Oh, I See!

im-blogging-this.jpg 

 Dean Shareski recently posted about blogs that succeed, and listed five simple ways he’s discovered to help students and teachers blog successfully:

Blogging is mostly about reading

  • Provide as much time to read blogs as write
  • When writing make sure you are responding to something you’ve read, seen or heard

To make a friend you have to be a friend

  • If you want people to read and respond to your work, you will need to read and respond to theirs
  • We have 2 ears and 1 mouth!

It’s personal

  • Write about what you know
  • Don’t lose the concept of conversation – it must flow from personal meaning
  • Write stories that others can relate to and contribute to

Hyperlink

  • Validity of blogs without links?

Get graphical

  • Words are only one way to express ideas
  • Embed video, audio and images
  • Communicate beyond just words

I’ve been struggling a bit lately with finding the impetus to write, and I think its because I’ve over planned the whole “story” too much.

I’ve also been doing lots and lots of reading but not responding in any way – just thinking “Yeah, I agree with that!” and moving on to the next post.

Maybe I need to explore graphical ways of communicating – try out some new applications so I can use them/show them in class as well.

I shared Dean’s suggestions with my class and they had a lively discussion about the ideas raised – we’ve all agreed to get down and serious about improving our blogging this term, just you wait and see if we don’t   🙂