Today's chapter in A New Literacies Sampler focused on blogging, which has become one of the most popular mediums for online writing. I believe this popularity can be attributed to the fact that blogs let us express ourselves in a casual, yet meaningful way. Blogs are interesting because, in a way, they are an extension of our individual identity and conception of the world around us. The authors pointed out that blogs are "texts for self-presentation which we hope will be accepted as appropriate and plausible performances (pg. 192)." I agree with the authors that we use blogs to present ourselves to an audience and that we hope our posts are well received. People typically post about useful topics, popular trends, or about hobbies, which allows readers with similar interests to follow and respond.
Another interesting point brought up during the chapter was how blogging allows for both personal and professional relationships. In personal blogs, it is the individual who becomes the locus of connectivity. Personal blogs can develop traction when someone has good ideas, is funny, or has an entertaining writing style. In professional blogs, the content being examined becomes the locus of connectivity. Along those lines, I would consider this blog to be a professional blog, because the educational content appeals to other teachers.
I have only blogged in one other class but not like we have this summer. Like you I would consider it professional because of the educational content and who it appeals to. I brought about social networking, like Facebook, in my blog because I had never really considered it to be blogging. We connect online whether it be professionally or personally and we connect because of a common interest we have. Would we read the blogs on each others page unless we were interested? Probably not. When online we look for things that interest us.
ReplyDeleteI like how you said blogs allow us to express ourselves in "casual, but meaningful, ways". This is one of the reasons that I think blogging in middle and high school would be so beneficial. Students would be able to socially express themselves as well as blog for their academic assignments.
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