As my knowledge of the blog-medium grows, so does my curiosity. At the beginning of this class, I was....clueless? I kind of knew of the concept of blogging. I knew it was an on line journal/diary/howl space for anyone with access to a computer to post their feelings, thoughts angers and hopes to an audience. Like in any medium, the blogger needs a following and to have a following the blogger must be interesting. By interesting I mean entertaining. The the subject matter is important, politics for instance,is always a subject with a target on its back. Finance, another, as well as education, and I suppose self help blogs are all fertile ground for the eager blogger. The challenge for Mr. Ms. blogger is to be interesting/entertaining and to keep the spirit of the blog going. This seems like it becomes a challenge after a while. The well is only so deep.The various blogs I have reviewed in the past few weeks all have one thing in common. Though they may be of opposing sides politically, or blogs about education or children with disabilities,each blog is well written and, it seems, the blogger has done his or her homework.Further, the blogger has included links( something I still don't know how to do to) other articles on the same or similar topic(s). The link, (a further indicator of homework doing) is often as interesting/entertaining an article on the level of the preceding blog.
Without consistently good writing, with out a depth of thought a blog can run out of steam and devolve into a ranthole with nothing fresh to say and no one to say it too.
The blogs on which I did research tonight all had excellent and interesting writing. I was especially impressed by e-learn space " the art of blogging parts 1& 2. by blogger in chief George Siemens ( 12/06/2006). Part one,contained a series of how to readings as to how one goes about setting up a blog or blogs ( if you are ambitious)as well as a blogger's code of ethics and what to do if you encounter an e-evildoer.
The second part shows a number of links to blog sites that have information on classroom blogging, science/education blogs as well as blogs written by classroom teachers. These I found the most interesting as they were the words of the common teacher. The people who, on a daily basis, teach our children.
Finally, e-learn space provided a large number of links to a variety of subjects. A small sample: community slashdot, movable type edschoolblogs and stumbleupon all great places to find thoughts and discussion about a variety of topics ( mostly education based). Till next time.
I am so eager to meet you. Your strength to stick with this challenging task has been a model of education, especially when you reveal your transition throughout the process.
ReplyDeleteThe blogger in Falcon Fitness, a member of our class, blogged about how blogging supports writing skills. While I have come to greatly enjoy and apprepriate the content of you posting, I would like to encourage a couple formating adjustments. Research and common practice suggests that sans serif font is easier to read on computer screens just as "serif" is easier to read in print. While you do a small indent for paragraphs, either a deeper indent or a double space may allow the "white space" to help the eyes move on the screen. An interesting dilemma regarding color is that while almost all print is dark (black) on light (white) projected text is easier to read light on dark. So on the screen it's toss-up. We do need to also consider whether the writing is in paragraphs with many words or in captions such as headlines or catch phrases.