Blog as a communications forum

I step towards technology as a aged and one legged hunchback may towards a jumping crowd of 5 years olds. Do I reaaaallly need to go there?

It would be a lie to say I embrace technology, or that I even am comfortable relying on it. Did my laptop loose my data 3 months before I had to present at a research conference? It darn well tried! This latest insult only re-enforces, a long standing grudge.

That in this course I'm being asked to open my mind to the concept that blogging could be a tool I use to dialogue with my students (link below taken from the VCC page).....hum. I'm trying not to sneer.

With a reflective deep breath, I can acknowledge that we do require a weekly journal in one class, where it might be possible to swap out that entry to the instructor, to a community blog. Some of the points - encourages reflection, and allows for equal opportunity for sharing between peers - this would still provide in an altered blog format.

Draw backs would include the lack of personal sharing. Some of the course material/reflections shared are very personal. It is an honour that students are willing to share them, and offer me insight as an instructor about where they struggle, how much they are struggling, and offer a method of reaching out to help. Much of this would be lost on a public forum blog.

Another challenge within our program is the volume of classes and extra curricular study. It is not necessarily the direction we want to go to be intentionally adding assignments that occur outside of class time anymore than absolutely necessary.

Hum... that might be my technology phobia rearing it's less than objective point of view. We take time outside of class for journals too.