Technology in the Education Arena

Miguel Guhlin recently posted “What is a Blog?” wherein he discussed blogs without comments.

He writes:

What I am increasingly sure of is that blogging isn’t necessarily about conversation with others, as it is a conversation with yourself, a way of sharing your ideas with others without interruption. Blogging has helped me professionally in encouraging me to express my ideas. The more I express them, the less silly they seem when voiced aloud. This transparency, openness, has helped me give voice to ideas, concepts that I might have been too timid or shy to share before.

Blogging is great in that we can post as Miguel said — for ourselves — but there are so many educators out there reading blogs that it becomes professional development for so many. In the last year I cannot begin to fathom how much I have learned just from reading blogs. There are days when I feel very guilty because I feel like I should be contributing more — I am gaining so much but not posting enough or commenting enough. But then, my giving back is partly found in the professional development I provide to the teachers. Commenting isn’t critical to me but it is always nice to get some comments every now and then. I guess it depends on the purpose of your blog entries. On the other hand, comments are very important to a classroom blog with your students. It is all about collaborating.