Reflections on my blogging experience

I have been pondering the possibilities for having my students post book reviews in an electronic format and had considered using a blog in order to do this. With all the things I have to learn, however, I had just not gotten around to figuring out how to blog. I was grateful for this experience because it forced me to do what I had wanted to do for over a year now. This assignment did not allow for all the excuses that had manifested itself as procrastination.

I have never written a journal and I therefore I don’t think that I would maintain a blog for personal purposes. I can see myself using this tool to share professional purposes. I think it might continue to periodically post information about information technologies, interesting things I learn at workshops and tricks of the trade. It was nice to have a voice and be able to share new information with colleagues. It was also really helpful to learn about all of these new information technologies, web sites and learning tools that I had never heard of before. My very qualified classmates also did the work of choosing quality web sites and resources that I probably would not have had the time and initiative to find on my own.

Despite the benefits and potential for information sharing, keeping this online journal or discussion going, however, was very time intensive. In addition, a blog is only seen as valuable resource if it regularly kept up. Though it is normally written and monitored by one person, I think that having multiple authors post on and monitor the blog, might lessen the work load and consistency demands for each author. I wonder, however, if a blog would be the best electronic arena for my students to post book reviews. I am not aware of the searching capabilities inherent in the blogging software, but I would like patrons to have the ability to search for specific book reviews. If a blog does not afford this searching capability, I may have to explore other options.