Though, I must admit, blogging is not only extremely addictive–must be the subliminal messages, but also fun. Where else could you find a community of writers and readers that can be as wide or as narrow as you gear your works to be? And where else can you start controversy and discourse short of a coffee shop poetry night? Blogging, to me, is a place where I can warm up and practice, like a musician, for my next performance. My audience, being my ?director? and my weblog being the instrument through which I ?play my music.” —Evan Reynolds —Save a Tree, Buy a Computer and BLOG on it! (Color in a Lurid World)
Evan is a new freshman at Seton Hill University. He has jumped right into the blogosphere, even before I held the “introduction to weblogs” class.
Everyone who teaches with blogs would love to figure out what it is that makes some students love blogs and others think of blogging as just another homework assignment.
View Comments
Little do people know, but those stereotypes about obsessed, dorky, bloggers that have no life other than on the internet is an invalid argument. In fact, you can blog without being considered a "geek." You could even be cool... Like me! ;') To provide an analogy for the "blogging agnostics" out there... in the same way you can drink without being an alcoholic, you can blog without being a geek. What makes you a geek is what you blog about. (i.e.: your collections of Transformers toys or Lord of the Rings merchandise (no offense, Tiffany)) So, blog all of you social karma fanatics!
(there, I said it, Amanda... When am I going to get paid?)
How could I forget about you, Karissa? After all, we do share a liver.
Don't forget about me! Haha. Bloginators :)
Blogging, for me, has been another source of interaction with my classmates, and beyond into the world through the capacities of the Internet. It's that sort of interaction that I yearn for in the classroom setting, and sometimes things are easier written than spoken aloud. Conveniently, blogging is personal enough for me to publish what I think, and public enough that I can -tell- others what I think.
Perhaps those that aren't interested in classroom participation are, by the same token, not interested in the intrapersonal connections that blogging fosters. Nonetheless, those that are too shy to contribute during class may discover blogging as a way to gently peek out of their turtle shells to face comments of the classmates and professors.
Attitide definetly has a lot to do with a student's concept of blogging, in my opinion, and so does experience with computers, the Internet, other people, and even the material. Could it be another argument claiming "nature v. nurture"? Not probable, but perspectives vary according to exposure and experience.
I think online knowledge, attitude toward work, and the peer group they associate with whether supportive/bashers of blogs have much to do with how students approach blogging.
As for Evan, Tiffany and I have been blog brainwashing him since the first orientation at Seton Hill. Just trying to do my bloginator name proud. :-)