Why Blog?

Why Blog?
This is a post for my JHU Technology and the  Science of Educators (Spring 2010) course. I was trying to decide how to present information about what a blog is and I decided that what better way than to do it than within a blog post! Plus I can encourage folks to respond to my blog, since they are getting graded on their class participation. (of course anyone out there in the blogosphere is welcome to comment as well) Wow, I love the power of being in education ;)

Explore some blogs (You can take a look at the blogs I have tagged on www.delicious.com --we will talk about Social Bookmarking in a couple of weeks).
Make some observations about some of the blogs you look at: 
You might comment on any of the following:

* What do you see as common components of all/most of these blogs?
* What are some things that may be very different from one blog to another?
* What are some of the audiences for these blogs?
* What are the tone of the blogs?
* Are all blogs equal? Why or why not?
* What other comments do you have about these blogs? (Remember you will be choosing a blog to follow for 2 weeks--it can be any of these or any other blog related to your educational interests)
* How are these education related blogs similar or different from any blogs you may have looked at on a more personal interest level (ie, politics, news, sports, etc)

I look forward to your comments! 

"And I am blogging now because my teacher told me I had to."

What did you think of the blogging experience? Answer any or all of these questions (or give us some other insightful comments that related back to our readings, etc). Did you have a hard or easy time finding a blog you were interested in following? Have you ever blogged before? Do you see yourself continuing to use blogs as a professional resource? Would you consider using blogging as an instructional tool to get your students reflecting and writing?