Paper Title

To Whom Are These Texts Valuable?

Kurtis Scaletta

Abstract

This project reflects an attempt to create a fair taxonomy of the major ways blogs are used, particularly by college students. The initial taxonomy is synthesized from a review of the literature from several disciplines. This taxonomy is then altered to be more inclusive of social, personal blogs, which are under-represented in the literature. The taxonomy is used to develop a survey of bloggers on the nature of their blogs and blog entries, inquiring into the size and familiarity of their audiences, the subject of their posts, and their principle motivations for blogging.

Full Paper [pdf]

About the Author

Kurtis Scaletta is a Senior Instructional Multimedia Consultant for the Digital Media Center (OIT) at the University of Minnesota. He has an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction, Program in Learning Technologies from Minnesota (2006), and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Maine (1995). His interest include blogs and wikis, educational games, and learning assessment. You can read his blog, play his games, and find out more at http://www.tc.umn.edu/~kurtis.