I blogged about blogging last week, but this weeks reading was also on blogging and brought out a few points that I would like to talk about. Wilber's Chapter 3 talkedd a lot about the benefits blogging has for students. Blogging encourages them to write and gives them an audience. As a reluctant blogger, I have never been concerned about having an audience for my writing. I've never been much of a writer to begin with and never write for personal enjoyment. But after reading about how much students enjoy reading their classmate's comments and love knowing that someone else is actually going to read their thoughts, I decided to read over all my comments and see how they made me feel. I surprised to see that I was actually a little disappointed that a couple of my blogs did not have any comments. Although I have never cared much about the audience of a blog, I suppose I should have known I would have some invested emotion in it based on how disappointing it is when I think I have posted the most hilarious facebook status and nobody likes it.
Admittedly, I get extremely self-concious if I think too much about having an audience. It definitely influences what I decide to say and what I leave out. The amount of thought I put into a blog also determines how much I care if someone actually reads it and enjoys it. I doubt I will mind if no one comments on this one because it isn't very thought out or extraordinary, even in my opinion.
I also thought that Wilber brought out some good points about blogging in the couple of chapters that we read for class. I'm not big on writing either, but I found that with blogging, it has encouraged me to write and I'm finding myself writing more than ever on a more regular basis. Not because I have an audience, but because it is completely different than anything I've done. Although, I believe using blogging in an ELA classroom will help students see a purpose to their writing, especially if they have an audience and comments on what they blog. I love the idea of using blogging in the classroom and plan to try and use it next semester when I student teach.
ReplyDeleteBefore this class, I actually started an advice blog and was really happy and excited about it for almost 3 months. I would post every Friday and try and make them as fascinating and helpful as possible.
ReplyDeleteHowever, when I didn't get a large audience (I had three followers who were all my family members) I was disappointed and the blog stopped.
What I took away from that Blog experience is that sometimes one has to keep on doing what one enjoys doing, even if it doesn't turn out how one wanted.
And that's the dangerous game we play with Blogs. Like you said Jessica, you felt a lil disappointing when you invested your time and thought into something only to find out no one bothered to comment on it.
If we use Blogs in our classroom (Which I am sure I will most likely do), we as teachers must make sure that students do not feel like their thoughts are worth nothing. What T.O. does by forcing us to comment on at least two blogs is 1. Get us to think more about something someone has to say and 2. Make sure that we are motivated to keep on writing.
Overall, I like the idea of blogs but we just gotta be sure to make sure our students stay motivated!
I started a blog in my personal time and it is really frustrating to get off the ground. The first couple posts are really hard to write because you are not sure if anybody is actually reading them. It takes a very deliberate attempt to continue writing for it, but I think it will pay off in the end.
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