Productive Blogging

I read an article today entitled "Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students." This article is on Campus Technology and while this site is geared toward degree/certificate programs, I find that it has a great deal of useful information for workforce development/non-credit programs as well.

To summarize, the 5 mistakes are:
1. Ineffective Contextualization
2. Unclear Learning Outcomes
3. Misuse of the environment
4. Illusive grading practices
5. Inadequate time allocation

To apply these to blogging with our students/clients I took away the following:
1. There should be a clear reason for the blog. Is it to discuss trends, technology, business?
2. Your target audience needs to know where it is, what it is and how to use it. Some will take more time than others.
3. Blogs are not wikis or chat rooms. "The essential difference between a blog and other online tools is that it is intended to be an individual publication: a one-way monologue or self-post to which others may comment but do not contribute. The original post remains as the person who posted it wanted it to be."
4. If you are going to use a blog as a tool in one of your classes, make sure the students understand the learning outcome. Is it online proficiency? Learning to analyze and articulate a position? If they don't know what you are expecting you are setting them up to fail.

Please let us know if you have successfully incorporated a blog into your campus or program.