To Blog or Not to Blog...

That is the question posed by Professor Dunleavy for today's assignment.

I have always liked blogging. It's a great way to keep old friends updated on current life. But I find, more and more, that personal details have no place on the web. I try to remind myself anytime I post that someone else will see it in the future. So, all of my future blogging will be done with this in mind, and written from a professional or instructional perspective. I like the idea of it being something that benefits my students as much as it benefits me.

Reasons to be cautious:

- You don't know who's going to read it. Even if you protect it with passwords, they can be hacked, passwords can be shared, anyone can be reading over the shoulder of someone who's 'allowed', it can be copied and posted on public sites. You maintain no control over it, once it is posted, it is out of your hands.

- In not knowing who's reading it, you don't know who you'll offend with it. You risk offending the people you work with, the parents of your students, or your students themselves. Offending them can lead to losing respect, or worse.

Reasons to do it anyway (just be careful):

- Students in school today know more about computers than we can imagine. They're comfortable with it.

"[E]ven though the world of fifth grade may seem remote to educators in the college and university system, these students, when they enter postsecondary education, may have had more experience writing online for an audience than writing with a pen and paper for a teacher. Such students will bring with them a new set of skills and attitudes." - Stephen Downs, Educause.edu.

They understand, or need to learn, how to write for a global audience, because it is part of their lives.

- Tracking myself. I would like to believe I will keep a physical journal, notes about what works, doesn't work in a lesson plan. But if my lesson plans are electronic, it's easier for my notes to be too. And it should be shared with my students. Did they think it worked? What else did they need from me to learn the content more thoroughly?

- Encouraging learning outside the classroom. They'll be online at home anyway, why not let them use that time to check in with their classmates, their homework for tomorrow, hints for the homework tonight, links to further information?

- Promoting your school, your class, your students. You're doing good things, the world likes using the Internet to find good things - be one of those things!