Introduction and Aim

Blogging, a term originated from the act of "Web-Logging", is a popular medium of communication that “can be initiated by anyone with a computer and internet connection” (Myers 2010: 263). Blogs (such as Blogger, WordPress, Blogsome etc.) enable users to share or "log" any of their thoughts, ideas and experiences with the rest of the world. Micro-blogging on the other hand is the latest variant of blogging which allows the user to publish very short messages approximately 140 characters in length and enables the user to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links (Kaplan and Haenlein 2011). Twitter, Tumblr and Jaiku are some of the popular micro-blogging services that have received much attention recently. Due to advances in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), many scholars have now come to believe that the uses and implications of such web-logging services are limitless to the extent that a large number of studies and investigations are carried out in different fields and genres to evaluate the functionality of blogs and micro-blogs.

In this light, the aim of this essay is to critically review prior studies and research papers on web-logging and comparatively analyse the uses and limitations of blogs and micro-blogs in educational settings.