I am now part of the blogosphere.  I am not exactly sure how I should feel about this.  I have assigned blogs as an assignment before but it never went past that.  Because of that, I have very mixed feelings about blogging.  I follow some blogs on Twitter because they give me up to date opinionated information.  However, I do not follow any blogs on a regular basis.  I am on a computer all day but I have decided that in my free time I am going to be using my computer for news, sports or social media.  I will seek out other information as it arises as a need. 

I think people blog for a few reasons.  The first is because it is just the new way to journal or write a diary.  It is not something that can be lost or stolen.  A little brother or sister cannot steal it and show it to their friends.  It can be as private or as public as you would want it to be.  I think some people blog because they think their opinion on something really matters.  It can be a way to vent or to start a discussion.  It can be informational.  After my son was born, we would look up or try anything to get him to sleep.  I also think that people blog to try to make money.  If you can hit the market, people are going to pay attention to you and you are going to make money off that.  I am sure there are more reasons people blog.  The list of why people blog will always be growing as well.

I honestly do not know how I feel about being the person behind the blog.  I think it would feel different if I was not doing this for a class but I really do not know.  I also do not know if I was doing this on my own if I would keep it up.

As I was typing, I had some old students come into class to ask what I was doing.  When I told them that I was blogging, they asked me “why I was doing that?”  I told them it was for a class and their exact words were “Mr. Brady kids don’t blog anymore we vlog (video blogs on YouTube).”  Shiang-Kwei Wang and Hui-Yin Hsua said that for their class one of the six things they were going to do was incorporate multimedia materials.  After my quick conversation with my old students, I think that would be necessary.  Erica Badino wrote an article asking, “Is Blogging the Future of Education?”  She says that blogs can teach students online etiquette by interacting with students online.  I actually think that students need more help interacting face to face instead of online.  As soon as girls walk out of my classroom, they are immediately opening their phones.  Gary Dekmezian at the Huffington Post said in his post, “Why Do People Blog? The Benefits of Blogging” that people can use it to help refine their writing skills.  I think that blogs can promote the opposite of case.  If students are just writing what is on their mind, they might not think of it grammatically correct piece.  

This was one of the blogs that my students follow on YouTube.  His name is Roman Atwood.

So I am stuck wondering would students prefer working on their written skills or their oral skills?