Blogging Reflection

Admittedly I began this experience with some trepidation. I do not consider myself technologically savvy, nor have I had much experience reading blogs, let alone creating and maintaining my own. I was also concerned that I would not find enough information on my assigned topics to make my discussions each week interesting and useful to my audience. Fortunately I found my first topic (digital storytelling) quite interesting and was able to find a wealth of information to share that was relevant to the K-12 environment. My second topic (vlogging/vodcasting) was much more difficult to cover. I had a more difficult time finding resources that I thought were pertinent and interesting to discuss. It was a challenge to make the blog posts over the last half of the semester but I felt that this challenge made me dig deeper and look more critically at a subject that I otherwise would not have explored.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading my classmates’ blogs over the course of the semester. They covered topics that were familiar to me and some that were completely new. The resources they provided were interesting each week and many I found useful enough to bookmark for future use. Through this interaction I learned how truly useful blogging can be. It is a wonderful way to share ideas and resources with people who have your same interests and issues in mind. Once I begin work as a TL I will seek out other blogs within the school media community which will provide me a means to discuss professional issues, teaching techniques, changing technology, etc., with others in my field. I can imagine that it is easy to become sheltered within one’s own school community. Blogging can provide me the avenue through which to reach out to others beyond my own little library world.

Though I had my initial concerns, I found this to be a very enjoyable assignment and one that I learned a lot from. I not only learned about creating and maintaining a blog, I also learned a wealth of information and gained valuable resources covering eight technology issues/capabilities that are currently impacting the K-12 environment. Most importantly I learned that interaction and the sharing of ideas is critical to success in the school media community and that blogging is one tool which I can utilize to help achieve it.