Blogs and Podcasts

Blogs

You’ve probably heard the term blog more than once, most likely used on television or print news media. However, you may still not exactly understand what a blog is. According to the Webopedia (see http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/b/blog.html), a blog, short for “web log”, is a web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated on a daily basis, blogs often reflect the personality of the author. Google owned Blogger.com describes a blog as, “A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.”

Creating a blog is simple and free. It only takes a few minutes by entering your name, e-mail address and a few other pieces of (usually personal) information. Some blogs ask for the users age and others do not. For those that do, the system does not provide age verification services so faking one’s age is a matter of putting in the right birth date. You select “the look” (template) of your blog from a set of standard options, click a few buttons, and another blog has been added to the “blogosphere.” Once the blog is set up, a child can post text, links, audio and video to their hearts delight. From their computer or cell phone, they can say or show anything and everything. With a bit of know-how, they can even easily syndicate to other blogs and websites. Syndication is a process by which the latest content from a blog, or from any other web page, can be made available for re-publication in another website or in some other application. Syndication is easily achieved through free online services that provide what are called RSS (real simple syndication) feeds.¹ And millions of children are doing it. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project report entitled Teen Content Creators and Consumers (2005), at least 8 million teens blog, which is probably an underestimation since those statistics were collected a while ago, and the numbers might be higher if you factor in not just blogs but the world of social websites, especially the booming MySpace, which includes blog capabilities.

In a nutshell, a typical blog has a main page and nothing else. On the main page, there is a set of entries. Each entry is a little text blurb that may contain embedded links out to other sites, news stories, etc. When the author adds a new entry, it goes at the top, pushing all the older entries down. Blogs can also have a right sidebar that contains additional permanent links to other sites and stories. The author might update the sidebar weekly or monthly. The technology that allows individuals (or companies, especially news agencies) to write one’s own blog is so relatively simple and inexpensive that it is no surprise that they have proliferated the Web as fast as they have.

Any kid can create basic blogs for free through one or more online services, and most of these toolsets have additional features available for a small fee. Here are just a few of the services available.

   • Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/): Free, automated web log publishing platform in one easy to use website.

   • BBlog (http://www.bblog.com/): bBlog is a powerful, elegant personal publishing system written in PHP and released as free, Open Source software under the GPL. It is a flexible but simple way to blog that works for blogging beginners, and can grow into a more advanced user’s needs.

   • TypePad (http://www.typepad.com/): Similar to blogger, another blogging service although this one has a minimal cost.

   • LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/): Joining this service site is free although users can choose to upgrade their accounts for extra features.

   • Moveable Type (http://www.movabletype.com/): “The perfect platform for building easy-to-maintain blog, web, and social media sites.”

   • MySpace.com (http://www.myspace.com/): Actually a hybrid site that allows people to post their personal interests, write blogs, put up video and set up ways to communicate with their friends boasted over 220 million users as of late January, 2008.

   • Wordpress.com (http://wordpress.com): “You can get a blog started in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. All you need is an e-mail address and a name. You can blog as much as you want for free, your blog can be public to the world or private for just your friends, and our paid upgrades are completely optional.”

   • Xanga (http://www.xanga.com/): a community of online diaries and journals.

I want to reiterate one more time at this point something I don’t want us all to forget. Blogs, like any other technology, is neither good or evil. How this tool is used and for what purpose determines its value. In fact, blogs are closely being explored for how they can make a positive difference in education (for instance, see http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs and http://edublogs.org/).

Podcasting, in its basic form, involves creating audio files (most commonly in MP3 format) and making them available online in a way that allows users to automatically download the files for listening at their leisure (this is known as subscribing to the podcast). After subscribing to the podcast, any new audio files are automatically download to your computer which can then be transferred easily to a handheld device such as a Palm OS Handheld, a Pocket PC, cell phone, or an iPod - hence, the name Podcast. In essence, anyone with a computer, Internet access, free software, and a microphone can turn their computer into a personal studio and produce their very own radio show/program. ²

Relatively speaking, podcasting is still in its infancy although shows no signs of abatement. Hundreds of podcasts are added to the Internet every day. One reason for their popularity is that producing a podcast is relatively cheap. Pod-casting requires no more hardware or software than a typical computer user has. Second, the MP3 files and accompanying text which are served over the World Wide Web are supported among virtually all operating systems (i.e., podcasting works across many platforms including Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh). As a result, these types of files have become quite pervasive. Third, given the difficulties and intricacies of using computer technology sometimes, podcasting is surprisingly simple to do. Only three steps are required (create the MP3 file, upload the file, and update your RSS feed) to broadcast any content you would like. A fourth reason that podcasting is so popular is that it removes barriers of space, pace, and time by allowing the consumer to download and listen to broadcasts at his or her convenience (sort of like Tivo® for radio). And, the consumer may listen to a broadcast using various devices such as computers, MP3 players, CD players (after burning the files to a CD), personal digital assistants (PDA’s), Bluetooth or USB enabled radios, and now cell phones. Finally, I have found that podcasting is just plain fun. Whether adult or child, podcasting helps the user join more closely than ever the ranks of other popular radio show hosts, DJ’s, and personalities.

As you may have already guessed, the major disadvantage related to podcasting is that, like everything else on the Internet, podcasts are not regulated. Pornographers, bigots, bullies, and others have also discovered podcasts as a powerful method for disseminating information. Plus, whereas most podcasts use simple audio, more and more have turned to video podcasting or V-casting. Anyone who has the knowledge, including children, can easily access (and/or produce) a wide range of smut or obscene material. In fact, there exists many websites that provide pornography download services just for iPods and similar devices. Thus, the development of podcasting emphasizes once again the importance of media and technology literacy among youth and adults alike. Evaluating, choosing, and using appropriate information presents challenges that, if not managed, can leave us unbalanced, unfocused, and in a state of deterioration.

End Notes

1. RSS. (2008, January 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:44, January 25, 2008, from http://tinyurl.com/3ymv8z
2. For a more detailed explanation of podcasts, see Valesky, T. & Sabella, R.A. (2005). Podcasting in educational leadership and counseling. Paper presented at the conference of the Southern Regional Council on Educational Administration, Atlanta GA, October 28, 2005. Available online: http://coe.fgcu.edu/edleadership/podcasting.pdf