blogging
A blog (or web log) is a webpage in the form of a journal. The author logs into a webpage and types in a subject and an entry (known as a post) usually on a theme or as part of a personal blog. Readers can add comments about the posts they have read. These comments allow you to have an ongoing conversation with the author or other readers
Newspaper blogs let you air your views immediately about breaking news stories and interact with the media
Many authors, musicians, actors, scriptwriters and producers now have blogs which give a personal insight into the production process. Various cast and crew from Hallam Foe blogged during the production of the film, including the star who blogged here in character.
feed readers
The wonderful thing about blogs is that the basic content can be viewed in different viewers using something called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). One person might read a blog by going to the blog's webpage, but other people may read the content through programs like NetNewsWire or Feeddemon, or using webpage-based readers.
Alternatively you can use a webpage like netvibes which is a web-based feed reader, as well as pageflakes and www.yourminis.com. These feed readers let you view a number of blogs at the same time, highlighting new or unread posts for you.
The short video Blogs in Plain English from Commoncraft is great.
Another thing you can do in feedreaders is add searches using Technorati. This website will keep an eye out for your name, your school name or your favourite film star, and gives you a link whenever someone blogs and mention particular words.
blogs for education
If you'd like to have your own blog, or a class blog for pupils, then there are many free or low cost blogging sites. A good place to start is edublogs, who provide free blogs for teachers and students. If you use a blog in class, add it to a website for example scotedublogs and the pupils will be amazed at the people around the world commenting about what they have been doing in class. A good example of this is Sandaig Primary School
vlogging
Some blogs contain videos rather than text, and this is sometimes known as vlogging rather than blogging. People chat to a video camera or webcam instead of typing what they want to say. Alternatively, people put the videos that have made on their blog, like Dingwall Primary School