Finally!

Hey all,

I finally figured out how to get on here without receiving the error message! This is a very interesting way to blog, and the format, once you get on, seems very inviting. I'll do a little more exploring now. That's all!

Here I am!

I am impressed that I made it here! Kelly, I am with you...I have zero experience blogging and have not really followed anyone's blog before. I would not have known what I was missing, if it weren't for this class!

Blogs??

This is my first experience with both reading and writing on a blog. I have to say that because it is so new to me, I'm not really sure what to think about it. Viewing other posts, it is obvious that people have a lot of experience with them and/or know people who maintain regular blogs. It makes me wonder if I've been living under a rock! Despite my own technological frustrations, I do see how this could be useful in the classroom. I actually think I could potentially like the linear nature of the blog as opposed to the scattered feeling I get using the wiki!

Blogging

I blogged a LONG time ago when livejournal was the new cool tool. Does anyone else remember that? As far as I remember I would write out all of my teenage angst in hot pink text on a black background. It was a phase I would like to never relive again!
I started using blogger a while ago thinking that I would become some deep essayist using a blog as a platform. What I discovered was that I didn't have as many "deep" thoughts as I expected and my blog stopped being excited.
I have started to keep up with it more often now. In fact this class has helped me decide that if I'm going to keep a blog I might as well just write whatever I feel.
I've kept blogs for traveling and I find them to be the most useful for that purpose because it's a nice way to reflect back on what you happened that you may not readily remember.
I linked to my blog and twitter accounts on my class wiki profile page if you are into social networking as much as I am!
I'll post a link to my blog and a link to my friends blog. She is much better at keeping a blog and she talks about life as a stay-at-home mom and she does great giveaways for any classmates that have children! Here are the links

ME!
The Girl is a Mom

Blogging Culture

Hi folks,

I too have been a blog failure over the years. I had a xanga account in college, but it made me feel narcissistic, so I stopped writing. Then I started a blog about funny things my students said, but I got too busy to keep it up.

Blogs are an important part of my family's culture though. My brother is part of a particular religious/cultural group that is very in to blogging. They often do missionary work and have access to e-mail more regularly than any other form of communication, so blogging becomes an easy way to stay connected to a larger audience. As a result, his entire community blogs and I love it. He lives in Utah (can you guess what group he's part of?) so I don't get to see him, my sister-in-law, or my niece very often, so their blogs are the simplest way to stay connected. As a result, evenings spent around the computer reading blogs is not uncommon for my mom and me.

I think they serve some specific purposes really well, but like Professor Kutz said, are more limited than the wikis. What they offer is simplicity. The dang wiki makes me want to jump out my window, but the blog is straight forward. I suppose that's always the trade off with technology though. The more capable it gets, the more complicated.

Check out my sister-in-laws blog if you'd like: hosander.blogspot.com

I have a new blog too

Hi, I have been busy adding a calendar and other pages to my wiki. I also added a link to a blog for my journal called Blogginit. I'm not sure if I like blogs yet, I haven't really paid much attention to them until now. I think I like the wiki better, but I will keep that open for now. Does anyone have a strong preference either way? Let me know.

Tom

The Blog Experiment

I decided to create my own (and first!) blog using the website tumblr.com. My brother and my friend from college both utilize this website for blogging. I was always a follower of their pages, but had an anonymous page that I'd never edited. Now, however, I've played around on the site and made my first post. I am going to see if I can track how many people happen to stumble across this blog to get a feel for the universal interconnectivity which blogs provide. In the meantime, I will still be thinking of ways to utilize this blog for my students in the fall.

If you want to check it out, post to it, or provide suggestions for me, please search for me at tumbler.com. The title page is called ENGL 613 and my username is brwadbrook.

Thanks!

Brittany