Reflections on Blogging

Since leaving University many years ago, most of my working life has been in the I.T industry either providing software support, programming or technical consultancy. I think of myself as a "techie" although not one of those geeky ones with no social skills and who spend all their free time playing Internet games like Dungeons and Dragons or whatever the latest one is (please pardon the stereotyping). Amazingly, in all that time I have not used blogs - at all - until a few weeks ago. I really didn't get them. They seemed to be a bit of a waste of time and I thought that important and useful information could very easily get lost in the other not-so-necessary information posted.

And I still had that opinion until just last week, although I was beginning to see how much fun creating a blog could be. I was still finding it frustrating having to read and comment on other people's blogs when I had so much other Uni work to try and get through and here I am in Week 5 still not ahead in the work like I had planned to be.

Then I watched this short video:




I have now started using Google Reader as my RSS aggregator and now I finally get it! This is so cool! I now have a little Google Reader gadget on my home page (iGoogle) so that every time I open a new Internet window I can quickly see if there are any interesting new posts to read. One of the first things I do when sitting down at my laptop is to check Google Reader. Then I check to see if there are any more followers on my own blog. I've now even created another personal blog for a project my partner and I have just embarked on, calliopeadventure.blogspot.com. And I feel like conducting a little lecture with all my friends so that they understand what it is to blog.

So, I have to say, I am engaged. Kearsley & Shneiderman believe "that technology can facilitate engagement in ways which are difficult to achieve otherwise" (1999) and I would have to agree from this experience. In their article on Engagement Theory, Kearsley & Shneiderman discuss the three components of Learning Engagement Theory, Relate-Create-Donate and that they imply that learning activities should:
1. occur in a group context (i.e., collaborative teams)
2. are project-based
3. have an outside (authentic) focus
(Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999)

I believe that blogs cover those three criteria very well. I have seen videos of how blogs might be used in the classroom and cannot wait to try it myself.

The last thing I wanted to mention about blogging is that to post an entry on a blog really requires you to think and have an opinion on a subject. It facilitates moving into the 3rd dimension of the Dimensions of Teaching - Extending and Refining Knowledge. (Marzano & Pickering, 1997).

In conclusion, I love it!

References
Kearlsey, G. & Schneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved March 2010, from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm
Marzano, R. & Pickering, D. (1997). Dimensions of Learning. Teacher's Manual. (2nd Ed). Aurora, Colorado 80014, US.