Best Blogs, Best Features, Best Practices

Digital Literacies Students are working on adding features, adjusting layouts, and improving design of their blogs this weekend.

In addition, the students will investigate several lists of "Best Blogs" from these (and other sources):

• The WEBBY Awards for Best Personal Blogs 2016
• SAUVEUR's Best Foodie Blogs 2016
• EBIZ List of Most Popular Blogs July 2017
• Southern Living's Blogger to Follow 2017

They will peruse the wide variety of blogs, observe how they function as a communication tool for a wide range of concerns, and see just what makes these blogs "the best."

Students will review a few or a few dozen blogs - and will select 3 blogs they find interesting, excellent, effective, beautiful, informative, etc.They will write a brief review of the three blogs they selected, and will provide a list of tips from each blog relating to these areas:

1. Best Visual Practices (Design, color, use of photography, use of fonts, layout, etc.)
2. Best Verbal Practices (Topic treatment, content, writing style, ethos, etc.)
3. Digital User Experience (Navigation, interaction, collateral content, social connectivity, etc.)

Students will post their reviews and share their "best practice findings" on their blogs.

Here are NOTES we made during our evaluation of "best blog practices." (We will formalize these more as we continue to develop our blogs.)