Saturday, May 25, 2013

When Blogs Die

Don't worry, faithful 3 or 5 readers! I'm not killing this thing yet. I'm thinking about the phenomenon of teachers incorporating blogging into coursework. It's not something I've done myself, but last quarter I took two classes where it was either required - as in this case - or optional - as in this. But now those blogs sit there, most likely unread and unused, and that makes me a little sad.

"Things change," my father might say, taking a nonchalant bite out of his peanut butter sandwich. Yes. And as a recent review of my own blog list demonstrates, people abandon or delete their blogs all the time. But given that, how useful are blogs as teaching tools? Would it make more sense for teachers to ask students to post to pre-existing, more heavily trafficked sites than to create new forums that seem to only have a shelf life, and a core audience, that lasts as long as the class itself?   

1 comment:

  1. At the risk of being nit-picky, LeAnne, especially given the title of the post immediately preceding this one, I am calling foul on this post! It does NOT, not, not fit in with the theme of your blog. Ahem. [Still good questions, though? Are blogs being used in teaching b/c they are trendy?] Love, s.

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