This initial blog is a reposting of a July 2010 blog to introduce it to students for the first time. Feel free to go back and read the other blogs posted and comments by your predecessors. I will select a few for you to read and comment on. Follow the instructions here and get started--enjoy!
The purpose of this blog is to give you, the students, the opportunity to share your thoughts, assignments, and projects with each other and perhaps the world. It is a classroom blog to begin with, however if you want to start your own blog we can certainly talk about that! The blog will be the hub of collaboration and sharing for our class. You will also comment on the work of your classmates. Finally the blog will become a repository of your good ideas.
We will learn some cool easy Web 2.0 tools to help you complete assignments and projects. You may already know some and can teach me! Eventually, you might create your own blog or, using something like Google docs, you can begin to create an e-portfolio of your work. This blog is different from our BB site because it allows you to embed projects, comment directly on other's work, read postings from guests, and more. There will be plenty of guidelines for you to follow and information on how, when, why, etc. So don't freak out! We will ease into it and I promise it will enhance your learning and not just take time away from your studies.
Take the survey on web tools (posted on BB) and watch the following video. Go to the "Tips for Blogging" page here and then share your thoughts (via comments below) on your reaction to using a blog in our class by answering the following questions: Have you blogged before? How do you think it might be helpful? What is your biggest concern? What might be fun about blogging here?
Let's get started!
Blogs in Plain English:
Have you blogged before? How do you think it might be helpful? What is your biggest concern? What might be fun about blogging here?
ReplyDeleteI have never blogged before.
Blogging can be helpful to inform the public or even close friends or family about ones life or ideas that they want to share about their personal life. It can also be used as a professional networking tool to build up clientele.
My biggest concern about blogging is that it could be dangerous to write too much information about ones self because there are predators that could use that information against them. The internet is a worldwide tool and once something is posted it can never be erased.
Blogging here can be beneficial for both the teacher and the students because it is a good way of communication. It can also be a good educational tool because anyone can post their ideas and have others read about them.
I've never blogged before but I'm willing to try. Blogging can be helpful since it helps get out information to other people in a short amount of time. My biggest concern is the fact that its easy to forget to blog or reply to a blog if a person doesn't remember to do so. What might be fun is the fact that the blog is another way for the students to learn about microbiology in a different way.
ReplyDeleteI personally have never blogged before, however it seems like a fun, new experience. I feel as though this blog may be helpful in a variety of ways, particularly in the sense that it gives us students a different and more flexible means of communication. It opens a new door to sharing thoughts and ideas through words, links, and etcetera. My biggest concern is not knowing how to blog, since this is something new I’m sure it will take some getting used to. I think the idea of blogging alone is something fun but the fact that we get to read and comment on other classmate’s post will definitely add to it.
ReplyDeleteI have never blogged either, but it seems like a fun thing. I have had previous teachers who try to get students to create their own blog and communicate to other classmates through that, but none of them have ever really succeeded. I think that blogging could be a cool way to share ideas and interesting things that we find or watch through out the semester. I watched those videos from back in November that Burke posted, and they were interesting but VERY gross. Hopefully the class can share videos and things like that to relate microbiology to our every day life.
ReplyDeleteI used to blog when I had my Holistic Medicine Practice called Reed's Natural Healing. I think it will be helpful to share ideas with the instructor as well as other classmates outside of the classroom. My biggest concern is that I would forget to check into the blog with all the other assignments I am responsible for. I will be fun to expand the learning experience through this new format.
ReplyDeleteMelissa Gregory
I started blogging when I was 13, and just recently been active since last year of October. So far, I believe that blogging was very helpful and fun in a certain way. People could put a lot of interesting stuff, which can be a learning one or even some personal stuff. Blogging most of the time is very helpful because it gives people an interesting information about certain stuff or sometimes it supplement the things that people already know. Blogging for a few months and so far I never had any concern of it. Blogging is really fun, well so far it is for me, especially when people put a very interesting videos that are very funny yet very true.
ReplyDeleteRonelyn Permison
i had to blog for another class, and the good thing about it is that not only you learn from the assignment, but there might be things someone doesn't understand or read that someone else does. no real concerns, but a fun and usful source because i can get alot of useful help from other bloggers as well as the assignment. i look forward to future blogs and learning about the little huge world of microbes.
ReplyDeleteI have never blogged before i never really thought to blog because i do not have anything to blog on. I think it will be helpful just to see what is going on with other people an to see what else people have to see with what is going on in the class. My only concern is i am a little confused how to use this but as we go on i think it will get easier. i think it will be fun to blog an i think that i might want to blog after i do this
ReplyDeleteIt took me a long time to figure out how to just post on this. I have never had a true blog before, but I have used facebook so I kind of understand how to do this. I think this will be interesting to get involved in the class more ways then just lecture and lab. I am worried about missing assignments or getting confused on how to post but I think it will be a learning experience.
ReplyDeleteOk I found out how to post, when I wanted to post on Sunday, I didn't realize that I had to log on to Gmail, and so forth. But I am finally here, and I can honestly say blogging freaks me out. I’m usually the one who reads blogs, not the one to post them. I guess this will help me get over my nervousness, and allow me to come out of my shell I am looking forward to our discussions over the semester...
ReplyDeleteHave you blogged before? How do you think it might be helpful? What is your biggest concern? What might be fun about blogging here?
ReplyDeleteI have never blogged before but I have used Facebook and I'm not sure if its the same thing or not. My biggest concern is that I cant find where to put my blog or if its the comment thats the blog? Not sure. I'm sure it'll be fun learning from others here and getting to see a response from another perspective.
By Tiffany Olega
ReplyDeleteI have never blogged before. Like right now, it took me about 2 weeks to figure out how to just post this one comment for this blog and now im late on commenting. I think this is a helpful tool for people to express their feelings, thoughts, and other ideas for other people to read and then express their thoughts. My biggest concern is that I dont know how to get to the next blog or at times place a comment with my name on it. I am logged in and everything but when I want to comment, it doesnt leave the comment. It makes me frustrated especially if im getting graded on it as well and i can even put up my comment because the site is not letting me. Im not really sure if blogging here is fun fun but it is educational.
I personally have never blogged before. I can see how it is usefull when used in a sense such as in the learning community or scientific field. It provides a place for people to talk openly about their ideas and get instant feedback from each other and this is an amazing step that our generation has taken. However most people do not use it in this sense and use it to be talk about themselves or things that are useless to the rest of the world and thus is the reason I never cared to spend my time looking at any blogs. My only concern about our class blog would be the fact that I have a very busy schedule and I could see myself forgetting to post a comment or just having it slip my mind, however I will work very hard to make sure this will not happen. I think having a class blog will be fun because it will provide a place to learn and communicate outside of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI have never blogged before. Blogging seems really helpful because it allows people to share ideas and news at a fast rate. My biggest concern is that I am busy and not home that often to go on my laptop to read the blog posts. It might be fun to read the current events on how microbiology is useful today or to see how easy it is to blog on this website.
ReplyDeleteIt seems many of us have never blogged before, and this makes me feel a little bit more comfortable, as I have also never blogged before. Hopefully, this will become a very helpful tool throughout the course.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! this case study gives me a lot of things to think about. I think this would be nice and helpful to others. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteGmail Account Support