Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Jeopardy, brownies, and books (oh, my): Part 2

Now to the book part of this post. I just started reading Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom, by Will Richardson, this afternoon at lunch (here's hoping the Amazon link is a persistent one). I've read his blog for a year or so now @ Weblogg-ed and was interested in the title when he began his brilliant "shameless self promotion" by publicizing on the blog. I'm barely in to chapter 2 and find an interest in the distinction Richardson has made between different genres of blogs, or journals verses blogs.

In my profile area I mention looking for a blogger voice. I have not determined if this will be a personal blog, professional blog, or a combination of both. It's a young blog yet, not a month old, so I am still learning. While making that decision I post about whatever interests me at the moment and add links to more "stuff." Linking is something I do naturally within a post. I love the Internet and it's inherent challenge of finding quality information amongst the junk. Richardson mentions "blogging is a genre that engages students and adults in a process of thinking in words, not simply an accounting of the days events or feelings" (p. 20). Furthermore, and forgive the broad paraphrase, he makes a clear distinction between journaling and blogging by believing links within blogs contribute to more learning as users are able to find more information as they read.

Since I am hopelessly intrigued with blogs and the potential of blogs, it won't be long now before I finish this book. With luck, I will decide what course this blog will take as well.

Or not.

Note: If the amazon link is faulty, or you want to learn more about this book, go directly to the Weblogg-ed Book info page.

1 comment:

Will Richardson said...

Glad you are enjoying the book so far. Please let me know what you think when you get through the rest of it.

Best,

Will