A guide to blogging in academia: what blogs are, why you might want to create one, how you'd go about it, and tips to it well. A workshop for the Learning & Teaching Forum at the University of York, delivered by Ned Potter and Simon Davis.

1. Blogging
Blogs and
In the academic environment
Learning & Teaching Forum #EdTech Workshop
Ned Potter
Academic Liaison
The Library

2. Aim of today: discuss why
blogs are potentially
useful, see some academic
examples, actually set one
up, and discuss blogging well.

3. Aim of today: discuss why
blogs are potentially
useful, see some academic
examples, actually set one
up, and discuss blogging well.
What > Why > Examples > How > Tips

4. What
are blogs?

5. Blogs are regularly updated
webpages, consisting of posts (articles) on
one or many themes.
They can exist on their own or as part of a
larger (static) site.

6. Blogs are classed as social media - in other
words they're interactive and participatory.
Readers can (usually) comment on the
posts, engage in dialogue with the
author, and easily share links to the blog via
Twitter and other networks.

7. People can either read blogs online like any
other website, or subscribe to the blog to
receive regular and automatic
updates, wherever they see this symbol:
Blogs are (almost always) mobile-ready.

8. There can be individual blogs, group
blogs, departmental blogs, project blogs.
They're written via the VLE or using
(normally) free online software, the most
popular of which are:

9. Why
Blog?

10. Why
Blog?
1. Impact
2. Communication
3. Teaching

11. It is likely that a larger (and possibly more
varied) audience will see your research if you
or others blog about it.
"...the content of a blog becomes available far faster than
that of a journal article, and is accessible to a wider
audience."
Jenny Davis, Texas A&M University
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/05/08/the-place-of-blogs-in-academic-writing/
"Academic blogs are proven to increase dissemination of
economic research and improve impact."
World Bank Senior Economists, David McKenzie
and Berk Özler
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/11/15/world-bank-dissemination/

13. Adrian Miles, a senior lecturer in media and
communications at RMIT… has 1,000 readers
a week for his VLOG 4.0 blog and although he
describes it as “a very small blog”, he
contrasts it with being published in a major
international journal where he says “maybe
100 people would read my article”.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/06/20/academics-blogging-vital-tool-for-academic-communication-impact/

14. Blogging communicates ideas and builds reputation.
"Doctor Cleveland" has a nice analogy:
What blogging never does is substitute for other academic
writing. It doesn't get counted as scholarship.
Blogging functions for today's academics much the way that
poetry functioned for poets like Chaucer or Spenser, which is
to say that you can't actually make a living at it but it can
help you make connections for other jobs. Chaucer's poetry
only served him economically or professionally by building
his reputation at court while he looked for various civilservice gigs.
If you are an academic blogger, the same is true of your blog.
You write it for personal satisfaction and to express various
interests and for the pure joy of making something. The
exposure it brings might also help your career.
http://dagblog.com/media/blogging-chaucer-16772

15. 2. Communication
Blogging allows you to
greet the Googlers with
your professional
ideas, views and outputs.

16. 2. Communication
Blogging allows you to
instigate
collaboration, stimulate
discussion, share
information with your
peers, engage a nonacademic community

17. 2. Communication
Blogging allows you to
disseminate information in an
informal way, and get
immediate feedback on
potential ideas.

18. 2. Communication
“Blogging forces me to write accessible
content on a regular basis. From a writing
point of view, blogging is like working out a
few times a week. I also just plain like
collecting my thoughts, presenting them
well, and trying to see if I can persuade
people to think differently after reading my
posts than they were thinking before. I
suppose that’s the teacher/scholar in me
coming through.”
Peter Enns, Harvard

19. 3. Teaching

20. Ways to use blogs in teaching?
Provide further assignments for students to work on
Have students work in small groups to write and
post summaries of content covered in class to build
a compendium for content covered over a semester
Use blogs for peer learning. Encourage students to
post comments on each others postings
Use blogs for projects where students need to
include videos, clips, audio, text and images
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/ultimate-guide-to-use-of-blogs-in.html

21. Blogging in the VLE
Simon Davis
Over to
E-Learning Adviser
E-Learning Development
Team, Academic Support Office

22. Blogging in the VLE?
Considerations:
Student motivation to participate
Staff time to monitor
Alignment with learning outcomes /
assessment
Privacy or audience?

23. Management and Gender –
“Public” Blogging Linstead (TYMS)
Prof Stephen
“The course has a blog called Genderscan students can post responses to items on the
blog, or send contributions to me for
inclusion… It's open to anyone, not just the
course members, and it's a good way to
connect with and share topical resources”

24. Blogging in the VLE
Why blog in the VLE?
“Safe” place for students and staff
Enrolments and availability already in place
Easy to set up, customise privacy and
observe
Blogging activities can be contextualised
with other teaching materials
Familiar for staff and students know it
Archiving policy
Easy access for students to each other’s blog
for peer review

25. Individual
• Clearly defined parameters and
instruction
• Direction to appropriate resources
• Clear direction to help and support
• Structure / agreed milestones for
larger projects
•
•
•
•
Regular feedback
Maintain individual motivation
Clear instructions and rationale
Short tasks for measurable skills
development
• Scaffold to greater autonomy
Directed
Autonomous
• Consider group dynamics / roles
• Common understanding of end
product
• Engagement with marking criteria
• Explicit benefit from group element
• Consider group dynamics
• Feedback through social aspect
Social

26. Examples of use
•
•
•
•
Reflections pre / post seminars
Support group work / collaboration / PBL
Sharing resources within the cohort
Peer review and feedback

27. Models of Writing – Dr Nick
McGuinn (Education)

28. Dilemmas of Intervention –
Dr Audra Mitchell (Politics)

29. Britons at work – Dr Trev
Broughton (English)

30. Professional skills 2 – Dr Phil
Lightfoot (Physics)

31. Decisions to make early on:
Are you blogging as you, as a potentially
identifiable pseudonym, or completely
anonymously?
Are you blogging alone, with a partner, or
as part of a departmental / project team?
Is blogging going to be a major activity or
a minor activity?
Is it for teaching, profile boosting, both?

32. Gender and Digital Identity:
“…I am very familiar with the
productivity of digitally-mediated
communication. These media make
possible relationships, idea
sharing, knowledge making and forms
of epistemological change that are
exceptional. And yet they can also be
deeply dangerous…”
– Sara Perry, Archaeology
http://backupminds.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/digital-media-and-the-everyday-abuse-of-working-adults/
Explore the issue at http://genderanddigitalculture.wordpress.com/

33. Key
concepts
defined

34. Post / article: means the same thing – one
update on the blog.
Multimedia: a good thing to include in
blog posts – especially pictures and video
Subscribers: people who regular get
updates from your blog via email or an
online service
Comments: responses to the
article, which the author mediates

35. Examples

36. A non-academic example: my own blog.
Libraries, New Professionals, Marketing, Emerging Technology, Social Media

37. After nearly four years:
3000 comments (a proper dialogue)
1500 - 2000 subscribers (more reach than many journals)
350-400 views each day (unless I blog)

38. I'm blogging less but there's more for
Google to find so the views are going up:

39. A non-academic example: my own blog.
Libraries, New Professionals, Marketing, Emerging Technology, Social Media

48. Time to get started.
1. Go to www.blogger.com and sign in
with your University email address and
password.
2. Click 'New blog'
3. Follow the guide in the handout.

49. Blogging is most effective when you're part of an
online academic community, so it's important to
consume as well as create. For which you need RSS
>> It stands for: Really Simple
Syndication. Although the proper
explanation is really anything
but...
Relevant definition: A way to
keep up to date by making the
content come to you: blogs, news
feeds, anything regularly updated
online.

51. Why use RSS?
Subscribing to feeds via RSS funnels all
the things you're interested in (but
might otherwise miss) into one place.
You can sub-divide them into folders
(Mustreads, Research, Technology, Policy, or
whatever).
Even once useful articles have
disappeared off the front page of the
sites you value, they're still waiting for
you in your feed-reader.

52. You can also set up alerts
for ego-searches, e.g.
mentions of your
name, your major
theories / articles, or
links to your blog /
website.

53. You usually subscribe in a feed reader –
I’d recommend either www.feedly.com

54. Or oldreader.com

57. Blogging
well

58. Write for the web
From the authors of the successful British Politics and Policy blog:
Academics normally like to build up their arguments
slowly, and then only tell you their findings with a
final flourish at the end. Don’t do this ‘Dance of the
Seven Veils’ in which layers of irrelevance are
progressively stripped aside for the final kernel of
value-added knowledge to be revealed. Instead, make
sure that all the information readers need to
understand what you’re saying is up front – you’ll
make a much stronger impression that way.

59. Encourage interaction
Avoid text-only posts

60. Encourage interaction
Avoid text-only posts
(It’s NOT dumbing down!)

61. Use titles which reveal the
content, rather than obscure it.
Linking to other blogs is the new
referencing...

62. Use titles which reveal the
content, rather than obscure it.
Linking to other blogs is the new
referencing...
(It’s NOT dumbing down!)

63. You need to actually tell people
you’re blogging.

64. You need to actually tell people
you’re blogging.
Blog name and URL on your
business cards
on your PowerPoint
presentations
in your email signature
Tweet about it, feed it into
your LinkedIn profile

65. Comment on
other blog posts.
Write guest posts
for other blogs.

66. Above all:
Make it as easy as
possible for people
to share posts and
subscribe to your
blog.

67. Keep in mind:
Multi-author blogs are more sustainable, and
have a higher post-rate. The more posts you
have, the more Google searches you show up
in, and so the more views you get..
*Useful* blogs (or blogs with a useful element)
tend to get more interest - I smuggle in
thoughtful posts among the useful posts, to a
bigger audience...
Blogging works best when you write about what
you care about

68. Logistics:
Add yourself, as an
author, to your own
blog, under a non-work
email address. Should you
ever move
institutions, you don't
want to lose access to
what you've written.

69. "How many times have you read a post, or
a newspaper article, which you have
disagreed with in part because you have
better expertise or knowledge? Why keep
that to yourself?"
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/01/14/advice-for-potential-academic-bloggers/

70. 6 tips for busy academics:
•Doing an interesting lecture? Put your
lecture notes in a blog post.
•Writing a detailed email reply? "Reply
to public" with a blog post.
•Answering the same question a
second time? Put it in a blog post.
•Writing interesting code? Comment a
snippet into a post.
•Doing something geeky at home? Blog
about what you learned
From http://matt.might.net/articles/how-to-blog-as-an-academic/

71. Further perspectives:
A Guardian Live-chat
featuring lots of
blogging academics:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/hi
gher-educationnetwork/2012/oct/19/acade
mic-blogging-power-pitfallslivechat

72. Any questions?

73. Thanks for coming!
These slides at:
http://www.slideshare.net/UniofYorkLibrary
Digital Scholarship Blog:
http://digitallearningblog.york.ac.uk/
E-Learning Development Team Blog:
http://elearningyork.wordpress.com/
Support for Researchers:
http://www.york.ac.uk/library/infofor/researchers/
Ned’s email: ned.potter@york.ac.uk
Simon’s email: simon.davis@york.ac.uk
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