I think the key advantage of blogging is that you can make a blog about anything you choose, political topics, cooking, parenting…you name it. I had a friend once suggest that he wanted to create a blog devoted to his mullet. I find that I get as much out of comments and informal interaction posted in a news articles and blogs, when people share their, ideas concerns, and sometimes funny comments about a topic. While it isn’t necessarily a blog (maybe a form of micro blogging) I always check the reviews for a recipe on AllRecipes.com to see what others had to say about a recipe. The interactive nature of blogging can bring a lot of new ideas and opinions
I like the idea that blogs can enhance a classroom. The 2009 Horizon Report talks about a teacher who used blogs her classroom where some students had a discussion and others live-blogged the classroom events. The article was interesting to me because it described how much input the students had in the lesson and how it seemed to energize the class.
As a side note, I’ve had concerns as a librarian when I see blogs cited as news articles because they are often editorials and opinions. They don’t have the same review process as other published articles. I’m not sure that the general public looks at them with the same skepticism.
Twittering
This week was the first time I used Twitter, although I have been well aware of Twitter and how it works. I signed up for the Toledo Museum of Art because I enjoy their “Weekly Art Minute” on e-mail, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Dali Lama. I am interested in seeing how a Buddhist uses Twitter.
From a business perspective Twitter certainly seems to be useful for creating a following and keeping them informed, for example libraries use Twitter to notify their patrons about new materials and programs. I can see Twitter being used by teachers, students, and parents to share information and interact. I would also assume that many students would be like me and seek out networks in their area of interest like NASA or the CDC. To me Twitter is a great starting point for ideas and stories I might want to read.
In this week’s reading Why Use Hash tags, I found the analytics to be very interesting. This is similar to how academic publications also track usage through similar means such as the H-index and journal impact factors. Twitter seems to be a very powerful and well-organized marketing tool.
Hi Becki!
ReplyDeleteI agree blogging lets you talk about whatever you might like, the possibilities are endless. They let you find some like-minds and get different points of view. I use Allrecipes.com too! Along with other cooking websites it lets me get opinions before I put the time into it. I like to use travel sites like Tripadvisor.com and others to check out places before traveling there, booking a room or going to a restaurant. I like your point that opinions on these sites could be considered microblogging and that opinions are just that. They should not be cited as references and need to be viewed with skepticism. I follow a few blogs. One is written by a person from New Zealand so it is interesting to get a perspective from someone outside the USA. I am usually very busy with everyday life like everyone else on the planet so it is sometimes hard to read very many blogs. But when I do I usually like it.
I think blogs may be useful in the classroom too especially because it gets students involved and contributing instead of just listening to the teacher talk about some subject. Anytime I have done substitute teaching and students get to use computers they are usually very happy to be online researching or doing other work. Most are focused on what needs to be done although that can be a challenge.
Although I have been on Twitter for a while now I do not know much about it other than following what interests me, which is fun but still time consuming if you let it control you. I had no clue how to use hashtags so class readings were helpful to me too. As you stated in your blog, Twitter can be a good educational and business marketing tool. Students like my son, who is a junior in high school, love twitter and communicate with it all the time. I do mean all the time. Since they are already familiar with it, using Twitter in the classroom makes sense.
I enjoyed reading your blog. It has many personal insights on blogging and tweeting. You also present interesting educational and business applications. I am going to check out the Dali Lama on Twitter now too because I am curious!