Presentation given at http://www.dur.ac.uk/lt.team/blog/?page_id=1526 of the use of the open source WordPress blogging platform used in the MA in Urban Design Programme at Newcastle University. http://nclurbandesign.org Joint presentation given by Georgia Giannopoulou (School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape) and Ashley Wright (Quality in Learning and Teaching) of Newcastle University, UK.

1. www.nclurbandesign.org
Blogging in Urban Design Education:
A Virtual Public Domain of Exchange
Georgia Giannopoulou and Ashley Wright

2. This presentation
What we did
Why we did it
How we did it
Openness
How it evolved
What are the challenges
What did we gain
What did the students gain
What we learnt
What is the future like

3. What we did
 A Blog as a virtual “live” student designed handbook
 Incorporated in existing modules and marked
 Minimum contribution requirements
 Instigated and facilitated by us but not led…
 Control gradually to students
 Moved from WordPress.com (2010/11) to WP.org
(hosted) in 2011/12
 Started in 2011, repeated in 2012, 2013…..

4. Why we did it
 To capture the experience of a 1-year cohort
(MA in Urban Design)
 Mentoring through alumni
 To promote reflection in learning
 To foster community
 To promote the course
 To promote personal attributes e.g autonomy,
reflexivity, cultural competence in higher education
students

5. How we did it: the technology AY10-11
 Considered using a Wiki but decided on a blog
(suited subject)
 Unsure of scope so used WP with a view to possibly
hosting and free (ish)
 Bought domain name through WP provider
 Students register with WP and given role of Editor
 Demo to students, explain blogging concept and
implications
 Supported student cohort via email, f2f, ReCap
tutorials & WP help/community

6. How we did it: the technology AY11 - 12
 Wished to incorporate other social
software feeds in the Blog  Moved
to Wordpress .org
 Hosted with a 3rd party web provider
 Assistance of an external web
company –
READYSALTED
 Created new entry page design
 Added plugins to the install
 Feeds from Twitter, Flickr, contact form
 Different method of registering
students
 Minimal support

7. How we did it : The students’ tasks
 Register with WordPress
 Create a Profile : their public image
 Decide on pages and categories
 Decide on links
 Familiarise with how to post and
comment
 Experiment with writing styles
 Manage the pages in appearance and
content (active surveillance)
 Iterative process on what works and
what doesn’t
 Reflect on what they did and what it was
like for them

8. Openness
 To the WWW…
 A brief that is open to interpretation…
 …different meanings for different
cohorts
 …open to diversity encouraging
imprinting cultures and
experiences…
 …what is not verbalised can be
lost…
 Comment is free…
 A virtual “Public Domain”: an arena
for social expression…
“the foreigner carries the world in himself” (Jung 1942)

9. Openness : A “Public Domain”
 …safety and control exercised
unconsciously by the participants
 “framing encounters that are both
intimate and intrusive”(Zukin)
 Number of events/people and time
spent…increases vitality of space
 Acting on the street : learning “urban
meaning”
 Order and democracy
 Degrees of public
 Behaviour….

10. Public Domain as an experience
“Public Domain is not so much a
place, as an experience. Public
domain experiences occur at the
boundary between friction and
freedom. On the other hand there is
always the tension of a confrontation
with the unfamiliar; on the other the
liberation of the experience of a
different approach. In the main our
public domain experiences are in
fact, related to entering the parochial
domains of others..”

11. Cultural Geography: A place for production
of meaning
 Public domain comes into being where places represent
multiple and incongruent meanings…rather than
conscious production of meaning
 The sharing of the virtual space makes exchange
possible between groups that otherwise follow entirely
separate space-time paths
 “Citizens create meaningful space by expressing their
attitudes, asserting their claims and using it for their own
purposes” (Zukin)

12. Social function of “Blog” as public domain
 “freeing, exhilarating, fun, exciting”
 “seek out a little danger, endanger a
little anxiety”
 Urban fun based on anonymity:
a. Identity games: passing,
performing, pretending (appearance,
location and behaviour)
b. Conventional Games:
 Encountering and conversing with
strangers (appropriateness,
desirability, legitimacy)

13. How it evolved
 Funding from STLC to improve design…
 READYSALTED on board
 Added new functionalities: Flickr, Twitter,
Q&A box, Entry Page etc.
 Link to last year’s
 Not starting completely from blank slate
 More ownership to students
 More focus on cultures

14. What are the challenges
 Scalability
 Institutional policy – catch up
 WordPress – risks of the
unknown, open source forever?
 Motivation for posting in
amongst course requirements
 Representation of Newcastle
University from such an open
platform…
 Democratic procedures and
management
 A personalised look
 Marketing and students

15. What did WE gain
 Links to increased applications and quality of applicants…
 A more engaged, more inclusive and more collaborative cohort
 Publicity!
 New experience and reflection…
 Feedback

16. What did THE STUDENTS gain
“Blogging expresses the importance of social and
peer interaction as foci of the learning community.
Instructors of courses rooted in a knowledge
discipline can use blogs to lead students through the
foundations of that discipline in order to contextualize
real-world experiences.
Because they are able to advance their own
perspectives and experiences, students make an
investment in what they post to their blogs”
Instructional Blogging: Promoting Interactivity, Student-Centered Learning, and
Peer Input, Glogoff, Stuart. Innovate: Journal of Online Education1. 5 (Jun
2005): 5.

17. What did the students gain
 More social interaction and community of practice
 Cultural exposure and competence
 Reflective learning and peer learning
 Sense of pride and ownership leading to….
 …higher motivation and better performance
 Increased personal autonomy through invitation to
create and own
 Sense of belonging to a larger community of Urban
Designers
 Some fun in the course!

18. What did the students gain : quotes
 “…Helpful to know where we all stand different”
 “…Helped me organise my thoughts and ideas and get
feedback”
 “…A window to places I have never been and never
really thought of”
 “…I have been genuinely surprised by how much I have
enjoyed blogging/commenting and how interesting and
useful I found other people’s comments”
 “…Open up lines of communication”
 “…A supportive message for next year’s students, with
current students imprint”

19. Lessons

20. Lessons
 A strong branding may not suit all cohorts
 Ingesting and presenting other Web apps is more
fiddly and requires more support
 A fine balance between guidance/facilitation and firm
hand…or…lack of
 That it worked in many more ways than we had
hoped
 That a clear but open brief works best
 That we need to incorporate a system to ensure
frequent posts
 There are costs associated…

21. What is the future like
 We will do it again!
 It is enjoyable and stimulating to work this way
 Curious to see where it takes us year by year

22. georgia.giannopoulou@ncl.ac.uk
ashley.wright@ncl.ac.uk
Blogging in Urban Design Education:
A Virtual Public Domain of Exchange
Georgia Giannopoulou and Ashley Wright