What Is A Blog?

Since I have developed more of an understanding from using a blog for this whole semester, I now have a general idea of the functions of a blog. A blog is like a journal where you can pretty much write whatever you want and display whatever you want. You can choose to make it public or private. Blogs have been used for different purposes, from business, to school, or just for people to write whatever is on their mind. I have seen a lot of blogs where the person posts an issue or just a general problem and many people have responded with their opinions, giving possible solutions. From using a blog this semester, I thought the positive thing about it was that more people in the class participated. Whenever the class was assigned a reading and was to post a reflection on their understanding of what was read, you would be able to look at other peoples' blogs and read their interpretation of the reading. It relates to a discussion, and makes the discussion better when more people put their ideas out there. I've noticed that in class, whenever we have a discussion about what we've read, not a lot of people give feedback. Another good thing about blogging is that you also get quick feedback from your teacher and your classmates. It is also another way to comment to your classmates about their ideas and for them to comment on your ideas. It also lets your classmates and your teachers get to know you better and how you think. When Nick introduced us to blogging, I thought it was a different way of interacting in the classroom and doing our assignments. What I didn't like about blogging was that sometimes it would get a bit time consuming for some of the blog assignments because I have a hard time getting my thoughts down in writing, having to find the right words to say to make sense, to get my idea out to where when other people are reading my post, they can understand what I'm trying to say. Whereas in the class, I can break down certain elements from the idea that I'm trying to get across and other people can jump in, kind of helping to get out what I'm trying to say. I also think that sometimes with blog discussions, the person doesn't really get a full understanding of what they've read, whereas having a live discussion in class, people put their ideas out and the teacher kind of guides the students to think further outside the box. Besides using blogs in a school setting, I don't really use blogs outside of school for my own personal use. From using a blog for the first time in this class, I felt that it was a good experience, sharing ideas and being able to think critically to find a deeper meaning in the readings, but in the future, I will probably not continue to use blogs unless another class that I am taking is using blogs.