Blogging a Chore to Students?
Oliver Wrede responds to my comments on his essay Weblogs and Discourse (where I observe that many students will not want to blog). More...

Is Blogging Unscholarly?
Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed, January 29, 2014
I think this is a tempest in a teapot, but at the same time, I think it's a harbinger of debates to come. The proposed motion (which will probably be defeated) would prohibit journal editors for a small academic society from blogging, as blogging is an 'unscholarly' activity. More...

Udacity 2013 Yearbook
Brenna Van Norman, Udacity Blog, January 2, 2014
After its late-year 'pivot' and Sebastian Thrun's "we make lousy software" remark, this is actually printed in the Udacity blog: "2013 was a great year with a lot of new milestones." So how is the pivot going. More...

Scholars Who Blog
The Chronicle discovers blogging - and some of the dynamics of the new medium - with a wide-eyed "gee whiz" kind of story. Among the surprises noted by the author: scholars who write about topics outside their areas of expertise and students who are able to converse as peers with professors. More...

Weblogs and Discourse
Interesting paper from last week's Blogtalk conference in which the author describes how blogs can help educators achieve their 'hidden agenda' - fostering reflection, critical thinking and interdisciplinary discourse. There's a lot of good thinking in this paper but the important bit is only touched on tangentally. More...

Online Learning 2003 Weblogue: Straight Talk About Online Learning
When I first read Dave's Winer's What Makes a Weblog a Weblog article I scoffed at it as just another academic exercise. But the very next day this site launched in which pundit Lance Dublin announces what he calls a 'weblogue' for the Online Learning conference in Los Angeles. More...

If You Really Want to Know, Ask a Blogger
This nice article hammers home some points that traditional news media ought to keep in mind: Because bloggers are often experts in a field, and journalists are often not, the information found in a blog may frequently be more accurate than the information found in a corresponding news article. More...