This is the first time that I have kept a blog for any purpose. Reflecting on these 8 weeks, the blog has been an enjoyable, informative, and worthwhile endeavor for me.
First of all, keeping a blog transforms my sometimes verbose writing style, since I am writing for a wider audience than myself and a teacher on a blog. I find that my writing voice becomes more conversational and to the point when I write in a blog, which is an added benefit for the reader!
The second aspect of blogging that I enjoy is to be able to read the blogs of other students who are writing on the same topics. At the outset of the course, I enjoyed being "introduced" to other students through their personalization and comments on their blogs. Later, I learned so much from others' posts and comments that I could not learn in any other online format. The dialogue was more personal than simply following conversation links for an online course. I felt that I could share ideas more easily in an informal way, conversationally, with other teachers through the blogs.
Finally, communicating through blogging has an open-ended quality of conversation that I appreciate. In reflecting on a specific topics, I enjoyed being able to refer to a previous comment or post on a blog, and the conversation is still live. Unlike one-time assignments that are turned in and graded, the blogs allow an ongoing dialogue across all topics throughout the course. The ongoing references and communication add another dimension to the online course that is a great resource for real-time information sharing.
After creating this initial blog, I am certain that I will blog in the future. I have found it to be a great way to share ideas with a wider, but focused, audience; interact with others in a thoughtful an efficient way; and to document and reference thoughts in an ongoing basis. It was a valuable and pragmatic aspect to this course!
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