I lay awake
last night thinking about Blogging.
Blogging has been the best professional development I have engaged in
this year. I started a blog two years
ago and it took me a while to find a voice.
I felt it was contrived and I really had nothing about which to
Blog. I later came to the realization
that it is just a platform for getting out information and it did not need to
be a venue for collaboration at least while in its infancy. I transitioned from my newsletter to a blog
and over the course of a few months I began to have so much to say. Every day as I answered student and faculty
questions, many of which were repeat questions, I realized I had essential material
for my blog. The added bonus was that I
could create a culture of independent learners by referring teachers and students
to my blog. Here are some of the points
I thought about that night while lying awake thinking about what makes blogging
such a critical and important tool for students and educators these days.
Professional
As educators
we need to integrate the tools that students will be expected to use in their
jobs. Every job in communications, marketing,
writing, media seems to have blogging as a prerequisite. It is a given, you should know how to blog.
Practice
Practice,
practice, practice, makes perfect. Writing
begets writing.
Portfolio
Student
bloggers applying to colleges or moving to other schools have a whole portfolio
of their thoughts and ideas.
Publish
Everyone
likes to see their writing read, not necessarily by their teachers but by a
wider audience, their peers and those across the ocean.
Portability
Graduated? Got a new job? Guess what, your blog is yours it still
remains in the cloud if you wish.
