Have you noticed that some of the templates in Blogger have a short panel of icons for other social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook as well as email and Blogger itself? This allows you to tie together different methods of communication and collaborating. Try sharing a particularly interesting post to Facebook (or Twitter when we get to it a little later). Do you think this would be useful in a school setting?
Have you also noticed that some blogs appear to elicit more comments than others? What makes you want to read and contribute to a blog (your classmates' or others')? Have you commented on the blog of someone you don't know? How woud you feel if you got comments from non-classmates? How do you think your students would feel if they got comments from someone outside the school?
9 years ago
My school has a facebook page, so if I was blogging things happening in my classroom - it would be convinient to transfer those to that facebook page. But honestly, I'm not sure I see other uses of this feature. Especially since I'm working with an age group that is still a little too young for facebook - and it's blocked on our school computers.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of responding to blogs - I think that blogs that are more visually appealling are going to get more responses. Breaking up text with pictures, or using engaging colors, or ensuring a simple/logical layout makes readers more apt to stick around and read your posts which in turn encourages more response. I also think it helps to break up long text with paragraphs or bullets for easy reading.
In addition to the visual aspects though, I think blogs that elicit responses are well-written in the way that they present an argument and allow discussion for other viewpoints. Sometimes they bring up a new idea that people haven't heard before (or just rephrase something in a new way). There has to be at least some artistic quality (or proficiency) in the writing, or it will not warrant responses.
I comment on a blog when I feel it's relevant to me and that I have something meaningful to contribute. I'm not a person who likes controversy, so I don't often comment when it's a sticky issue. I do like reading others' comments, because it expands my perspective on things. I have had comments on my personal blog from people I didn't know because they shared a common experience. It was a little strange, but it was nice knowing someone was reading what I had to say.
ReplyDeleteI like reading blogs that are honest, take risks and are not confrontational. I also like it when people expand on the ideas of others by adding their own experience or perspective. Our class has a rich variety of both of these and I learn a lot from them. When people ask questions or ask people's opinions, this helps to initiate discussion. It would be more convenient to unite all of our classmates' blogs but I think that it would take away from each person's personality or individuality and limit the scope of the discussion. I need to be more careful when I make posts because viewers outside of the class may not understand the context of the message. Maybe if we could invite other experts to contribute to our blogs we could get some other interesting conversations started. I still need to figure out what the purpose of my blog is and develop it more, other than just fulfilling the requirements of this course. Right now I'm just trying to master the technical aspect of blogs, but I hope to make my blog more beneficial to me and others reading it in the future.
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