Blog Reflection

This semester has been my first attempt at blogging for academic purposes. A few years back I attempted to blog for fun as a way to have an online journal. After a few weeks, I struggled to keep it going. The challenge was being motivated to write down my thoughts when I knew no one was reading my posts. The purpose of the blog was for personal reflection on happenings in my life, not for others to read. However, for this class, there was the obvious accountability of having others commenting on my posts. This added “pressure” kept me engaged and thinking about what to write. I continually checked for postings of my group using Feedly, and I enjoyed reading and commenting on those posts. This continual involvement made the process of posting, monitoring, and responding quite efficient and manageable.

I do wonder if the same type of interactions would be achievable by having a group blog. As I think about how to implement this type of activity in my instruction, having multiple locations for students to search seems cumbersome. I believe having all students posting on the same blog/discussion board/platform, similar to the discussion boards used in GoView, would be easiest to manage at the elementary level. I have had success using Padlet as a means of sharing reflections, but with the changes at Padlet, I believe finding an alternative means of sharing discussions will be necessary. These blogging assignments have given me some ideas moving forward.

I found the blogging assignments added an additional level of comprehension. First, I spent additional effort analyzing my responses prior to posting. Peer pressure still works. Second, reading posts by my group members provided greater understandings of the readings. I benefited from reading someone else’s thoughts and interpretations. Third, by responding to posts, I was forced to analyze the opinions of others and find a way to respond either in support or in disagreement.

In regards to the course readings, I found most of them to be informative. The articles that provided me with some of the most practical, as well as insightful, information were those on how to search more effectively with Google and those explaining the Growth Mindset. Prior to the reading on Google searches, I was unaware of the various methods and shortcuts to make searches more effective and efficient. I particularly enjoyed learning about the reverse image search feature. I found the Growth Mindset articles to be inspirational and something that I need to review every so often throughout the school year. The wide range of topics also was enjoyable. Each week there was always a new topic that triggered ideas to improve my instruction.