As I received my Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts book in the mail I felt obligated to dig in and begin reading. Unfortunately, the holiday weekend is very much needed and I haven't had as much time available to devote to my reading as I would have liked. But, the reading that I have done has started me thinking about blogging in a different way. I currently have been blogging in a kind of diary way... putting my thoughts on paper. What I feel that I will eventually hope to be able to do is to blog for the purpose of sharing information and growing with others in discussing the information.
I have experienced reflections journals (where I write what I feel about what I am studying and submit the journal to my professor). But, the reflective process was a little lost as the reflections were collected. I am hoping that blogging will give me more immediate feedback. Hopefully, I will grow to where I can include links and serious thought to my required blog. I am actually thinking about starting a family blog so that I can be in touch with my children. They can even help me by including pictures and things - they are truly technically saavy!
I think about many situations where blogs would be helpful and even maybe fun... I had a colleague share her powerpoint on slang... I will share it with others... maybe it will grow and become something that other English teachers will share with their students. Hence, the blogosphere!
Should young people be committed to a medium that might be used later in life to harm them? When one is young, one may write things that they would rather forget about once they have matured. The internet would be unforgiving, holding this electronic memory forever! Shouldn't we be teaching our students in an environment where they are safe from public viewing? Shouldn't we help the student to learn in a place where they can feel safe and secure experimenting?
I want to run to my children's myspace and facebook pages and warn them that someday, someone might pull up the page from May 27th 2007 and it may have a hedious picture of you on the beach with some wild-eyed bunch of your best buddies acting in a way that you don't want the selection committee at the State department to see ;o) ... I have taught my children to be cautious crossing the street, be careful with fire, and so on. Now, how do I teach them about something that is foreign to me?
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You really gave me something to think about. I think we should warn our children and our students about the unforgiving and unforgetting nature of the Internet. I guess it is a bit like teaching them to be careful when crossing the street or to be wary of strangers. Another thought....is it really fair for potential employers to look back more than 5 years or so for things that people do in their youth? I seem to come back to the idea of the Internet not being regulated over and over.
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