Thing 1 & 2: Introduction and Blogging


Thing 1 – Introduction

Who is this course for?

This update of 23 Things for Digital Knowledge is aimed towards undergraduate and new students at The University of Edinburgh. The aim of the course is to introduce students to digital skills and concepts that will enhance their study and future professional life, and to the core technologies, software, services, and tools used across the University. 

If you are a postgraduate student, a staff member, or someone from outside the University then you may find topics of interest to you here as well. 

Course Structure

The first four things in this course, Introduction, Blogging, Digital Safety, and Digital Footprint, will set you up with an understanding of how to get the most out of the course and how to keep yourself safer while being an active participant and citizen in digital spaces. 

The next six things, Equality Diversity and Inclusion, Accessibility, Digital Citizenship, Copyright, OER, and Algorithms, is there to build knowledge and understanding of your responsibilities in digital spaces, and how those spaces can be improved for yourself and others. 

Things 11 through 16, Video, Audio, Digital Learning Spaces, Collaborative Tools, Digital Study, and  
Digital Curation introduce many of the digital tools that you will use across your studies at The University of Edinburgh. 

Things 17 through 20 Critical Digital Literacy, Reference and Citation Skills, AI and Ethical consideration, and Digital Wellbeing take a look at some academic and personal ethical practice. 

Things 21 through to 23 wrap up the course by broadening the scope of your online profile, participation, and reflective practice. 

Course Materials

This course makes use of LinkedIn Learning video tutorials. Access to LinkedIn Learning is provided for all University of Edinburgh staff and students. But don’t worry if you’re not a member of staff or student at the University, there’s plenty of content for you too. 

Information on how to use LinkedIn Learning can be found here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/is-skills/linkedin-learning  

You can also choose to sign up to the 23 Things for Digital Knowledge mailing list.  

The mailing list sends out an email once a week during the supported season of the course (September – June) and once monthly outside of the supported season. The emails provide overviews of the Things, notification of when 23 Things events are scheduled, and any updates to the course.


    Thing 2: Blogging

    What are blogs?

    A blog (a truncation of the term weblog) is a website where content is regularly updated by one or more authors. Entries are generally informal, reflective, and moderate in length. Usually blogs are organised in reverse-chronological order with the most recent blog post at the top.

    Benefits of blogging

    It’s not uncommon for new bloggers to feel a bit apprehensive about writing down their thoughts and sharing them online for anyone to see, however there are many reasons why blogging can be useful to you: 

    1. Blogging about what you’ve seen or done is a good way to incorporate reflective practice into your learning journey and professional life. 
    2. Blogging can help you to keep a record of your skills, experience, publications, interests, events you’ve participated in, and awards you’ve won.  This can be useful for your career development, when you’re applying for funding and jobs or working towards qualifications. 
    3. Blogging is a great way to develop your professional profile; it enables you to share your ideas and engage in conversation with peers outside your local area to develop a wider professional network. 
    4. Blog posts can be tagged to organise and collate content on different topics, and to identify posts of interest on a specific theme. Our staff and students across the University of Edinburgh use blogging in a variety of ways, and there are multiple services and options for different blogging needs. 

    Academic Blogging Service

    The Academic Blogging Service is the University’s centrally supported blogging serviceThe service provides staff and students with a range of different blogs to support professional development and learning, teaching and research activitiesThe Academic Blogging Service supports a number of platforms that host different types of blogs including Learn, PebblePad and the WordPress service, blogs.ed.ac.uk. 

    Blogs for undergraduate and taught postgraduate students 

    There are many reasons you may use blogging as an undergraduate or taught postgraduate student. For example, many courses now include the use of blogs for reflection or as a piece of assessed work. In these cases, the blogs will be created by your course organiser on Blogs.Ed, within Learn, or on PebblePad, our academic ePortfolio platform. 

    If you are looking for a blog to use as personal space to develop your own academic profile, PebblePad is the best solution for you. As our academic ePortfolio platform, it has built-in blogging features which are easy to use.

    Learn more about PebblePad and how to sign up. 

    Blogs for staff and postgraduate research students 

    Blogs.ed allows staff and postgraduates research students to quickly and easily set up their own blog using an online form.  Blogs.ed can be used to host:  

    • Personal blogs, to promote your research and professional development and to provide a place to reflect on your ideas. 
    • School, departmental, or other community blogs. 
    • Course blogs for teaching and learning. 

    Research postgraduate students may also want a blog for their research group or community, we recommend: 

    External Blogging Platforms 

    There are a wide range of public blogging platforms on the internet that you may also choose to use including WordPress.com and Blogger.  If you set up a blog on an external platform, please be aware of your Digital Footprint and Digital Safety.  

    If you choose to create a WordPress blog we’d recommend using the free Managed WordPress Hosting service to start out. A great guide to creating a WordPress blog and website is available on the LinkedIn WordPress Essential Training course starting from Choosing a WordPress host. 

    For information on setting up and using Blogger the Blogger Getting Started Guide is a great start. 

    Why blog for 23 Things? 

    You don’t need to register a blog with us to work through the content on 23 Things for Digital Knowledge. However, blogging can enrich your experience of the course, and provides a space to try out each Thing and reflect on your learning. It’s also a great way to evidence your participation and continued professional development in order to receive recognition in the form of an Open Badge, or if you are working towards an award or certificate.  

    If you are unsure about how to blog or reflect, you may want to start by reading up on Ways of reflecting – The Reflection Toolkit 

    If you have registered a blog with 23 Things, please tag any blog posts related to the course with 23ThingsEdUni. This allows us to aggregate these posts into our Community Blog so that all participants can read and share in the 23 Things experience. Tagging your blog posts with the number of the Thing, e.g. Thing1, also helps to identify and collate posts on the same topic. 

    LinkedIn Learning: Using categories and tags (WordPress Essential Training) 

    WordPress support page on using tags 

    How to complete Thing 2

    Step 1

    Create a blog. (If you already have your own blog skip down to step 2.) Use the information above to decide which is the most appropriate blogging platform for you. 

    Step 2

    Register your blog using the form below.

    Remember, you don’t need to blog or register a blog with us to work through the content on 23 Things for Digital Knowledge. Blogging does enrich your experience of the course, allowing a space to try out the Things and reflect on your experience, and can be a great tool to show evidence of Continued Professional Development. The blog also provides a way to evidence your participation and to receive recognition (earn and receive an Open Badge).

    Register Your Blog


      Yes - StaffYes - StudentNo


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