I was very intimidated by blogs when we were first introduced to them. I thought of blogs as something that weird people on the Internet did late at night about aliens and Michael Jackson, not what real professionals did as writing exercises or to communicate with their professional communities. I’m still a little nervous about them. The warning the union sent out about any web presence by teachers kinda scared me. (Keep clean, Lorie!) However, using the blog has proved priceless throughout summer institute. I enjoy receiving comments from my fellows and having the opportunity to comment on their blogs as well even if just to say, “I hear you!” That is often a priceless commodity in the isolated world of secondary education. I loved Richardson’s idea of doing the book discussion via blog or responding to journals on blogs. It would really open up students to sharing their work in a forum that may be more comfortable than standing in front of the class. I mean if they can post pics of last weekends party on MySpace, posting a journal on Yeats should not be difficult. But I have very little hope of ever using blogging in the classroom. All blogging sites are blocked from school computers and not enough of my students have access to computers outside of school for it to be viable. Also, thereare issues of putting minors on the internet. I know its hypocritical that they post whatever, but the fear of lawsuits looms over us and innocent poetry blogs.
The e-portfolio project has changed the way I use blogs in no way since this is the first blog I have ever done. I imagine for the true blue blogger it means the blog becomes more formal and linked to revision rather than a record of their individual thoughts. As a professional one might use the electronic portfolio in order to show work to potential employers or to share lesson plans, research, and thoughts with colleagues. It would have great potential in the green classroom- no paper, but evidence of all the work! But for reasons alluded to above, this is a pipedream.
