Until fall 2010, I had never really looked at a blog… much less written a blog post. Not really being a writer I didn’t think that blogging was for me. I guess I was WRONG!!! I really am getting into blogging. I found it helpful to have something to focus on as a starting point. Once I started writing reflections on my grad school experiences, I started to find that I wanted to write about stuff that was happening in the classroom… and now I just can’t stop.
It wasn’t until my latest assignment that I thought about how blogs have changed communication in the 21st century. I hate to admit, but I don’t follow the news or blogs regularly. I know it’s sad, but I have found myself engulfed in my own life too busy to bother with the rest of the world. ( I promise I am not as selfish as that sounded!) However, since the start of grad school my view of the world around me has started to change. I now have an RSS which allows me to pull what I want to keep up with. I have found having an RSS brings the news and updates that I care about right to my attention. I was shocked as I read some of the statistics from Sifry's Alerts (http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html) at first. It does make sense seeing as most people would turn to blogs and other websites that are updated by the people around the world instantly. (plus so many people are no longer using traditional television at home anymore!) Heck, I get most of my major news from Facebook, then I go look up what is really going on.
Thinking about blogging and news I think about the generations of females in my life. What is news to me? What is news to my mom? What is news to my grandmother? We all have different news needs. For example, my grandmother wants to be able to keep up with mine and my brother’s lives from another state as well as her silver sneakers groups and the obituaries. My mother wants to keep up with the latest hiking activity with her tail dames group and anything to do with scouting. Me on the other hand, I want to keep up with friends and any new teaching trend out there! While we all have different “news” needs, most of that information can come from a blog! I had never really thought about people having individual news needs, but we all do and we don’t necessarily get our information from the five o’clock news.
Reading blogs is still reading. I have already admitted that I am not a writer… guess what?... I am not a reader either… but blogging is changing the way I read. I have found from reading blogs I can stay informed and entertained on a number of topics. Still being new to reading blogs, I am enjoying reading what other people are doing in the classroom and how they interpret different topics.
I am excited to try out blogging with my students. Blogging is changing the way I am learning and I am hoping to change the way my students are learning with blogging.
I was the same way as far as blogging is concerned. I have one blog of a friend who lives out of town that I would check faithfully to see new pictures and keep up with their lives. Other than that, blog reading was sporadic at best. What a difference taking a grad class that makes you focus on something can make, huh? :) We are changed forever for the better. And I bet your new expertise in blogging is going to transfer not only to your students but to your mom, with her hobby of hiking and the oodles of outdoor blogs out there, and I am sure there's some connections with your grandmother's silver sneakers group and blogging. (and yes, the obituaries.. my mother in law was complaining about their local paper recently, saying 'we don't know anyone in these obituaries.' which I thought was a good thing! haha)
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is a whole other level of learning from reading everyone's blog posts about the same topics. I wish we could have used blogs when I did my undergrad work or student teaching or rookie year(s) of teaching.
I look forward to reading your posts about blogging with your students!
PS: Maybe it's the time of year, and being from South Louisiana, but your blog is giving out the "Mardi Gras" vibe to me today :)