Question 3: Throughout the readings, advice was given for successful blogging. What do you think was the best advice for individual blogging? What do you think was the best advice for classroom blogging?
I loved the idea of the blog creator being more of a mediator (for both personal and classroom). In the past, I have thought of a blog as an on-line journal, but the readings made me realize that they can be more of a true "log" in the sense that interested parties can come in to log in /comment on their views. In the past, my blogs have been stiff, formal (and frankly boring), with an intended audience of my professors and classmates. I think a successful school blog with the intended audience of students and faculty will be more interactive, fun, humerous and interesting (hopefully anyway!).
I also prefer when blog entries are not terrible long, and are broken up a bit. Blogs are something I will peek at during a quick break in the day. I follow a couple of authors that are a little long-winded, and I will frequently pass over a new post, knowing I will not have time for it. Too much personal information is a distraction (and can be disturbing!). But I always check Mo Willems (http://mowillemsdoodles.blogspot.com/) because I know he will be short, sweet, funny and have some great doodles! Pigeon also has a Twitter account for those interested parties out there, and you know who you are!
I thought the readings also helped me see blogs as something more than just the ramblings of a random person. I now see them as a possible conversation between multiple participants that can be useful for a variety of reasons.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love Mo!
ReplyDeleteI always feel guilty passing over posts that are just too long at first glance, but I agree that keeping it short and simple is really the key to a great blog.
I don't mind the occasional blog post that is long (especially if there's a disclaimer at the beginning) since I can tuck that one away and read it when I've got the time, if I'm really interested in the topic. But I agree that blogs that nearly ALWAYS have very long posts are just not for me. Especially if there's extraneous personal info or waffling. I don't mind if the physical length of the post is long due to a lot of (relavent) pictures, either, as long as the accompanying text is pithy.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would imagine that classroom blogs couldn't be too long either, since students won't wade through a long post for the nuggets of information either.