Thing 4

In leaving meaningful comments that show thoughtful consideration to the topics of other bloggers, we validate the importance of the topic to the author and acknowledge to them that we share that sense of priority. We expand our own world to include their ideas and anticipate feedback from the blog's author or other commenters, allowing for a sense of connectedness.

As a blogger, including a question within a topic could possibly invite comments from others. Doing so would enhance the concept of humility; one who knows it all seldom poses questions to others for fear of learning. Finding questions in a topic also might give a potential commenter the idea that the author will respond to a comment left on the blog. These techniques can encourage contributions from others who may have invaluable information to share.

The five blogs from our group where I have chosen to comment are Jill Blankenship, Roger Taylor, Sarah Sanford, Mary McGowan, and Elizabeth Murphy. Jill and I are both in the program for School Counseling, and she expressed some of my own reservations about the use of technology in this chosen profession. She did, however, elaborate on some of her ideas that would be useful to both students and parents in a generic format and I thought she expressed it quite well.

Roger brought up a point about communication between instructors and students, and how this medium can be useful in accomplishing that feat. Students can sometimes feel unsure about approaching a teacher with a question, and the blog could give a voice to those uncertainties under the mask of anonymity.

Sarah admitted to feelings of self-doubt, and she is not alone there. The discipline of education is so foreign to me it is like learning another language, and I struggle constantly with feelings of inadequacy and wondering if I am up to the task. She shared some good advice, words with which I am not unfamiliar: "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..." Go Sarah!

Mary obviously shares my love for dogs, and I am in awe of her 10 border collies! That cannot be an easy undertaking! My own lone golden retriever appears to have some border collie in her and I recognize some of her temperament as coming from her less prominent heritage. That is a kind way of saying that border collies can be a serious challenge! :)

The name of Elizabeth's blog caught my eye when the page loaded, and I like it. In reading through her topics, she too expressed some frustration with some of the tasks thus far. However, she has the reason of caring for a toddler while working on this assignment; I have no such excuse. Mine is techno-illiteracy, plain and simple.

I have not yet explored the two blogs outside of class so I will come back later to edit this post.