TLA TAL – Getting Started #2

Blogs are good when they provided helpful information to the reader.  A blog can be a journal of thoughts, a list of ideas commonly shared by others around a familiar topic.  Across the different blogs I have read the authors opinions and thoughts are what drive the information from post to post.  As a new member to blogging, I am still developing an understanding of what should be in a blog and what is the useful information that others would want to read in a blog. 

I can see blogs enhancing a teacher's school web presence by allowing teachers and students to share their analysis of material across multiple day discussions.  Teaching teams can comment on books they are reading in relation to strategies or assessments they are using in the classroom.  When teachers reflect on a lesson, it is typically on their way home or in the evening when they have had a opportunity to step away from the hustle and bustle of the school day, which means that they are not right next to their teaching partner to be able to bounce ideas and talk through new ideas, where blogs can be a wonderful tool for reflection.  When they have a chance to share the information across a blog teachers can deepen their knowledge by writing, reading and responding to their peers comments and insights.  Teachers and students can start a conversation in the classroom and the students analysis and justification of ideas can be expanded and developed across several days on a blog.

I believe blogs are a way for people to self-publish.  Self-publishing needs to be thought out as to what they want others to know and understand about the publisher.  Since blogs can be so public and feeds can pick up topics within the blogs there has to be caution as to how information is shared and what information is shared.  Everywhere you look on business websites, if you do a topic search, or throughout various random websites blogs are part of what is listed as their options for following staying connected or sharing information.  So, yes I believe blogs are an easier way  for people to self-publish, and through that all publishers are making their digital footprint by what they share.