Blogging Experience

Reflection on Blogging

Having created a blog for a previous class and not enjoying the experience I was skeptical that I would appreciate another attempt at blogging. I think the assigning of topics for the first part of the semester facilitated active participation in the assignment. I was assigned clicker technology, which I had no prior experience with. Had I chosen my own topic that I had knowledge of I may have edited details that I knew but others did not. The use of a novel topic made the experience beneficial to the blogger and the commenter alike.
I appreciate the interaction with a wider audience a blog may foster. A blog is great vehicle to bring individuals interested in common topic together and share their ideas. Searches online increasingly point to pages where users may comment on the topic of the page. In my experience the posted comments often add to a better understanding of the topic and lead to other helpful references.
In order to improve my blogging I think I would try to find some helpful tips for effective blogging, perhaps elements of style. For example, limiting posts to 100 words and including open-ended questions to encourage comments from users may improve a blog’s success. Is it better to have multiple short posts or long posts that appear less frequently?
As for usage in the classroom blogs may be used to encourage reluctant students to write and improve their writing style. Students may be more engaged in their writing when given the opportunity to write on topics important to them and connect to others interested in those topics.