Reflections on Blogging - Blog #8

Before I started Full Sail University I did not use any blogging tools such as Facebook, Blogger or Netvibes. Facebook I knew about and was not interested in. Created a Facebook site for myself has been useful when it came time to work as a group. It was a way to collaborate ideas and keep in touch with our project information. Blogger has been interesting in that it allows for freedom to express thoughts openly and view what other people are saying. Netvibes has become one of my favorite sites. It is a web page full of RSS feeds. Instead of having to go search out everyone's pages, blogs and other sites I can add them all into Netvibes to read at my convenience. I can see this being a very handy tool for educators who have many students all with different blogging sites. Another technology I found very helpful was Delicious. Having my bookmarks available anytime and anywhere is amazing. The fact that you can share with others sites that are of interest is a great tool for educators. Blogging about sites such as these can get the word out to those who take the time to read them.

Blogging can accomplish a goal, get the point across and even get something back that was stolen. The story, in the book, Here Comes Everyone, about a cell phone that was left in a taxi cab and picked up by someone else who began using it even after the owner contacted that individual to return the phone, but would not return it is a prime example of how blogging about the incident created such a following that eventually the cell phone was returned and the perpetrator was apprehended. How could something as simple as a cell phone stolen in New York City get so much attention? Blogging. Millions of people are reading blogs and blogging about what they read and it spreads to those who do not blog but hear about it from a blogger.

Blogging is a social phenomenon that has captured the attention of individuals, corporations and educational institutions such that it is almost impossible to avoid. Blogging is like reading the newspaper of the masses. Reading about peoples lives, current events, homework assignments, ideas about anything is a very collaborative way to network. Networking the old fashioned way involved many hours of mingling around clubs, events or shows where people had something in common. Now, with the Internet and blogging, networking is much easier to reach out and "touch" many lives, meet new and interesting people, hear and be heard.