Thing 4

I am currently reading "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman.  In the opening chapters, Friedman discusses how the internet has changed the world as we know it in a variety of different ways.  However, one point that he makes that is particularly relevant to "Thing 4" is the fact that the internet was the first time in human history that we were not only consumers of media, but we were able to take an active role in the production of media.  The internet has given us the opportunity to be our own authors, and have our own voices heard on a scale that has never been seen before.  No longer are we required to simply take the 5 o'clock news, or local newspaper at face value.  We have the opportunity to read instant reactions on what others in our neighborhoods and the around the world are thinking on any given topic, and pipe up in the conversation whenever we so desire.  Facebook, Twitter, You Tube,  blogs and comments on articles all give us the opportunity to author our own opinions and perspectives for the world to see.  However, as the famous line in Spiderman states, "With great power comes great responsibility."

Commenting on a blog without a doubt creates a sense of community.  It allows us as readers to not only not only be "consumers" of information, but to be an active participant of that information.  We can follow blogs on topics that interest us as individuals, and be surrounded by a group that may be interested in the same activity, social issue or hobby.  The ability to comment allows us to engage with people who may share our same values or ideas.  We can use this community to learn new ideas, see other perspectives and find a place where we belong.  Oh, the power of the internet!  However, there is also a potential down side to commenting that has the potential of destroying this sense of community.  Although we have the right to make our opinions known, it is essential that we remember to respect the thoughts and opinions of the author and commentors.  Too many times have I seen a thread of comments turn into a string of insults, bashing and flat out cyber bullying. 

After reading through the articles on commenting on blogs, two points in particular stick out in my mind.  The first is commenting etiquette.  Is the author of a blog required to reply to every comment left on the blog?  If they chose not to comment, does that make them seem too elite to take the time to reply to a comment?  In my opinion, a reply should only be made if you have something of value to add, and should never be expected.  I would never leave a comment on a blog expecting a reply.  If my comment opens a few new doors for the conversation to grow from, great!  If not, I have said my piece and nothing else would be expected.  The second point that struck me was the high percentage of readers who might be "lurkers" to a blog, but not active participants.  If we are pouring our hearts out over an issue that is near and dear to us, don't be offended if you open your blog a week later and not see any comments. Although one of the main goals of bloggers may be to engage conversation about a certain topic, the lack of comments does not mean that all that hard work has gone to waste.  Chances are, there are some readers out there, but getting any majority of those readers to comment is probably an unreasonable goal.

And now for the continuation of Thing 4...

I decided to wait a week or so before completing Thing 4 simply to allow more of my classmates to get their blogs up and running.  I have been a lurker so far, but the time has come to get out of the shadows and start commenting. 

I decided to comment on the following blogs...

James Kelley
Bing Thepsiri
Clinton Underwood
Bianca McDowell
Michelle Clark
C.J.Howard

It sounds kind of ridiculous but the initial few comments were hard for me to write, so I chose to comment on the blogs of people that I know from class.  Up until this point, I hadn't even realized that people had commented on my blog.  I now know to look in the sidebar and it will tell you how many comments you have.  Once I realized I had comments, I had a lot of fun reading through each of them, and it really made this whole blogging experience seem more worthwhile. 

When we initially started this project I was secretly hoping that there was a way to complete this project without having all the classmates being able to see my blog.  Afterall, you can make your Facebook account private, and most written assignments are usually only  read by you and the professor, but I guess that kind of defeats the purpose of a blog.  Once I read through the comments left on my blog, I got excited to open up this sense of community and commenting on other blogs was a lot more fun.  However, I did notice that time can quickly slip away from you when you start reading through the blogs!  I found it interesting that although we are all completing the same assignment, we really do see it from a different set of eyes, and our differing backgrounds bring a lot of interest to the table.  Once I got over my inital fear of commenting, I decided to run with it and I think that I have officially been changed from a "complete lurker" to a "no longer scared to be a commentor."  I enjoy reading through the different blogs and I hope to continue commenting even after I reached my required 5 (well, I chose 6) blogs to comment on for Thing 4.  For that reason I chose to comment on a variety of blogs, those that I relate well with and those that see things from a very different point of view that I didn't think of.  I think this makes for a more well rounded blogging experience. 

Commenting on blogs outside of classroom setting once again made me nervous.  It's one thing to comment on our blogs, since I have the "we're all in this together" motto.  However, blogs outside of our little community made me want to revert back to my "lurker" status.  I did end up posting as an "annonymous" user, which helped me feel a bit more comfortable posting on the blogs. 

Thankfully, I found 2 fantastic blogs that I we was happy to comment on.  The first one is titled "Chalk Talk."  This kindergarten teacher uses her blog as a way to show how she is teaching a particular topic.  I especially love all the bulletin boards she uses that include the children's artwork, written assignments and the actual story book itself to bring together different aspects of a comment theme that that students studied.  Just by looking at her blog, I found myself thinking that I wanted to be a 5 year old in her classroom!  Chalk Talk can by clicking on this link....Chalk Talk.

The second outside blog that I decided to comment on was A Place Called Kindergarten.  Once again this blog has a lot of great pictures that center around a certain theme.  I also like that she included videos in her blog!

After looking through the various blogs outside of our classroom, I found that I am really drawn to the blogs that have more pictures/videos incorporated in their blogs.  Sure they add visual interest, but they also show you first hand how these ideas are used within the classroom.  And I think some of it is the kindergarten teacher in me just loving blogs with lots of visual interest and cute crafts that tie into educational themes!