I must admit that panic set in when I first heard I needed to blog for two reasons. I am not comfortable sharing my thoughts publicly, (I am on Facebook, but never post status updates and rarely comment on other’s posts) and more importantly, I’m not 100% sure what a blog is. Coincidentally, I also have my first online class this semester, so I guess I will be jumping into the online world with both feet!
Times have changed and technology has played a big part in that. I traveled to Australia 15 years ago where the only contact, besides postcards, I had with my family during my 5 months away were the phone calls I made every few weeks. The internet and email allowed me to keep in contact through individual and mass emails on subsequent trips to Asia and Africa years later. On a trip to Roatan in July 2010, I decided to create a blog rather than send the group email. This was my first and only experience with blogging to date and I wonder, what is a blog?
“A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world. Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.” (Blogger 2012)
Thomas and Brown note two elements for a successful blog, the “reader comments and external links.” (64) I checked my blog, and I only had one reader comment (though I did hear from some that they had trouble leaving a comment) and my blog has no external links.
So... was I blogging or not? I look forward to exploring and becoming part of the blogging community through my own blog, and following the blogs of others as there are still many questions in my mind including: Why do people blog? Who blogs? Who follows blogs? What role does, or could, blogging play in an elementary classroom?
Blogger, (2012). Blogger Tour. Retrieved January 18, 2012: http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g
Thomas, D. & Brown, J.s. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Seattle, WA: Create Space.
Video: Seth Godin & Tom Peters on Blogging. Retrieved January 18, 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=livzJTIWlmY&feature=player_embedded#!
I have been trying to answer the same question as you, “What is a blog?” It is interesting that you used a blog to track your travels and keep in touch with your family while out of the country. What was it that inspired you to blog your travels? Did it cause you to reflect in greater detail about your trip, and did it shape how you wanted to remember it?
ReplyDeleteI like the quote you posted, defining a blog, it sums up all of the things that a blog can be, outlining some type of boundary within which to blog.
I also wonder what role blogs can play in the elementary classroom. Perhaps it could be an effective forum to track our learning together in a project, or as a way to connect with another school, all in an effort to ask questions, imagine and interact beyond the traditional boundaries of the classroom.
If blogging requires posts and/or followers, then I think you are well on your way! Happy Blogging!
Nancy, you have asked some very good questions about blogging. Exactly what is a blog? Does having feedback on a blog a key criteria in what makes a blog legitimate? I personally have not used blogging in school, and until I began my Masters degree, I never wrote a blog myself. Actually, in all of my other courses, while writing blogs, I received zero comments. I know the professor read my blogs, but other than that I really felt like I was writing for no one. It was forced blogging. I began to realize that for a blog to be successful, the individual themselves need to set the rules. Some bloggers do not require feedback, while others go to great lengths to foster their community of followers.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me that your previous blogging experience was quite purposeful for your needs. This in itself tells me that you were indeed blogging.