Philosophy on Blogging

Image Source: Pixabay

I’ve been an avid follower of blogs for many years. One of my earliest introductions was via so-called “mommy blogger” Dooce (Heather Armstrong), who was infamously fired for writing about coworkers on her blog well before she was actually a mother. All of the blogs of my early experience would be considered lifestyle blogs. Many of the early bloggers I followed have since moved on to other endeavors. For example, one DIY couple’s blog financially supported their young family for several years before they stepped away from blogging altogether for a year, then returned to it in a more limited fashion. I think they discovered that with so much emphasis on their blog as the primary income generator for the family, the lines between their personal lives and their work lives were completely blurred, if not nonexistent. 

In more recent years, I’ve seen blogging expand beyond the early lifestyle blogs with the emergence of blogs focused on professional areas/topics and blogging in education. Not only can blogs be used by teachers and instructors, they can also be used by students for reflection, community building, and more. I’ve had opportunities to blog as a student in my own coursework and I feel it was interesting and that it positively contributed to my overall academic experience.

I believe that blogs can serve a role in education and that it can be a valuable one. However, blogging shouldn’t be used in education simply for the sake of it, or because “everyone” is doing it. It should be used as a tool to support learning. Like any type of technology or social media, its use should have a clear purpose, such as sharing and communicating information on the part of teacher/instructor, or helping to meet learning outcomes for students. Recently, I’ve been considering ways I might incorporate blogging into my own instruction. I can envision two possibilities. One would be an administrative blog that I could use to communicate information, announcements, etc. Basically, it would allow me to present this information in one place rather than in several scattered locations. The second possibility would involve student blogging, most likely focused on reflection. I like the idea of allowing students to become creators of products that they can take with them wherever they go next.