I find myself in an interesting position when I think about blogging. I have used resources from blogs in my academic research. I have found great ideas to use in the classroom from blogs. I have started a Pinterest board of books I want to read based on blogs that I follow. I absolutely benefit from them. Having said that, I find it ironic that I find the idea of creating my own blog uncomfortable. The reason for this, for me, points out the big difference in writing for a blog. While the process of writing, for me is the same, the audience is not. Who am a writing for? I am not comfortable simply throwing my thoughts out there for the world to read. I need direction and a sense of purpose guiding my writing. At this point I don't consider myself an expert in any field, so that excludes me from the blog-world of some of those that I follow, like Joyce Valenza: at http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/neverendingsearch. And, perhaps because I'm a digital immigrant, I am not comfortable simply throwing my thoughts out for public consumption. That, to me, is the biggest difference in writing for blogs: the purpose and audience. Perhaps, someday, when I have a classroom, I will feel differently.
I only have experience with Blogger and found it very easy to use. I have created this blog to hold required learning reflections. I also used Blogger when I was the Children's Librarian at the Lake City Public Library to maintain their website. It was an economically efficient (free) solution, and it was easy to maintain with no particular training, and, it looked professional. They have since moved the blog to WordPress: http://www.lakecity.lib.mn.us/
Many small libraries use the blog as a website, such as this version, also from WordPress: http://www.wabasha.lib.mn.us/
There is much potential in the thoughtful use of blogging!
No comments:
Post a Comment