With all the other communication options out there, it's a wonder that blogging still exists.
In many ways, Twitter and Facebook have dominated the market for communication between us and our vast number of friends. These tools allow us to express our feelings about the latest news in our lives and broadcast them to a huge audience of, theoretically, people who care about us.
Blogging differs only insomuch as there is an expectation that you will write more than a couple of sentences. Also, it is a medium for which you can choose to be anonymous...although one could argue as to the effectiveness of this (since most of you reading this know who I am). I think that blogging is the best (and maybe only) tool online that is most similar to keeping a journal. My only huff is that I wouldn't want people snooping around in my journals...so why would I want them to read my blog?
Nevertheless, blogs, along with all the other technological fancies we've used this quarter, are yet another tool for us evaluate whether we want to pursue or not. Certainly, as teachers, blogging does enable us to become one step closer to forming a professional community. However, I think that there are more effective tools that we could use to form that professional alliance, maybe even wikis or a simple discussion forum platform.
Somehow, despite these months of writing publicly, I still feel that the words here ought to be more private. I suppose that's why Blogger gives you the option of customizing your audience.
All great things to be thinking about with so many options now available to us. I like to think of a "blog" as a blank notebook that can be filled with lots of things. We can write a few sentences and a link. We can "Think out loud" about a classroom project we're planning and get feedback. We can do more reflective journaling.
ReplyDeleteAnd those different forms of writing probably do sometimes call for different privacy settings.
But teachers use this "blank notebook" in multiple ways. Keep imagining the possibilities!