to the importance of collaboration while introducing them to new ways and methods of getting students involved both inside and outside of the classroom.

=Process:=

In order to complete this process, I had to sign up for an account with blogspot.com. This process did not take very long as I was able to use my Google applications account to complete the sign up process and get my blog up and running very quickly. Once I had the account created, I had to go through and make some customization changes to my blog to get it to appear that way that I wanted. In most cases, the default theme or appearance is going to be very basic, so I wanted to find something that was a little more exciting than the standard theme ... but still very simple.

After creating the blog and getting it to look the way I wanted, I began creating my first post. I wanted to keep this post short and to the point for several reasons. First, this post was simply to serve as an introduction to my blog and was used primarily to state the purpose of the blog. Secondly, I think it's important that blog posts present information in a quick format as opposed to large chunks of information. Readers today have a very short attention span, and I think that this is particularly true when the material relates to education or their employment. For these reasons, I worked to limit the length of my posts.

Once I had the first post created, I used Alta Vista to translate the post into a different language and searched the web for an appropriate RSS feed to include with the blog. Since this blog is geared toward the new hire training program at my company, I thought it made a lot of sense to use our company RSS feed to populate the blog with updated information.

=Reflection:=

I have used blogs for several years now and am very familiar with how they work and how to populate them with information. Because of this, I did not find this particular assignment to be overly valuable for me personally. That said, however, I understand that other students have very different technical backgrounds, so I can certainly see how this assignment would benefit them a great deal. If you did not have previous experience creating and updating blogs, this assignment would do a very good job of helping you get your feet wet.

While I do have extensive experience with blogs, I must admit that I have used a hosted blog site such as blogspot.com in quite sometime. My first few blogs that I created were on that site, but, for the most part, I typically use WordPress software and install in on a local server that I have through my employment. For that reason, I will say that there was some benefit to this assignment as I would likely need to use this method for blogging if I were to move into education.