Timing in take-up of new technologies

I was thinking about how I could better integrate weblogs effectively in future courses for graduate students. The trouble with introducing new technologies during a course is that the situation is somewhat artifical and the time is brief, neither of which support the deep incorporation of new practices. Reading a paper by Efimova, (2004) I was struck by how straightforward and accessible her list of weblogger activities was, and that it might offer reasonable guidelines and directions to start students off who are unfamiliar with weblogging.
They are:
Developing Ideas:
–Finding ideas/information/
–Capturing, articulating and organizing ideas.
–Initiating and following conversations– “blogologues” (Jenkins, 2003)

Developing relations with others:
–Self-representation and leaving traces
–Finding experts and cross-disciplinary connections.
–Developing, maintaining and activating connections with others.

Having those as a guide and as possible categories might be helpful to pointing out the possibilities of weblogs as well as allowing students to find the kinds of functionality that are most personally effective for them.