Is blogging for me?

[Lisa Archuleta]

I've heard about blogging but never really understood what it is. I've perused what a few people had to say in the TeacherLibrarian Ning and their comments were interesting and food for thought. As one completely new to blogs, my initial concern is that there is so much to say and millions of opinions to be heard! I also feel like I did when I first went online. There is sooo much information and so many people, it is difficult to navigate through everything.

I'm trying to figure out how I could use this particular forum in a classroom or library setting. I like how UCD has the discussion going; that is particularly helpful. In the classroom, I suppose I could post a question about a particular reading and have students respond. But I'm still trying to figure out how I could use blogging in a library...

[Carolyn Foote]

Lisa,

I've been using blogging a lot of different ways in my library, and there are some great examples of libraries, schools, or teachers using them for students.

Gargoyles in the Library at Uni High school is a fun blog for students. She's been running a series of photos featuring her students with ipods that I'm sure the students love!

Several teachers at my campus use their blogs in English classes for students to share their outside reading with the rest of their peers.

We have a couple of blogs in our library, one for students (searchology.edublogs.org) that I've started recently, and another one that I use more for pondering professional thoughts about teaching with our staff or whoever is reading it.

There are some great book blogs as well like Book Moot and Teri Lesesne's blog where they are sharing books they've read.

So it can be many things. One school that is using blogs widely that you might want to look at is Mabry Middle School. Many of their offices are using it like a newsletter to share information.

[Karen Hornberger]

Lisa,
The benefits of the Ning and blogs outweigh the negatives. Just browse the forum and only read the ones you think might impact you. Read them if they can help you - if you have a question, post it and others can help you with it - if you see something you are good at, just offer your advice. Otherwise, just browse and don't open everything that there is because it will overwhelm you. I do that and then I just regularly check about two blogs out there (Joyce's is one of them)and keep it to that. From watching the Ning and blogs, your ideas will sprout and your repertoire of ideas will soon be larger than you ever thought it would be.
Good luck!!!
Karen