Finally it has come to the final entry of this blog assignment; I never continue writing or regularly upload my post before. Even though I own a blog, I always take an excuse that I have no time to update.) I wonder if I still continue writing (in such an academic style), is there anyone really visit my blog? Similarly, are there any classmates who would still write and update their web 2.0 posts? Despite the fact, I have to admit that from this blog assignment, I have learnt a lot, and it does change some of my attitudes toward bloggars and its community. Perhaps, I will turn back to my own blog and pay more attention on it. Below are some benefits and provoking ideas I get from this assignment.
Benefits of Blogging:
Learning from the real life
One unique characteristic of web 2.0 and the internet is to allow users to communicate exchange and interact among themselves, blogospere is likewise able to respond these human’s needs very well. From this point of view, I feel working on the blog is somehow different from a piece of paper or just on a PC. Blogospere mimics our lifestyle or even a small society that there are questions concerning human interaction and the internet or the web: Does the virtual world reflect on the real world, or the real world reflects on the virtual world instead? Even though what the answer is, I am certain that this tool brings our living and learning together here.
Real-life connection to writing is another point that makes blog become unique and interesting. Since blog was originated from daily journal or so-called “diary”, people tend to link their own experiences with their writings. Generally we, as a human beings, love to hear stories from other people; therefore, this writing style, that heavily mix with reality or author’s context, would catch an eye of audience rather than reading textbooks (which are usually dry and daunting.)
Huge/ready-to-hand references
Another reason that I like reading blogs is that there is a features to add or insert external sources for references. As pointing to the original sources, it makes that writing reliable. Readers can evaluate their thoughts more effectively while authors are able to validly prove their own arguments. The most important thing which makes blog different from a paper assignment is that those external sources can be reached at one click. (Although sometimes it is hard for me to view uploaded videos.)
Language learning
For me, as a foreign student, practice reading and writing is definitely a good thing, but working on blog is so much different from traditional assignments. First, I do not feel obliged to write such a formal language (Most classmates do write in an informal style.) Second, because of the casual way of writing, I can learn many speaking language which hardly appear on the text. Oftentimes I have to look up those terms either on the internet or my own dictionary.
Self-Reflection
Exploring own ideas and express it through writing is an effective way of learning since writing requires higher cognitive thinking and refining one’s thoughts; unlike speaking, a that may not need a lot of thinking efforts. Self-reflection provides us an opportunity to review what have happened (in the class or weekly readings). It let us think back and forth, and sometimes questioning ourselves about those topics; most of the time, I went back and search for more relevant information to prove my own thoughts, and then I posted on my blog.
Reflection from critical friend and others
Continuing from the previous session, I am always excited when I receive comments (although those are not so much). Although the comments do not agree with my own thoughts, I am happy that there is somebody who care to read and are willing to listen to my opinions. They help me think and look from different angles, practicing my thinking, process, and more importantly, they help to extend those ideas and refer me to various sources. Is this a power of collective knowledge and learning, such a fascinating feature!
Self-motivation
For the blog assignment, it allows us to not only able to exchange ideas through comments, but we also view this matching as a sort of self-motivation. I have often been motivated and thought that I should have regularly updated my blog because my friend has already posted. I would consider this is a positive because they rescue me from the late posting!
Technical aspects:
Strengths of using blog
Working on blog, we do not have to worry (or leas concern) about the lost of our paper. We can access our own writing anywhere (as far as there is the internet connection). Additionally, there is an archive for us to keep our postings as long as we want so that we can refer or make changes anytime. Another benefit is the convenience. It is easy to access or read our friends’ postings without password protection like OnCourse or other CMS systems. Nevertheless, there are some blogging sites that visitors who want to leave comments have to put an image verification code or captcha. This regretfully prevents me from leaving comments to some of my friends’ blogs and convinces me just to stay tune only for the same site.
Weaknesses of using blog
For the provider that I am using (WordPress), there is no insertion for comments, it would be nice to add this feature because this can make interaction between authors and readers be more social. Another barrier I found (and perhaps not only happen to the blog) is the user interface. Even though blog’s interface is comparatively easy to use, I found it confusing sometimes, particularly when they have developed their widgets or applications. I had to spend quite a long time, trying to familiarize myself. This is another problem that web developer has to consider.
Conclusion
It is such a good experience working on the blog for this assignment. I have learnt so many things even though I encountered some technical problems. I would definitely be happy to work on the similar assignment in the future.
