Value in Blogging

My dad can always be found on the computer. He checks his email, reads news articles, is an expert in Photoshop, and does video editing. I'm not him. Sure, I'll check my email, read news articles, check some sports websites, and update my Facebook page every now and then, but it's not the focus of my day.

This is how I currently view the value of blogging. On an imaginary priority list of my daily activities, writing and reading a blog are right near reorganizing my sock drawer. I'm curious to see if this course will change my view or cause me alter my priority list.

Blogs can be a great tool, and be useful, but they need validity. I've been known to read a couple blogs on the Green Bay Packers, and it's true, anyone can write a blog. A lot of the information in a blog is unnecessary and a waste of time to read.

You may have picked up on my rather opinionated view of blogs. Maybe I think this way because I haven't found my special blogs yet, or I haven't given it a chance. Well, I'm giving them a chance. I don't do well with change and tend to resist it, but who knows with blogs.

When it comes to a classroom setting I can see more value with blogging. This was shown to me in our first online cohort class in which we were required to write a blog about an assigned weekly reading and comment on other student's blogs. It was easy to write our blogs and easy to comment and read the comments of others. Communication was easy in a situation where no one ever met. Specifically, in my classroom, blogging could be a great way for my students to learn computer skills and begin to expose them to this emerging form of communication. It works well for parental communication too.