Blogging Reflection • IDE 611 • Jon Peterson • 12/05/08
Blogging was new to me before this class. I was aware of the idea through myspace, but really ignored the ideas. In hindsight, the fact that I ignored blogging is quite interesting. Why did I ignor blogging? Was it generational? Just lack of awareness? Or, was the blatantly public nature of putting ideas out there for absolutely anyone to see, read and perhaps comment on them, become intimidating? (Actually, at this point, I don’t think I had the knowledge of the concept of commenting in blogging.) At the same time, there are several blog entries posted by friends that I did read and find much entertainment in. So, having to blog as an assignment, forced me to jump whatever hurdles were in my way.
Blogging was frustrating with the technical aspects of having to learn how to do each piece of it. It became a question of: Is it really worth my time to learn this feature in order to share an idea or concept. Something as simple as logging into my account was very frustrating. Sometimes it worked flawlessly and other times it did not. The times when the password/username failed repeatedly became overwhelmingly frustrating. Several attempts to log-in tends to lead a user away from a site and encourage work on other projects. This inconsistency also diminished the enthusiasm to return to the site. This also hampered the sharing of ideas and the ability to comment on other blogs.
On the positive side, I was at the very least, able to successfully create a blog and post comments on other blogs. This alone left a sense of accomplishment. After getting past the technical aspects, the real power of the blog began to show: the exploration of new concepts, and/or new ways of looking at a concept. Exploring current blogs, revealed the intensity and passion that many users embrace while exploring ideas at so many different levels of understanding. It is interesting to me the amount enthusiasm that so many bloggers have. I guess this is really the case with any other hobby or area or interest.
To improve my blogging, I would first need an interest in a topic that would encourage me to sit behind a computer and share ideas online. The topic would have to have enough influence to force me to carve time out of an extremely busy schedule occupied by parenting and teaching. The topics in this class held enough interest to devote some important time to learning the new ideas. So, then I reflect on what really interests me as a passion – music and songwriting. But the real joy in this arena is sharing music at a person-to-person level. I have established this in my life through close friends who regularly share their time with me. Blogging can not replace this.
