Blog Reports

Here you will find the requirements and guidelines for the assignment followed by an assignment helper to get you started!

View a video about the assignment:

Description:

The purpose of this assignment is to promote reflection and consideration of INFO 200 course content throughout the semester. Using blogs and blog posts allows you to gain experience with blogs as a tool, as well as give you the opportunity to “think out loud” with the course content. Let your blogging be a reflection of your own curiosity and ideas about our course and follow your thoughts where they go! Please work towards finding your “blogging voice.” Writing in the first person is encouraged! Ponder, for example, how the concepts you are encountering might inform your practice as a librarian or information professional. With the guided topics listed here, your blogging reflections can ultimately become drafts of various sections of your research paper. (Course Learning Outcomes: #1, #3, #4, #6, #7, #8)

Requirements:

You will use your blog on the Community Blogging platform for the School of Information students in this class. Six posts will include substantial content, citations, and reflective thinking. Two posts – an introduction and final reflection – will count as part of participation for INFO 200. Blog posts 2-7 should become parts of your research paper and are worth 25 points.

Note: You will be writing on the open Web within the community blogging site. Be mindful of balanced, well-articulated arguments, statements, and sharing. 

Blog Posts:

Students will author eight blog posts of at least 300 words. Each post has a guided topic for you to explore. For example, you will write a post describing the information community you have chosen as your focus for the semester that may become the foundation of your description in the final research paper. Other posts require you to detail further insights about your chosen community, such as the use of emerging technologies, and the community’s information seeking behaviors. Most posts will require research in LIS scholarly or professional literature. Be sure to cite your sources at the end of your post, to link out to other URLS when appropriate, and to add images or embed media when appropriate. This assignment also serves as a way for students to find their professional, online voice.

Blog Post #1: Introduce yourself by describing an information community in which you belong. The community description can be as creative as you want it to be; your description can be written as a straight-forward textual description, or it can even be presented as a narrative in an imaginative story, photographic journey, digital artwork, video/vlog, or audio podcast. Share whatever information you would like to about your community, utilizing whatever medium helps you to highlight your own personal interests and passions. Utilize resources in Module 1 to get started. This blog post is part of your participation grade. This blog is not focused on the information community you wish to research throughout this course, but about an information community you belong to. Do not write about the community you will research throughout the course. You will begin your work with your chosen community with blog report #2. 

Blog Post #2: Describe the Information Community you are choosing to explore for the course and the research paper. Utilize Fisher and Fulton’s definition and characteristics of Information Communities to describe your choice to the class.

Blog Post #3: Report on the information-seeking behavior(s) and information needs of your chosen community. Utilize theories covered in the course lectures and assigned readings. Make sure to properly cite the peer-reviewed studies relating to the information behaviors of your information community that you have found so far.

Blog Post #4: Summarize one of the peer-reviewed studies relating to the information behaviors of your information community you have found. Briefly describe the author’s credentials, the scope of the study, the methodology, and findings of the piece. What insights did you glean from this study about the information behaviors of your community?

Blog Post #5: Explore the professional literature and resources included in the Teaching and Learning module and write a post related to how libraries and information centers create learning and programming opportunities for your chosen community. What innovative services are in place to support your community’s curiosity? You may also suggest some ideas for learning programming based on gaps you discover in services to your group.

Blog Post #6: From your exploration of the literature and the resources included in the Global Information Communities Module, craft a blog post related to the issues your information community may face on an international scale. Consider, for example, how similar info communities to yours seek and create information in the context of their culture. Try to discover whether your international counterparts bring social, gender, environmental, and economic justice to light. Consider ways that you can share your discoveries and observations in hopes that your experience can prepare and even educate fellow information professionals.

Blog Post #7: Create a media-based artifact (infographic, video, slideshow, audio presentation, etc) from your research and explorations of your community’s use of emerging technologies. How do they use technology to advance the community or share information? Flex your creativity with an artifact that conveys what you learned about your community’s use of technology and share your artifact on your blog.

Blog Post #8: This blog post is a personal reflection on information communities, academic writing, and the research process. What are you taking away from your ongoing explorations and research? How has your writing evolved throughout the course? What experiences will inform your practice as an information professional moving forward? 

Submission:

  • Eight reflective blog posts worth a total of 25 points. 
  • Each of the eight required blog posts will be posted by the prescribed due date on one’s WordPress blog site. 
  • Blog posts must be at least 300 words in length. 
  • Note: WordPress does not allow one easily to add a “hanging indent” for references listed in APA 7 format.  
  • Depending on your professor, you might need to submit all of your blog posts to Canvas OR you might need to submit two times during the semester after completing Blog Report #4 and once again after completing Blog Report #7. . This information will be listed on your course syllabus. On the due date, submit the Blog Report URL to Canvas for grading. 
  • All assignments are due on Sundays unless otherwise noted and must be turned in by 11:59 p.m. PT. 
  • If life circumstances require students to request an extension, please do so several days before the assignment is due or as soon as possible. 

Grading Criteria:

Assignment Helper- Blog Reports

The blog report assignment encourages you to think and reflect on the research you are gathering related to the information behaviors of your community. This assignment helper is a step-by-step guide on how to successfully complete blog reports for INFO 200. Each blog’s specific requirements are broken down and sample blog posts from previous semesters included. Make sure to look these over, especially if you are feeling stuck. You will also find helpful links to lectures, guides, and tutorials below.

Reminder: These posts are most certainly intended to be recycled and remixed for use in future INFO 200 assignments. This is not “self-plagiarism.”

Useful Links:

Tutorial: https://ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu/info/how-to/get-started

Student Privacy Options and Background: https://ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu/info/how-to/privacy-options

How To Pages: https://ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu/info/how-to 

Making the Most of Your Blog in INFO 200 – A Student’s Guide:  LINK

Troubleshooting (Groups): https://ischoolblogs.sjsu.edu/info/groups/community-site-tech-support/

Feedly Links: https://blog.feedly.com/get-the-right-content-on-your-feedly/

RSS Explained: https://ischool.sjsu.edu/post/rss-explained

Submitting Your Assignment:

  • Blog posts must be at least 300 words in length.
  • Spell and grammar check your posts. 
  • Take a break from blogging and come back later to manually proofread your post. 
  • Each of the eight required blog posts will need to be published by the prescribed due date by your instructor. 
  • Note: WordPress does not allow one easily to add a “hanging indent” for references listed in APA 7 format.  
  • At two points in time during the semester you will share your top level WordPress site URL to Canvas for grading. Once after completing Blog Report #4 and once again after completing Blog Report #7.
  • Depending on your professor, you might need to submit all of your blog posts to Canvas OR you might need to submit two times during the semester after completing Blog Report #4 and once again after completing Blog Report #7. . This information will be listed on your course syllabus. On the due date, submit the Blog Report URL to Canvas for grading. 
  • If life circumstances require students to request an extension, please do so several days before the assignment is due or as soon as possible.

Blog Post #2: Describe the Information Community you are choosing to explore for the course and the research paper. Utilize Fisher & Fulton’s definition and characteristics of Information Communities to describe your choice to the class.

  • Be sure to cite Fisher & Fulton from our course materials as part of your description as well as other readings and resources featured in the lectures.
  • What connections do you see between your chosen community and the definition of information communities?
  • What other readings and resources featured in the lectures do you feel may be useful in exploring with this community?
  • Cite other course resources or your own independent research as needed.
  • Take a look at the Post #2 samples for each of the Assignment Synthesis Examples. 

Blog Post #3: Report on the information-seeking behavior(s) and information needs of your chosen community. Utilize theories covered in the lectures and assigned readings and cite peer-reviewed studies relating to the information behaviors of your information community you’ve found so far.

  • Share some high level insights you have gleaned about your community and information behavior from researching in the LIS databases.
  • Highlight 2-3 articles that demonstrate how LIS researchers explore the community.
  • What methodologies are used to study the group?
  • How does the community use, find and create information? 
  • What theories of information behavior do you see in play?
  • Cite other course resources or your own independent research as needed.
  • Take a look at the Post #3 samples for each of the Assignment Synthesis Examples. 

Blog Post #4: Summarize one of the peer-reviewed studies relating to the information behaviors of your information community you have found. Briefly describe the author’s credentials, the scope of the study, the methodology, and findings of the piece. What insights did you glean from this study about the information behaviors of your community?

Choose a peer-reviewed study that focuses on your community’s information behaviors or practice. Do not choose a column or essay that may have also gone through peer review, but a research study with a literature review, methodology, findings, etc. If you need a refresher, Module 2 covered scholarly, peer-reviewed literature. Craft your post using the following template:

  • Citation in APA 7 format
  • Summary of the article that includes author credentials, the scope of the study, the methodology used, and an overview of the findings. This might be one or two paragraphs.
  • Then, write a paragraph or two that explores how the article informs what you know about your chosen community. What connections do you see to the course readings?  What further insights has this article sparked? What might you include in your literature review section of your research paper to highlight this study?
  • References in APA 7 format (as best as WordPress can do!)
  • Cite other course resources or your own independent research as needed.
  • Take a look at the Post #4 samples for each of the Assignment Synthesis Examples. 

Blog Post #5: Explore the professional literature and the resources included in the Teaching and Learning module and write a post related to how libraries and information centers create learning and programming opportunities for your chosen community. What innovative services are in place to support your community’s curiosity? You may also suggest some ideas for learning programming based on gaps you discover in services to your group. 

Blog Post #6: From your exploration of the literature and the resources included in the Global Librarianship Module, craft a blog post related to the issues your information community may face on an international scale. Consider, for example, how similar info communities to yours seek and create information in the context of their culture. Try to discover whether your international counterparts bring social, gender, environmental, economic, etc justice to light. Think of ways that you can share your discoveries and observations in hopes that your experience can prepare and even educate fellow information professionals. 

  • Blog Reports #5 & #6 can be written by exploring the professional literature (Library Journal, American Libraries, etc) or other resources related to your community.
  • Search for articles related to how libraries are offering learning programs for your community and how your community or a related community is being served on the global stage.
  • You may start these searches now and keep what you find for when you complete the upcoming modules and start writing.
  • Write Blog Reports #5 & #6 to fit into your research paper’s Discussion section, perhaps under headings such as “Learning Programming for Citizen Scientists” and “Library Services Around the World for Citizen Scientists.” This is not self-plagiarism!

Blog Post #7: Create a media-based artifact (infographic, video, audio, etc) from your research and explorations of your community’s use of emerging technologies. How do they use technology to advance the community or share information? Be as creative as you’d like!

Some popular tools students have used, as compiled by include:

Also, checkout  this helpful site: https://marketingtechblog.com/infographic-layouts/