I am a thinker. An introvert. A writer. A person who likes to think and write and capture thoughts and ideas. However, more often than not, I don't write things down and wind up forgetting them. Or I write things down, save them, and then forget what I've called them. There has to be a better way to do this, and that way might be a blog.
I tried using a blog four or five years ago. I don't remember what blogging platform I used, but it was very difficult to get the formatting and images right. The writing process itself is torturous enough, why add to the difficulty with a difficult blog forum? However, it seems that things have changed in the last several years and blogs are more user friendly. I asked friends who blog which was the easiest platform to use, and they directed me to blogger. I was so surprised at how easy it was and even taught myself to insert gifs into a document. Yay me!
I see a lot of potential for using blogs in class. Writing journals. Theatre jounrnals. A platform for students to post assignments. If I sat here for an hour and gave the matter serious thought, I could come up with dozens of examples for this easy to use tool. I see my students doing a lot of blogging in the coming years.
Intial reluctance aside, I am thankful for this class. It has turned my thinking around a great deal and I am now comfortable with the idea of utilizing different and novel forms of technology in the classroom. It gives the students skills that they need aside from reading/writing/acting skills. Where before I viewed it as a burdensome headache, I now see that it will be easily manageable and doable.
