The words "blogging" or "blog" are obviously not in any current dictionaries, but I wonder if they will be a hundred years from now. Or maybe children a hundred years from now will be learning about the pioneers of blogging. The dictionary must have to be updated at the same speed technology is changing. With every new computer innovation comes a new set of vernacular. Who would of said the word "internet" fifty years ago, or even twenty years ago? People from these times would be puzzled by the description of something called a "website", yet today these things are a daily part of our lives, almost as mandatory as eating or brushing our teeth. We do everything online now. We bank, pay bills, communicate, date, buy cars, buy houses, apply for loans, apply for jobs, take college classes, read the news, read books, buy books, book travel, rent cars, watch movies, watch TV, trade stocks, run businesses. The online world has become such a huge part of our lives that I can only imagine what the effect would be if the internet suddenly disappeared.
While many see the internet as a form of recreation or a networking of friends, I see it as an opportunity. An opportunity for learning, and an opportunity for a career. Currently I am utilizing the internet to take classes to learn things like web development and computer maintenance so that I can pursue a career in the IT profession. My main subjects of interest are web development and graphic design, so I'm sure I will probably be spending a good deal of my time on the internet in my career venture.
This class has been really interesting so far. While I've dabbled a little in HTML coding over the years, I've never used a web development program like Dreamweaver before. I find it to be inspiring and am realizing that the sky is the limit with the creative possibilities. I've also always been interested in starting my own online business, and this class is helping me to learn the "building a web site" part of that. Once I've learned more about Dreamweaver I'm sure I'll be able to make a both attractive and professional looking and operational site.
As for the blogging part of the course, I wasn't sure at first what to think of it. I've never really got into writing or reading blogs; I've always seen it as an avenue for people with lots of ideas and too much time on their hands, but my view of blogging has been pretty narrow. It can be used for so much more. I've always thought of it as a person's online journal, or diary, but blogging can be used for academia, science, medical research, any kind of research, philosophy, creative writing, etc.. Basically blogging is all about writing. What to write about is all up to you.
Pertaining to this course, blogging is a very useful tool for writing assignments and reflection into the learning material.
I couldn't say yet that anything in this course should be improved. It's been "smooth sailing" so far. The assignments are easy to understand, fun to do, and a great learning experience.
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Interesting... you've taken what's become a pretty normal, winding path into technology!
The word blog means so many things that it almost seems useless. You are right that they can be many different things... and are all about writing.
But they are also about publishing... using blog software you can create sites that are nothing like the traditional idea of the blog! Take a look at a few of the sites listed on this page-- all of them built using a piece of blog software (in this case, Wordpress):http://community.uaf.edu/~chris/wiki/CIOS256-F08/AThoughtExperiment
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