I'm ashamed to say that I'm a lurker, a voyeur, when it comes to blogging. A few years back, when I was a stay at home mom with two preschoolers at home, I became a dedicated follower of several knitting blogs. My favorite is Maxon Dixon Knitting at http://www.masondixonknitting.com/, "the nation's leading biregional knitting blog." The bloggers Kay (from Manhattan) and Ann (from Nashville) met online through an Ebay purchase of a huge lot of knitting magazines, and they developed an online correspondence which evolved into a knitting blog. The blog is clever and hilarious, as much about knitting as about Kay's and Ann's lives, as well as their favorite knitting charity "Afghans for Afghans." I'm not the only one who enjoys the blog; Kay and Ann have gotten two book contracts out of it, and you can find their books at any local yarn store!
I can't imagine ever having a personal blog of my own. I don't really have the soul of a blogger -- I'm too private. And I don't update my Facebook status very much. I have to save my wit for the classroom! But I enjoy reading blogs, when I have the time. I have a close friend who has had a personal blog for years, and I love to read her posts (she often writes poetry) and see photos of her children. But because I read her blog almost daily, I know much more about her life than she knows about mine. Our infrequent phone calls involve me catching her up on my life, since I already know about hers, through her blog. So in a very real way, her blog actually hinders communication -- at least two-way communication -- between us.
Yet I can imagine having a teaching blog, which students can access to get assignment postings, readings, etc. Right now I'm trying Moodle, but I could imagine a blog serving the same purposes very well. Moodle gives me some extra options, such as the realtime online chats and assignment turn-in boxes, and my teammates are using Moodle, too, so I have an incentive at least right now to stick with it.
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Your comment about the blog hindering your communication with your blogger friend is very insightful. It makes me wonder about the possible need for "translation" across face-to-face and online forms of communication. If this is the case, what is our role as teachers in the learning/teaching of this translation?
ReplyDeleteTess, your revelation of feeling voyeuristic allows me to share that I have felt like a digital peeping Tom especially in Facebook. Perhaps it’s reserve or introversion but like you posting is non-existent though I will share gratitude for someone else’s posts or condolences. Sharing reflections of relevance or substance in such a public forum is not my style and posting the trivia and minutia of my life isn’t either. Yet at the same time I do appreciate reading others postings, learning of hobbies, marathons, trips and seeing pictures of cherished people. Candance's question makes me wonder if I need the visual signals that I get in face to face communications to be personally connected.
ReplyDeleteHi Tess,
ReplyDeleteI have been reading a lot about Moddle. So I am wondering how you like it. If you have time, please write about it. Or I will ask you in class. Thanks.