Reflections on Week 2

Assignment #2

The assignment for this week was to create and begin writing in this very blog using blogger.com. I have never created a blog before so I liked this task. Blogging is such a popular thing today that it makes sense to utilize them in the educational setting as well. Everyone has blogs from local reporters, to our university president to celebrities (though I would guess that some of the blogs of the rich and famous are probably maintained by personal assistants and other staff rather than the actual person). I wish I had time to maintain my own personal life blog; maybe once our child is born in December I will create one for all of the grandparents and other relatives who are so far away. Doing this blog really helped me to see just how easy it is. It’s as easy as typing an email. Anyone can do it! I think I might help my mom start one to post pictures and discussion about the murals that she does.

I liked looking at everyone else’s blogs. Even with the same exact assignment, it is amazing how different everyone’s blogs were (even when they may have shared a template). I think the uniqueness is one thing that makes blogs so great. There are no two blogs alike (kind of like snowflakes). On the same note, no two blogs will share the exact same view of the same subject, another great element of blogs. This has gotten me so interested in blogs that I am beginning to pursue further research into blogs and their impact on established news media. The growing popularity of blogs seems to be threatening the stability of some older established forms of media like newspapers and network news. After all, the bloggers were the ones to poke holes in the Dan Rather story about President Bush’s military service on 60 Minutes II. Before the time of blogs, stories often ran unchecked. Now there is a forum.

Course Material

Blogs can be very useful in education. I think blogging can help students to keep up on readings and course work by requiring weekly postings reflecting classroom content. The blog can help students develop critical thinking skills, something that many students lack. It will also force students to think more about what they are doing rather than just mindlessly read through materials or sit through class. Thoughtful reflections will help the students to learn so much more. By requiring students to post weekly, it also provides the instructor with a means of keeping tabs on student progress (who’s actually doing their readings) as well as monitoring their learning. I think it can help guide an instructor’s classroom content (online or in person) to reflect the apparent needs and interests that are reflected in the blogs.

I think it can also allow students a forum for elaborating more on how a particular classroom topic is meaningful to them. Time in the classroom is so short that now students can share further about topics in class. In this way, students are continuing to learn once the ‘official’ learning has ended. Students also have the ability to react to what others have written. I know at times I need to cut off good class discussions and a blog would allow the discussion to continue without time constraints.

The blog is so new that I think we are really just scratching the surface of its possibilities in education. For instance, in an English class that may be reading a particularly difficult novel, students could post entries on characters they identify with or perceived symbolism they discover. Other students who may be struggling with the same book can see what his/her classmates are writing and a light bulb may go on. In this way, students can actually teach each other! It also allows students to provide feedback about certain assignments and the instructor can determine if the student really learned what they were supposed to learn. There are other more obvious benefits like not having to print off papers and keep track of all of that paperwork. An instructor only needs internet access to read students’ assignments.

While I knew what a blog was prior to the start of this chapter, I did not know all of the terminology associated with it (i.e. ‘blogroll). I would never have thought that there were so many official categories of blogs. I have seen them for many different topics ranging from the political to the personal but I really hadn’t thought about the full potential of the blog. I think the best part of a blog is that you do not need any special software to use it. You only need to have an internet connection and an account (mostly free) on some type of blogging related website. I think this is the best part because blogging is not limited to those with money and high-end software packages. I think bloggers provide a much broader array of perspectives than out oligopolistic media of today. I think this ease of creating one’s own blog is what makes blogging so desirable. It allows us ‘little people’ to express our perspectives and once posted on the internet...there is no limit to the number of other people who will see it. That’s something network news cannot provide and I think that is a key to the popularity of blogging.

I really like this site: Top 100 Educational Blog Sites. It was created December 20, 2006 there are just a couple that do not work and the blogs it links to are for the most part up-to-date.

Netiquette
I found this link on Reuters talking about manners on online social networking sites (I also posted this to the list serve).
Reuters