Contextualizing the blogosphere: A comparison of traditional and novel user interfaces for the web

In this paper, we investigate how contextual user interfaces affect blog reading experience. Based on a review of previous research, we argue why and how contextualization may result in (H1) enhanced blog reading experiences. In an eyetracking experiment, we tested 3 different web-based user interfaces for information spaces. The StarTree interface (by Inxight) and the Focus-Metaphor interface are compared with a standard blog interface. Information tasks have been used to evaluate and compare task performance and user satisfaction between these three interfaces. We found that both contextual user interfaces clearly outperformed the traditional blog interface, both in terms of task performance as well as user satisfaction. © 2007 Laqua, S., Ogbechie, N. and Sasse, M. A

Blogging in the physics classroom: A research-based approach to shaping students' attitudes towards physics

Even though there has been a tremendous amount of research done in how to help students learn physics, students are still coming away missing a crucial piece of the puzzle: why bother with physics? Students learn fundamental laws and how to calculate, but come out of a general physics course without a deep understanding of how physics has transformed the world around them. In other words, they get the "how" but not the "why". Studies have shown that students leave introductory physics courses almost universally with decreased expectations and with a more negative attitude. This paper will detail an experiment to address this problem: a course weblog or "blog" which discusses real-world applications of physics and engages students in discussion and thinking outside of class. Specifically, students' attitudes towards the value of physics and its applicability to the real-world were probed using a 26-question Likert scale survey over the course of four semesters in an introductory physics course at a comprehensive Jesuit university. We found that students who did not participate in the blog study generally exhibited a deterioration in attitude towards physics as seen previously. However, students who read, commented, and were involved with the blog maintained their initially positive attitudes towards physics. Student response to the blog was overwhelmingly positive, with students claiming that the blog made the things we studied in the classroom come alive for them and seem much more relevant.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure

The Great Lecture Notes Debate Part Three – The Case For; the lecturers’ view

Continuing with our blog series “The Great Lecture Notes Debate” we hear from LSE International Development lecturers on why they think it’s a good ide

Why We Blog: An Essay in Four Movements

This essay comprises four parts, each by one of the co-bloggers at In the Middle (http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com). Karl Steel argues that the benefits of academic blogging outweigh its potential humiliations, and that academic conferences should post their papers publicly and allow for comments so that conferences, in a sense, never end. Graduate students and junior scholars should be encouraged to blog to help build a community and a trade in ideas, and to accustom them to the feelings of exposure and humiliation common to all writing, which will thereby train them to become more confident scholars. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen examines some of the difficulties posed by the age of e-medieval: an internet culture of negativity. Blogging entails finding strategies for managing harsh or off topic comments, as well as for coping with unwanted attention. Drawing on the pedagogical distinction Nancy Sommers makes between process and product, Mary Kate Hurley examines the role blogs might play in creating a communal space in which to share unfinished ideas. Blogs might be an ideal medium for the process of thinking, rather than the finished work of having had thought. Eileen A. Joy argues there may be more value in thinking and ‘‘working through’’ our scholarship online, in an ‘‘open’’ environment that promotes and invites democratic, catholic, and convivial support, as well as the accidental tourist and silent voyuer, than there is in the traditional ‘‘finished product’’ of a journal article or book. It pleads, further, for a better awareness of the fact that intellectual property is always co-extensive and communal. Part of a special issue on "E-Medieval: Teaching, Research, and the Net," eds. Elaine Treharne and Orietta da Rold for Literature Compass

December 5, 2011: Why Do We Mourn?

Blog post, “Why Do We Mourn?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America

April 21, 2009: Why Do We Need Religion?

Blog post, “Why Do We Need Religion?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America

May 11, 2020: Why Can’t We Be Reasonable? Because There Is No Such Thing As Reason

Blog post, “Why Can’t We Be Reasonable? Because There Is No Such Thing As Reason“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America

'By teachers for teachers' : innovative, teacher-friendly publishing of practitioner research

This is a story – with pictures and hyperlinks, rather like a blog – of how we came to develop some innovative and teacher-friendly ways for teacher-research to be 'published', 'made public', 'communicated', 'publicized' or 'shared', both in oral form and in writing. As we show and tell what we have done, we also explain why

Before we begin again, I want to tell you why last year was horrendous [Blog post]

The education year is about to begin but I can’t let 2018 go. Not yet. I want to share with you how last year was for me, a Kamilaroi woman, a former schoolteacher and now a university lecturer and educational researcher. My urge to share is simply because I need to be persistent and I have to keep on trying to communicate how it is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, like me, in Australia today. I consistently investigate the biases and taken for granted assumptions upheld in our society in my work as a researcher and I want to tell you that last year was absolutely horrendous for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. And yet, it was also a significant year where we celebrated the strength and persistence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and we began discussions about truth telling and acknowledging the detrimental shared history of colonial Australia