Professor Elam

Is blogging for you?  Here is a link to various middle school blogsites. We will discuss this in class today.

Blog is short of weblog. Blogging has exploded in the last couple of years as the latest internet phenomenon.  Bloggers are keeping political candidtes in check with what they say, whoosh, instant analysis online.

My experience is that blogging is simpler, much simpler than a website. It is a matter of finding a host such as typepad or blogspot,  setting up an account, and then using it much like a word processor.

It is easy to insert pictures. Here is a picture of a former  homeless individual who has come to live with us. Bentley as you can see is doing much better health wise than when he arrived.

The host blogging network sets up the space. One does not however have the ability to link to your own files, ie, there is no spot to say upload essays I have written and then put in a hyper link to them. So one has to put up what one wants folks to read.

Marshall McLuhan  suggested that we would become a 'global village.'  The computer would replace the printed page. Well, look what happened. A hot medium is one that allows for little participation on the part of the veiwer. He used movies as hot.  A cool medium is that that requires more participation and involvment. He used tv and comics as examples. I would say today that the realization of this vision has happened in much more cool mediums than tv. Let's take music.

It used to be that one bought an entire album to really get one or two songs, unless it was a complilation of best of hits.  Now one can select individual tunes and down load them.  While this could be done with records and casette tapes, it is much easier with digital storage which then goes to an iPod or CD. Now one has easily assembled their own album.  Blogging is perhaps the ultimate cool medium.  One creates hiw or her own medium, addresses his or her own issues, and posts without editorial interference.

Youtube takes this idea to video, now one can be his her own movie producer. And so the Global Village arrives at its own cool medium-original, in cyberspace and in either still or video editions!