Scenario: You have been tasked with compiling five blogs that professional development trainers or educators at any level would find useful and relevant.

Search the Internet for blogs that would be relevant to the group you identified. One way to search for blogs is by using Google™ blogs.

Type in keywords relevant to the audience on which you will focus. For example, you may type in professional development for teachers or IT training for managers. You may be as broad or as specific as you would like.

Write a minimum 1,400-word paper that addresses the following:

· Describe what a blog is, how it is used, its advantages and disadvantages, and how it may be applied as training tools for knowledge creation and enhancement.

· Discuss the audience of educators you defined and how the importance of blogs and blog content to this group.

Incorporate a paragraph for each of the five blogs you identified that addresses the following:

· Brief description of each blog, including frequency of posts and timeliness

· Summary of the type of content provided, including one to two examples of topics and how these are relevant to your audience

· Level of engagement from audience members: Does the blog invite comments? What types of content are blog followers contributing? Are they asking questions? Are they adding to or advancing the dialogue?

· Assessment of credibility and reliability of the blog: What are some indicators that this blog is reputable?

· Reputation: How does a blog’s content affect the blogger’s online reputation? How do a reader’s comments to a blog affect his or her online reputation?

Conclude with best practices for those who are new to blogs; for example, how they might get started, familiarizing themselves with blogs, selecting blogs to follow, and so forth.

Format your paper according to APA guidelines.