So, I’ve had this stupid blog in various formats for over five years now. I don’t think I’ve ever posted anything of great interest to anyone, because I’ve never really figured out what exactly I wanted to use it for.
People are blogging for all types of reasons: They are setting down their political opinions, evangelizing their hobbies or just talking in general about the world around them. They are critiquing movies, or reviewing various products.
There are sports blogs, community blogs, scientific blogs and religious blogs of various denominations. There are educational blogs, thousands of personal blogs, and blogs being used to sell things.
People are even blogging about blogging.
As for me, I’ve been using blog software for classes I teach for a number of years, but it’s not much more than a bulletin board. I even have a fake blog on my portfolio site (many of the posts recreated here for filler) – it looks like a blog, but it’s not. It’s just old-school, hand-coded HTML hastily slapped together in response to some sudden site traffic almost five years ago. I haven’t updated it for close to four years. I’ve even coordinated the launch of a new project showcasing student bloggers at BCIT as part of our student recruitment and web communications strategy.
But I’ve just never really gotten around to doing anything with this space. Until now.
Up until today I was using Blogger to publish here. I’ve now switched over to WordPress in order to gain more control over my publishing environment. So that’s the kinda geeky part.
As for content, well, that’s the big question, right? For 2007, my main goal will simply be to write. I’ll probably lean towards things I know – beer, hockey, web design, sleeping, etc. – but as long as I’m writing, that’s all that matters. We’ll re-evaluate in 2008.
Hopefully there’s a few posts to evaluate between now and then.
“evangelizing” = now i’ve not heard/read that before! LOL – i suppose i am tho heheheh :p
altho on a side note, i have been trying to use a blog for my own teaching-tool, but seems students aren’t that quick on the pick-up! either that or they generally think us (ie: me) old fogeys are “trying too hard to be on their level” LOL
anyways, good luck with your new blog and a productive 2007
cheers
andy
toysrevil
Thanks, Andy. For what it’s worth, the “blogs as teaching tool” has been a sticking point for me too. I work in an environment where people are “evangelizing” this “new technology” as a way to facilitate knowledge sharing and reflective learning.
Whaaaa?
Blogs are websites. Like any other piece of technology that’s come and gone in the web era, just because it exists doesn’t mean people are automatically going to get any value from it.
My experimentation with blogs, like yours, has been less-than-stellar. Students aren’t interested in conversing online, it seems, even if they do actually have their own blog.
Anyway, maybe I’ll blog about this