COM418/IDT518, Week 1, Jankowski

1. Nicholas W. Jankowski
nickjan@xs4all.nl
SUNY IT Adjunct Instructor
IDT 518 / COM418: New Media Theory & Digital Culture
27 August 2009
Blogging in an Academic Setting
Blogs are increasingly used by individual scholars, research teams and students as venues for presenting
and exchanging information related to research projects and courses. Students in the course New Media
Theory & Digital Culture (IDT 518 / COM418) are expected to establish and regularly post material to
their individual blogs and, when appropriate, to comment on the posts of other students in the course.
Below is a list of the individual student blogs prepared to date and the group blog prepared by the
instructor. All students who have created individual blogs have been given ‘author status’ to the group
blog, which means posts and comments can be submitted without prior permission.
Posts to course-related blogs can take many forms and may reflect the style and interests of the
student. At the same time, the blogs are intended as venues for academic exchange and reflection, and
these qualities should be reflected in the blog posts. Although sometimes it may be sufficient to simply
identify a ‘discovery’ (e.g., a news item, a website, a new media development) and to share such with a
simple post like “check out this cool website,” generally such announcements are insufficient because
they lack explanation as to why the “discovery” is relevant or important, and because they lack
reflection on the item. Students are strongly urged to post reflections on such announcements during
the course, placing these reflections on their individual blogs and/or on the group blog.
Examples of reflective posts may be found in the blogs maintained by the instructor in other university
courses; see these blogs here and here. Many of the posts in the following student blogs are also
illustrative of such reflection; see the blogs maintained by Igo Vobic, Vanesa Pogacar Areh, Maja
Turnsek, and Saso Slacek.
There is much background material on blogging and this activity within an academic setting. Other
course instructors that have utilized blogs (see links on previous course blogs noted above for
illustrations). Individual scholars, including PhD candidates, frequently maintain blogs; research teams
often do the same, along with research institutions. See links below for illustrations; I recommend
examining these blogs to gain a flavor of how scholars utilize blogs.
Once again, maintaining a blog and commenting on the posts of other students constitutes an important
component of the course and will be graded. I recommend posting at least one reflective item per week
and commenting on at least one post from another student per week. Those students who have not yet
constructed individual blogs are encouraged to do so before the second week of the course (Monday, 31
August).
Links
Primers on starting a blog and on blogging
• Starting a blog. Extensive primer; recommended for persons who have not previously blogged ;
part of course by Howard Rheingold (Participatory Media Literacy)
• Starting a Blog; basic primer with abundant resources
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2. • Blogger; one of the more popular formats for blogging
• Brazen Careerist; individual blog with entry on starting a blog
• How to Start a Blog; wikiHow site
Illustrations scholarly-oriented blogs: individuals, teams, institutions
• Mimi Ito (Internet scholar Mimi Ito)
• online fandom (Internet scholar Nancy Baym)
• Towards a Future Internet
• Oxford Internet Institute (aggregated feed of OII staff, researchers, & students)
• OII Research Blog
• WCU Project YeungNam University
• VKS Ethnography
• Future of Learning, research team focusing on new media and learning
• Lois Scheidt, 'Diary weblogs as genre,' qualifying paper for PhD
General resource
• Thinking about Blogging (two-part series, part II here, on blogging within libraries and
librarianship)
blogs for course IDT 518 / COM418
Group blog for course: New Media Theory & Digital Culture
Student blogs
• Ray Willette: Ray’s Info Technology 518 Page
• Katelin Ryan: Cullture in the Digital World
• Krista Plano: kplano
• Michael Dale: Mediating on the Media
• Geoff Storm: Studies in New Media
• Megan Hyman: The Window to New Media
• James Raskopf: New Media: My Experience
Students who have not yet constructed blogs
• Kelly Watson
• Eric Goodnough
• Nicole White
• Devin Mason
• Grantley Morrison
• Charlene Brant
• Larry Brassard
• Anthony Foster
• Kevin Volo
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