To Blog Or Not To Blog...

The August 29th class provided interesting food for thought. I was relieved to hear that blogging should be grounded with purpose and meaningful applications. After scanning the AHS blogs, I was pleased to see the multitude of approaches blogging holds. Misguided in my original impressions, blogging represents a more creative output than I initially thought. I plan to incorporate blogging into my courses; however, uncertainty lies with the direction. I want to avoid simply jumping on the blogging bandwagon; content needs to be guided and replace, hmmm...enhance, other aspects of the course. What will I replace? I value in-depth class discussions, observing students' body language, and determining their comprehension through tone. I like watching the light bulb click on so to speak. Will I lose that human connection on-line? Will the students become more or less connected? For example, how frequently are emails "misread" or not even read at all? Will blogging augment or detract from the social skills acquired in school? Another point I grapple with is time. What will I subtract from the daily techno grind - updating my webpage, posting learning links, or the email homework hotline I answer from home? At this point, blogging ranks as one more thing for me to do. I am still thinking about the process. I plan to incorporate blogging as an optional feature in my courses. Nevertheless, how it will look is starting to give me brain freeze!