UrBlog

Finally at the end of July I get around to adding up this experiment, and concluding that it was a glorious failure, with some local success. I (reluctantly, and with eyes rolling) judge that there's essentially NO interest in the medium at W&L. Now why is that? What could/should I have done differently?

bloggery.wlu.edu ran through the 2004-2005 academic year, on a cast-off machine in my office, and supported 20 blogs. In an effort to provoke interest, I did an October IT Forum presentation and a December Faculty Institute hands-on workshop, and both of those activities resulted in requests for blogs to be set up... but nothing came of most of them. 9 of the 20 had no use at all; Wythe Whiting, Hongchu Fu, and I were the only users with any student involvement.

A few stats:

My blogs:
Urblog 13 entries 12 comments 18 authors
Anth230 143 entries 207 comments 25 authors
CCSinM 120 entries 49 comments 20 authors
EAS190 19 entries 7 comments 7 authors
Intr296 14 entries 49 comments 10 authors

Wythe's blogs
Cogblog 13 entries 897 comments [mostly spam] 3 authors
Society of Thought 15 entries 3 comments 7 authors

Hongchu's blog
Lit295 10 entries 3 comments 26 authors

Speaking for myself and my students, blogging was a very useful addition to the courses, but that's because I put a lot of emphasis on their experiments with the medium, and made specific assignments for postings and comments.