Thoughts on Blogging
With any writing, the writer needs a purpose. One could write to persuade, to entertain or to inform. I find that each of these are the purposes that drive my writing. I use this blog as a space to reflect on own practice, to share tools/resources, and connect ideas that I read. I consider my audience, which I assume is mostly other connected teachers. What will they want to read about? I select tidbits of information or teaching resources to write about that interest me. Sometimes, I blog about something that I feel needs more coverage, more publicity, and other times I focus on a certain tool and how it can be used to shift classroom learning.
Personal blogging is only one part of my online activity. I am more active micro-blogging and conversing via Twitter. As I participate in/with online communities of teachers I am led to find the best models of current practices. A week doesn’t pass that I am not sitting in on a live seminar with other like minded individuals. Through other blogs, I am connected to new ideas, new teachers, new philosophy, new issues. Twitter and RSS pull my community together. I build online relationships, and discover folks with common interests. As in real life, one can not be buds with everyone, and although I follow many, my circle of major influences tightens. It is through twitter & RSS, that I strike up or follow many rich discussions that drive my philosophy and thinking about teaching and learning.
Kyle thanks for writting this blog on thoughts on blogging. Alec keeps mentioning that we should continue to blog but I seem to be stuck on what to blog about. I know that everything I post is published work and I want it to be well written and at least some what interesting. Sorry if my spelling is off, I am on a french comp at the moment. I want to connect with the wider community on the net but I am having troubles trying to figure out how to meet and connect with other teachers. Do you have any suggestions? I did read some blogs from a few teachers but still want to read or connect with other teacher blogs…just hard to know where to go when you are not really sure what you are looking for or should be looking for. Thanks Kyle, I appreciate it!