Entering the Blogosphere

The Blogosphere sounds like a different world....and it is, really.  It's a world where we put ourselves out there, successes and failures, to share our experiences with others.  It's a world where we trust the advice and ideas of complete strangers.  It's a world where we get caught in a stream of links and more links and end up far, far away from where we started from.  It's an exciting place....full of endless enthusiasm, strong communities, opinionated people, continuous support, thought-provoking ideas, and more information than one person could ever consume....and it's a place that I am beginning to feel more and more comfortable in each day.

At the start of this class, blogs were something I had had limited experience with: I had created a few short blogs for my students to use for various projects and I had casually read blogs on topics from mommyhood to cooking to education. I had technically followed bloggers using the RSS feed GoogleReader, although it was not something I actively followed or really understood the usefulness of.

Over the course of this class, I have become a consistent user of GoogleReader.  I check my feed daily and at minimum I skim the postings and links.  Before this class I easily became overwhelmed at the amount of information and ideas that were presented through these blogs.  However, after listening to the advice of classmates and instructors, I have learned that I don't have to engage with every posting...I can skim the information, determine if it is relevant to me, and move on.  I bookmark or add useful information to my LiveBinder page and I let the rest go.  I now have some blogs that are my favourites (NeverEndingSearch and The Daring Librarian are among them) and there are probably some that I could happily remove from my feed.  I have enjoyed following the updates of my classmates and have felt a sense of camaraderie in this Web 2.0 journey by reading about their successes and struggles. 

Look Mom:  NO unread items!!!!

Through following blogs and experiencing blogging, I have become a slightly more savvy and confident blogger.  I am still far from finding my blogging voice, but I find that part of this is my struggle to write academically while sharing personal experience.  I have gained a new appreciation for hyperlinking, catchy titles, metaphors, and screencasts.....the more blogs I read the more ideas I have for how to improve my own.

I can see many great ways of using blogs and RSS feeds with my students.  I think that as my comfort level grows, I will be able to do a better job of having them create and follow blogs: "once teahcers have been an active part of the blogosphere themselves, they want to bring their students along" (Kist, 2010, p.72).   I like the idea of students blogging about their learning on a topic, I think that a library blog with book reviews and class updates would be a great tool to show the work we are doing in the library, and I would love to see our students interact with students in other schools around the world to discuss anything from weather to current events.  One potential roadblock I foresee is that many of our parents are still leery about allowing their children to have an online presence, but I hope that some information on internet safety and on the value of a positive digital footprint would help overcome these objections. 

I am not sure what the future of blogging holds for me.  I will certainly maintain my GoogleReader and will continue to stay informed of the TL world through this method.  As for continuing to blog, I think I would like to do this on a more personal level.  I enjoyed the challenge of improving my writing style, and I think blogging about my life as a mom, wife, student, teacher, and friend would be a wonderful way to find my blogging voice. 

References
Kist, W. (2010).  The socially networked classroom:  Teaching in the new media age.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.