Blogging

I'm taking a technology class for Summer Session 1 at LMU, and it's interesting to reflect on this new digital culture that has developed out of such widespread use of technology. Cell phones, iPods, webcams, laptops, video games...the generation growing up in this day and age only knows what it is to live completely immersed in all of these things.

Take this blog, for instance. Anyone can read what I'm writing. Why do I choose to write it here and not in a paper journal? I have one, and sometimes I crack it open to jot down thoughts I don't need the whole world looking at. But there are times when I just want to BLOG. I want to sit down in front of my computer and type.

I think I blog because deep down I still want to be a writer, and blogging is a way to publish my thoughts while taking the risk that what I write will be judged, criticized, appreciated, or even shared. Of course, I don't get a whole lot of feedback outside of the occasional comment from my relatives and friends, but there is some satisfaction in this form of expression and seeing what I have written be "put out there".

It also doesn't take up any space. I have a box of notebooks in my closet - a collection of journals that span the course of maybe 5-6 years of my life. On this blog, I have a list of archived entries that I can browse through just by clicking a button. To add to that, I can add pictures! It's so nice to be able to look back at what I'd written months and years before, recalling good times and tough times, but constantly seeing the hand of God working in all of those instances.

What's interesting is that my blogging experience over the past five years has given me the skills to create a classroom blog that has contributed greatly to how I teach and make resources available to my students. I'm sure there's so much more I can do with it, but after just a year of using it, I'm amazed at the impact it has had in communication between me and my students. I can post Powerpoints and YouTube videos for them...the tagboard is available for them to ask me questions...website links are provided to support the content areas that I teach.

Here's the link so you can see what I'm talking about: http://www.sjs7thgrade.blogspot.com/

When we (the junior high teachers) first set up our blogs last fall, we found all these widgets for games to add to our blogs. I wanted to put Puzzle Bobble on mine because I LOVE that game, but I took it off...not because I thought it would distract the kids but because I was addicted to it!

Alas, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I'm excited to see what other modes of technology I can integrate into the curriculum. There's so much out there - it's overwhelming - but at least I'm learning.