Shall We Continue to Blog?

For the most part, blogging has been a completely difference experience for me; and along with the unorthodox approach of doing homework online, it is apparent that we all benefited much from this enriching approach to English class. Albeit, this hasn't been the same for us all; namely, some of my fellow classmates did not take an advantage of this system and follow the given instructions; which would have made this blogging experience reach its full potential.

Indeed, we all started out kind of testing the water little by little; and eventually we were able to grasp the technicalities of using an online blog and advance. Here comes the question though: should we continue to use Blogger? I have mixed feels with regards to it. Blogger has thrown a few obstacles out at us here and there, technical problems in general, but I believe that the biggest problem here is the work habits section. Perhaps students think that by using the Internet for homework can opt them out of finishing it before the deadline, or maybe even to the extent to have an excuse to not do their homework. Furthermore, I also believe that the quality of the comments should be reinforced to contain more aspects of useful constructive criticism. I feel that this is more crucial to blogging because it involves the success of our classmates; if I don't finish my homework, then my blog members will not be able to complete theirs.

Another aspect of this question is whether or not blogging is a more effective approach than carrying out in-class homework. I would think: not quite.; using blogger has given people more excuses to not finish their homework on time. Frankly, my opinion is that my writing or reading would have improve much more if I were doing it by hand with the help of actual classmates in the form of solid. This, however, can be put aside because it is inevitable that we will have to use technology greatly in the future. Doing homework in class and handing it in class gives people more of an obligation to finish their homework, that much I believe is true.

My final opinion on this matter is that: yes, we should continue using blogger; however only to a certain extent and only if 2 conditions are met. We should only use Blogger moderately and mixed in with actual in class homework. The 2 conditions I believe are: students MUST finish their homework on time, and be obligated to accomplish quality work (and comments to the best of their potential). If these two conditions are met, I believe that this is a practical approach to learning and to improve greatly in reflecting; or how Ms.Lees likes to say it: thinking about our thinking.