Grade 10 Technology students and Grade 11 and 12 'Information Technology in a Global Society' IB students have been participating in the world of weblogs for the first time. The rise of weblogs on the internet has been phenomenal with technical advances adding to its easy publishing appeal, leading to recent figures that suggest‘… [o]n average, a new weblog is created every second of every day.’[i] (Siffry, 2006) To some'…[w]eblogs have become so ubiquitous that for many of us the term is synonymous with 'personal Web site',’[ii] (Blood, 2004, pg53) where a tool that once needed coding is now in the hands of any user. The simplest definition of a weblog is ‘…a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.’[iii] (Wikipedia, 2007)

              The Grade 10's have all been using the weblog called Techbribe to discuss, publish and share work and ideas related to there 'Revolutionary Icons T-Shirt / Graphic Design Project'. Each student has chosen an alias name to protect their privacy as the sites are public and available for anyone who surfs the web to see. This is part of the power of such a site as students are able to think of more than their fellow students as the audience and so always feel they want to create and publish work of a high quality. Students are shown and can see who reads their weblog through use of Google Analytics.

After moderation each student is able to publish an entry discussing issues including the use of the Design Cycle, tutorials related to their graphic work and even articles on what it means to 'blog'. Publishing can take many forms including simple text and pictures of their work to more complicated and podcasts and embedding of videos from sites like YouTube.

              The Grade 11's and 12's have been using their weblog in a more complex way to promote conversation about social and ethical issues related to Technology in today's world. As part of the course it is important that students are able to discuss and understand the issues and also ways to solve problems such as global warming or the digital divide and so their articles reflect this depth of thought. Recent articles have included embedding slideshow presentations along with audiocasts on the interesting research area of Artificial Intelligence.

              Please visit both weblogs and feel free to add comments to any of the students posts by clicking on the comment link. Weblogs are considered to be most importantly social, and highlight collaboration and growth of positive online communities and the students would love to know that you are reading and becoming part of their learning community. You can find them at the following web addresses: www.techbribe.com and www.itgsonline.com. For more information about weblogs read the article by Patricia M. Davies, High School IT teacher on this website or read my research paper into using weblogs in schools.

              So come on down and see the posts from students whose aliases include turkey, pickle, chocodreams and peeps812 and join in their conversation on technology and society.

[i] David Siffry, February 2006, Technorati Weblog, http://technorati.com/weblog/2006/02/81.html - (Accessed 19/02/07)

[ii] How Blogging Software Reshapes the Online Community[Marker] – Blood, pg 53, COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM December 2004/Vol. 47, No. 12 53

[iii] Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblog - (Accessed 19/02/07)