A New Name for Blogging

Blogging: a personal or group-generated map of material with a general, unifying theme

The word blog can sound like work, just like "writing" sounds like work to most, yet we do it everyday. We write on Facebook, we write emails at work or school, and we write notes and to-do lists probably daily for most people. Ambitious minds might think, "I'm going to start my own blog," and then never achieve the goal because it sounds lofty and like a big project.  However, we create blog-like material everyday when we post on Facebook or Instagram.  It is a place, a space, to build upon thoughts, to develop your knowledge base (of yourself, a topic, or a field of interest), and over time, it takes its own organic shape. If we were to post on a personal blog rather than a public social media site every day, we would all have blogs.  Why do we find Facebooking fun or even necessary, but blogging or having a personal site we can choose to share with family or friends privately is more like work? Maybe the word itself, blog, sounds dated and lacks the positive connotations attributed to Facebook, Instagram, and Pintrest. Perhaps it is the close-association with writing, and that writing is considered work, which gives blogging a bad wrap.  How can that perspective shift, so students might find blogging on a personal, safe site, more appealing?


My point in this initial reflection, as I gear up for posting in this space as a personal resource to come back to when I have  classroom and want to incorporate technology, is to consider over the course of this semester, what might be another name for a blog that gives it a renewed energy and appeal for younger minds to gravitate towards it more readily.


How can we make blogging more like fun and less like work? Maybe we need to see more of our own reflection in our work - a creative space to work out the kinks in our thoughts and generate new, possibly better ideas.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Final Blog - Helping Teachers' Lives

Helping Teachings: In reviewing the top 8 technology resources from the beginning of class and the 20 educational tools, there are still so many resources to explore.  I jumped on WeVideo, as I'm concerned about how to do screen captures if I ever do not have free access to CaptureSpace.  I did not sign up for an account, but with a free account, teachers can create 5 min. of material, and with an account for $3 a month, teachers can create up to 30min of material per month, which seems like plenty and worth the tiny annual free to continue creating fun and interactive materials students can access from home. There is just so much value to providing screen-capture instruction to help students complete homework assignments, refer back to lecture materials, and to cover information as homework and save time in-class for discussion and even deeper development and comprehension. I also took a closer look at Really Good Stuff, as I was hoping the site had the teacher supplies ...
Read more

"I Don't Know" - The 14th Incarnation of The Dalai Lama

As for Sir Ken Robinson's talk, I couldn't agree more that knowledge is more about what you don't know (what you are open to) than what you think you do know (what you are closed off to learning).  In fact, I will briefly note here that I practice Zazen, which is Buddhist practice, but that is not the pertinent point. So, I will jump right into my thoughts on what teachers could consider doing to better reach and engage students. Teachers could openly share with students their own biases. Biases tend to work themselves intrinsically into the way we think and communicate with others in ways that sometimes makes a bias sound like a fact or even wisdom, when it is more like an opinion or feeling. Even when we are aware of our own biases, they can still subconsciously affect how we treat people and probably affect how we teach. This kind of conversation between teacher and students (and students to teacher as well), in my opinion, would help c...
Read more

Progressive Classrooms: Getting Started with a Long Way to Go

I have to say, I loved having Neil deGrasse Tyson narrate this. I was not surprised to hear this was at a private charter school in Washington D.C. as a school would need the funds to create learning environments that "meets students where they are" in terms of technology. It is concerning to hear speak of middle school level being a last chance to learn necessary cumulative math skills before falling too far behind to catch up. It is also a bit of a concern to expect students to have a computer at home and access to email in assignments. It would be great to have the expectation that students could use websites and email at home, but it may not be a fair expectations of all households. It is very impressive to see the number of lap tops available to the students. The student's responses shows how they appreciate the resources and interactive learning. It's great to see the teacher has access to view each student's screen collectively. The teacher explains...
Read more