I always enjoy reading the Technorati State of the Blogosphere reports each year as they provide some useful insights into what is happening in the online world with regards to the use of blogs.

This year the report is broken down into five sections:

1. Who Are the Bloggers?
2. The What and Why of Blogging
3. The How of Blogging
4. Monetization And Revenue Generation, Brands in the Blogosphere
5. 2009 Trends: Political Impact of Blogging, Twitter Usage

The report is well worth a read – and I won’t try to summarise here as the information is provided in a very accessible and easy to understand way. Worth noting in particular section five which explores the relationship between the use of blogs and Twitter – trends I’d concur with when thinking about my own use of these two tools.

The one observation I would make, however, is when reading through section two of the report on the what and why of blogging (see graph above), education doesn’t appear as one of the topics. I find this surprising given the number of education-related blogs that appear to be around. One can only assume that those who blog from the education perspective have been counted among those represented in other categories such as “computers”, “personal musings” or simply “other”.

I for one would be very interested in understanding more of what is happening in the education sphere in relation to blogs – everything from education professionals blogging about developments in education practice, through to teachers using blogs for personal reflection, classes using blogs to celebrate and share learning and students using blogs as a de-facto e-portfolio.

Perhaps this could be a focus for 2010 Technorati??

I’m now back in NZ, getting used to the time zone differences

Over recent months I’ve read an increasing number of stories, articles and comments on the future of newspapers that I’ve been storing away to make comment on, as I see the whole debate as being indicative of the paradigm shift in the “knowledge economy” we’re all a part of. As a blogger this thinking has been percolating in my mind for some years now as i think about how I access the news, how I filter it, engage with it and report it.

The interactive map above is part of a recent initiative of the Independent newspaper in the UK, titled “what’s next for newspapers?” Prompted by the impact of the global recession on the newspaper industry, the Independent is using the opportunity to prompt a richer debate about impact of digital technologies on the newspaper industry, the implications of these changes for the newspaper industry, for journalism, and for society. The team at the Independent say that…

The aim with interactive collaborative maps of this kind is to weave together all of the salient issues, positions and arguments dispersed through the community into a single rich, transparent structure – in which each idea and argument is expressed just once – so that it’s possible to explore all perspectives quickly and gain a good sense of the scope and perceived merits of the different arguments

I see a great topic here for high school media studies students, or social studies classes for that matter. And it’s great to see the Independent actively using the debategraph tool as a means of engaging people in this debate – I’m a fan of this tool as I love the way it dynamically represents the changing perspectives in the debate, and enables large scale participation.

The Independent article refers to the thoughts of Clay Shirky, who’s post on Newspapers and thinking the unthinkable got me thinking about this a lot more just a few weeks ago. Shirky traverses the issues of ownership, control, quality, economics and impact of digital technologies in his article – focusing in on his argument that…

Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. For a century, the imperatives to strengthen journalism and to strengthen newspapers have been so tightly wound as to be indistinguishable. That’s been a fine accident to have, but when that accident stops, as it is stopping before our eyes, we’re going to need lots of other ways to strengthen journalism instead.

Not everyone agree that newspapers are under threat, however.  John Hartigan, CEO of News Limited in Australia claims that the future of newspapers is bright. He is critical of the traditional ‘knowing a little about a lot‘ approach of newspapers to reporting the news, and sees the future involving teams of highly educated people with specialist knowledge providing more in depth news and analysis. He is not a fan at all of the notion of “citizen journalists” and dismisses claims often made by bloggers that theirs is a fresh, more democratic medium, by saying “Amateur journalism trivialises and corrupts serious debate“.

If you’re looking for some perspectives and themes to fire up your students’ thinking, then I’d recommend Ryan Scholin’s post on 10 obvious things about the future of newspapers (it would also pay to read his original post from 2007 to get an idea of what has changed.)

I’d love to hear stories of classes that participate in this debate, and the usefulness of the debategraph map as a focus for this.

When I started blogging back in 2004 I was by no means the first, although blogging was still more of a novelty here in New Zealand, and seen as something that only “geeky” people did. But 2004 was also the year that Merriam-Webster.com’s most searched-for definition was blog, and in noting this, Time Magazine commented on the phenomenon of blogging by saying “Radio had its golden age in the 1930s. In the 1950s, it was television’s turn. Historians may well date the golden age of the blog from 2004” then asking, “How long can it last? Who knows?” Two years later Time announced their person of the year is “you”! 2004 was also the yer that Technorati started!

Here at the end of 2008, the latest figures from the annual Technorati “State of the Blogosphere” provide ample evidence that blogging is now a well established part of our daily lives. As in their past reports the team at Technorati have  analyzed the trends and themes of blogging, but for the 2008 study, they resolved to go beyond the numbers of the Technorati Index to deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind. For the first time, they surveyed bloggers directly about the role of blogging in their lives, the tools, time, and resources used to produce their blogs, and how blogging has impacted them personally, professionally, and financially.

The report is well worth a read, and delivers on what it sets out to provide – with ample evidence of the extent to which blogs now pervade our daily lives, illustrating that blogs have now moved well beyond simply the domain of the hobby-ist, and now provide the opportunity for income generation, product placement and political and public policy campaigning. How things change in just four years!

It’s that time of year again when people come out with their various lists and predictions…

My good friend Douglas up at the MoE alerted me to this post on the Guardian website, titled 100 top sites for the year ahead. The list is nicely categorised so you can find sites that meet your needs easily. The last list the Guardian published was in 2006, and the authors note that the biggest changes since then have been in the fields of collaborative online services that let people in different locations work simultaneously on projects.

Another point of note is the reference to the fact that many of the sites on this list weren’t around in 2006 – a sign of the rapid development of these sorts of tools. So too, a question about how many of them may still be around in another 2-3 years, given the economic climate that may not smile so favourably on free-for-use sites such as many of these are – something that Suzie has commented on on her blog.

Technorati have recently released their annual State of the Blogosphere report. Since 2004, thier annual study has unearthed and analyzed the trends and themes of blogging, but for the 2008 study, they resolved to go beyond the numbers of the Technorati Index to deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind. The 2008 report has some interesting depth presented in five special sub-reports:

• Who Are the Bloggers?
• The What And Why of Blogging
• The How of Blogging
• Blogging For Profit
• Brands Enter The Blogosphere

The 2008 report reveals just how pervasive blogs have become , and the extent to which they are a part of our daily lives. The figures supporting this vary from survey to survey, but all are now consistently high!

The understanding of what a blog is is changing – once known as an abbreviated form of Web-log, this report reveals a relatively equal distribution of use of blogs across all age, gender and occupation categories.  In addition, the figures reveal that blogging is now a truly global phenomenon.

Technorati defines the Active Blogosphere as: The ecosystem of interconnected communities of bloggers and readers at the convergence of journalism and conversation. As the Blogosphere grows in size and influence, the lines between what is a blog and what is a mainstream media site become less clear. I found it interesting to note, for instance, that in the US, 95% of the top 100 US newspapers have reporter blogs now.

Perhaps the other thing that stands out in this report is the emergence of brands and branding of blogs, and the fact that there is now good money to be made from certain genres of blog.

For anyone interested in the emerging trends associate with blogs and blog use this is a fascinating report. Probably the most interesting section for me is the “what and why of blogging” which reveals all sorts of interesting data about why people blog, what they blog about and how they measure the success of their blog. Although Education doesn’t specifically get a mention (doesn’t even appear in the top 18 topics blogged about!), there’s plenty in this report to inform thinking about the use of blogs and blogging in educational contexts.

Brilliant comment from Miguel Guhlin on Al Upton’s blog which I just have to refer to here. Writing with just a modicum of hyperbole, Miguel illustrates the tensions that I referred to in my previous blog entry, of a system that is resistant to the very essence of change that is impacting on it from every quarter, and where the pedagogy of assessment continues to drive the pedagogy of instruction!

Al, as a school district administrator myself, but also, as a citizen of the United States, I have to confess that I’m a bit grateful your blog has been shut down and Australian children denied the opportunity to engage in global collaobrations and learning. Here’s why:

In the United States, blogs are distractions to the real job of educators to improve student achievement on accountability measures. Blogs, as tools for online publishing, engage students with access to an authentic audience–that sometimes, let’s be honest, can be TOO authentic if you get what I mean–and may result in divergent learning that is, to be frank, unsuitable to preparing children for yesterday’s workforce. We want children who are literate, but lack that attitude that would hurt their careers and survival in our workforce…it is our goal to establish (and we’ve done an excellent job aside from your blogging efforts) a, what Paulo Friere calls, “domesticating” educational experience.

Secondly, you’ve no doubt read of books like Wikinomics, The World is Flat, and A Whole New Mind…these are books that speak to the interconnectedness of world affairs, peer productions–companies working in tandem across the globe to create a new product marketed to millions on the web–necessary in the future. I’m honestly grateful that Australians will be barred from this world, prevented from joining peer producers in the world. To be honest, in the United States, there’s been a bit of concern that you Australians (not to mention New Zealanders) have been engaging too rapidly in this new virtual world.

It’s a relief to know that you’ll be “dummed down” to join the United States in a slower realization of these truths. Some argue that we need to distinguish between using technology as a way to empower students, facilitate communication/collaboration at a distance rather than using technology to domesticate our students, helping them achieve basic skills that won’t get them much farther anyways. But you see, in this competitive, global economy, disempowering YOUR children may allow mine to do well.

Al, take a hit for the opposite team. Rejoice that my students will whip your’s when it comes to working online, and that you won’t have distractions when drilling students in basic skills.

With appreciation for the lack of leadership in your part of the world,
Miguel Guhlin Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://mguhlin.net
U.S. School District Administrator

My Twitterific has been running hot in the past few minutes as news about Jabiz Raisdana, otherwise known as Intrepid Teacher, spreads through the blogosphere. The story is a fascinating commentary on the times we live in. Raisdana, a teacher of 8th grade English and humanities classes has been sacked by his school after a member of the community took objection to some material he had posted on his personal blog. Raisdana explains in his latest post:

Due to a lapse in my judgment regarding material posted on my personal blog, my school has asked me to resign. I want you, as the readers of this blog, to know that I am agreeing to this decision without reservation, and I understand the steps taken by the school to protect its reputation.

Now I don’t want to explore the ins and outs of why this happened in this post – what I am fascinated by is the post that Raisdana made to his students in his class blog and, more significantly, the feedback and comments he received from his students and other teachers. Raisdana is obviously active in the online world – he has several blogs operating, has accounts with skype, twitter etc and contributes to online photo collections etc. More significantly, it would appear that he has been successful in using these tools within his classroom teaching, using them to engage his students in powerful learning experiences. The following examples of comments from his students in response to his Good-bye post illustrate the impact of this…

• Language arts was our favorite class. It was really the only class we had to really think.

• I will continue posting on my blog regularly. You won’t be able to read my posts, but they will be inspired by you.
• Now the blog is like one of my life. I love to write on that.
• I just wanted you to know that I enjoyed every second of Humanities..and that’s basically because you were there teaching us. It was new, fun and at the same time..educational.
• You made Language Arts class more fun, and more interesting. We didnt sit there and read text books, or memorize vocabulary… you taught us about life.
• I know I’m the quiet kid who never says much, and thats just the way I am right now. But, you’ve got me thinking. You have us all thinking. We won’t forget you, Mr. Raisdana.
• When I first saw you I thought that you were some loony computer guy that was inspired about how cool programs are on the computer, but now I look at you as a man who didn’t care about grades but on how we could succeed throughout life, a man who encourages growing awareness on all the world, someone who knows that everyone is ignorant including himself but tries his very best to find out more, a person that strives for cooperation, not competition, and last but not least a man that knows exactly who he wants to influence people.
• I can’t believe this. Just as we were getting the feel of our blogs, the whole thing came to a screeching halt….You are one of the best teachers I’ve ever had, and I will always remember you. I’ve learned more in the one semester you taught me than I ever have before. I appreciate everything. A lot. Thanks again, and I’m going to miss you a lot.
• I’m proud to have been your student and I always boast about how good a teacher you were.

These are just a few of the comments – it’s worth a read of them all! Seems to me that we could do with a few more Jabiz Raisdanas in our classrooms. In my job I am constantly seeking to encourage and enthuse teachers to do exactly what this young man has been doing – let’s hope this story helps inspire others as they read the testimony of the students, and not (as I fear it may) be used by the naysayers as evidence of the perils of getting involved in the online world!

As Raisdana notes in his personal blog, there are many lessons to be learned here about things such as online identities, teachers as role models, institutionalized education, etc. I’m sure they’ll all get a good airing in future blog entries – but lets for the moment savour those comments from the students, and consider what they have to tell us about the efforts of a passionate and dedicated teacher who incorporates the use of online technologies in a way that is enriching and empowering!

I’ve blogged a few times in the past about Quintura and Quintura for Kids – and have been privileged to be a part of the beta testing programme of this exciting new search engine.

Today I received notification from Yakov and his team announcing the release of their Quintura for site search. As you’ll note, I’ve added this feature to the left hand menu of my blog site. It’s easy to do for any web site – simply visit the Quintura site, click on the “embed” button and copy and the paste the generated code into the appropriate place on your website. I had to do a little playing around to make it fit the menu on my blog – some sorting to do with the sizing of the column and a stray div command, but it works now – wahoo!

Thanks to Jacov and his team for this brilliant product – making search so visual appeals very much to the way I like to go hunting for things.

I was fascinated to read Robin Good’s report on the annual Technorati Blog Statistics and Trends report that has just been released by Technorati CEO, Dave Silfy.

Not surprisingly the report shows that the uptake of blogs continues to escalate at an explosive pace, but there are signs also that the “blogosphere” is maturing, with some definite patterns of use establishing in what the data reveals. Some indications of this growth include:

• The blogosphere is now 70 million weblogs wide

• About 120,000 new weblogs are created each day, or…
• 1.5 million posts per day
• 1.4 new blogs are created every second
• 17 posts are made every second

Robin’s post is the place to head for a fuller summary of what the report says, but a couple of things did stand out for me.

The first relates to the internationalisation of blogs – and the language they are written in. According to the Technorati stats for this year, the Japanese are now the world’s greatest blogging nation (based on langauge of blogs). Of the top four languages for blogging, Japanese retakes the top spot from the last report, with 37% (up from 33%) of the posts followed closely by English at 36% (down from 39%). Next after these two front-running languages is Chinese which comes in third at 8% (down from 10% in 2006, and fourth is Italian at 3% (up from 2% last year).

The other thing that caught my eye is the data indicating a rapid rise in the use of Tagging. The report noted that 35% of all February 2007 posts used tags. As Silfy states; “we???re seeing explosive growth in the tags index. People are clicking on tags, people are using tags, Google features tagged media in its results pages.. Is this the sign we’ve been looking for to confirm the establishment of folksonomies as a legitimate contender for how we organise and mange information>

Read the full State of the Live Web report by David Silfy in its original version with additional graphs and stats here:
The State of the Live Web, April 2007

There are also links to the previous year’s Technorati reports at the bottom of Robin Good’s post – these provide very useful reading to make comparisons and discover where the trends are.

It’s official – the Time magazine Person of the Year for 2006 is “YOU”!!! In a world where stories of war, political intrigue and natural disasters have dominated the news, Time magazine has chosen a different perspective for 2006…

look at 2006 through a different lens and you’ll see another story, one that isn’t about conflict or great men. It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

Supporting this view of an online world where community and collaboration is occurring is the Guardian’s list of The new 100 most useful sites. (Thanks Douglas for the pointer). Their list shows a dramatic change in emphasis, with a proliferation of social networking technologies, usefully categorised. The one category that is missing, they note, is mobile technologies, but hte list authors see this as a possible addition in 2007.

And from the Online Education Database is a list of their Top 100 Education Blogs. These were selected from the 5000-odd blogs that are tracked through Technorati. I’m not sure about the categorisation they’ve used, but there are some really useful blogs to check out here! (Including yours truly – see under the “Technology” category!)