Welcome to the latest issue of IDEAS where we transit from being a paper-based newsletter to one that is totally online. What is also unique about the new version of IDEAS is that we are utilizing a Weblog publishing system to generate, manage and publish our newsletter.
What is a Weblog?
A blog, or weblog, is typically defined as a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically. The content of blogs varies greatly. Some blogs contain links and commentary about other web sites. Other blogs contain frequently updated news about a person, company, or idea. Blogs can also be an online diary, or contain photos, essays, project updates, fiction, rough drafts of papers, really the potential is endless. Blogs are also very easy to use. There is no need to know HTML, and you can be up and running in minutes.
The spread in the usage of weblogs as a means of personal publishing is rapidly gaining momentum on the Internet and there are now many communities of “bloggers”.
The Publishing System
In order to create our newsletter we are currently using an application called Movable Type which is a powerful and customizable publishing system developed by Six Apart. Movable Type is widely recognized as the premier choice for creating weblogs, nano-publishing, intranet knowledge management and marketing or communications through weblogs. In addition, it can be used free-of-charge for non-commercial organizations such as ours.
By utilizing its flexible architecture and fully template driven system we are able to manipulate the output to generate the IDEAS newsletter. Once the customized templates are prepared by the designer, the author only has to key in the entries under the relevant classification. The system then takes care of the publishing of all corresponding web pages and also creates the monthly archives. It also indexes all the entries and has a built-in search engine.
How can I use it?
Weblogs give you the opportunity to easily publish content on the Internet and share your thoughts with your students and peers. Your weblog can be information related to the modules that you are teaching, your area of research or a collaborative space for you to discuss on topics of interest. With the flexibility of easily creating categories within your weblog, you can manage the website to suit all your web publishing needs. Using the comment functionality, you could also have your students and other visitors post their views on your entries in order to encourage discussion and debate.
Many institutes of higher learning such as Harvard, MIT, University of California and others are already using weblogs. In NUS for example, Dr John Holbo from the Department of Philosophy has been actively using a weblog for his module on Reason and Persuasion. His students have found it very effective and beneficial to their learning experience. In fact the module website won the Student’s Choice Award 2003/04 based on the votes given to him by his students.
References
1. Movable Type from Six Apart
2. Harvard Weblogs
3. Blogdex from MIT Media Laboratory
4. UThink: Blogs at the University of Minnesota
5. Weblogs in Higher Education
6. XplanaZine Resources
