My early impression of using a blog is quite positive. I like the idea of a blog very much because it allows the author to express him or herself through the use of technology. It is a creative way to organize thoughts and ideas. As the blogs for class continue to expand each week, I’m sure we will notice “personalities” developing through the text that we read. I like this because it creates an image of this person in the reader’s mind and an idea of what makes the author tick. I see the endless possibilities of a blog. In class, we are using it very basically right now. As I experiment with the different features and designs, I realize that one could dedicate hours to this type of project. I can see where having to create a blog as a project could turn into a true work of art, depending on where the creator takes it.
The RSS feeds are useful as well and make keeping up extremely user-friendly. I really enjoy the feeds because of the way they are formatted. It is easy to read and always up to date. I was not aware how many RSS feeds are available to subscribe to on the internet. I guess I knew there were several, but as I was searching, I never imagined that many were out there. The sheer number of followers for some of the most popular RSS feeds tell me that these are useful, efficient, and accepted tools for technology users.
I believe that an RSS feed would be considered an “exhibit” in Dale’s Cone Theory. He states that an exhibits are “working models arranged in meaningful display”. This may not an exact match because the Cone theory speaks mainly of this exhibits being strictly visual items such as pictures or video, but I believe that the point of an RSS feed is to organize a lot of material in a brief, chronological method.
I do not believe that a blog would be the base of the Cone, or at the “Direct, Purposeful Experience” level because the author of the blog is allowed so much creativity and imagination when composing. Therefore, I would move blogs to the “Contrived Experience” level of the Cone. The theory states that “a contrived experience is the editing of reality”. Human nature will force author’s own opinions and ideas into the direct experiences they write about, making them easier to understand or more effective in getting his or her point across. Ideas in the blogs may be simplified or complicated, depending on what the author would like to teach. This idea is expressed similarly in the article.
An imaginative educational use of a blog could be for pen-pals. In a foreign language classroom, which is what I would be in, I could see a blog as an effective way to communicate with students from another country. This would be more effective in a blog than in traditional methods of being pen-pals because it is easily accessible at any time of the day, any day of the week. It would demonstrate culture because of the creativity that the author is allowed as well as several different sections in a target language for the reader. There would be an ending goal, as stated in the article-for the communicators to display friendly messages and posts while practicing in the target language with someone from a foreign country. Using a blog for means to communicate in the target language would eliminate the time for correspondence to be received, paper, and postage.
An imaginative educational use of a RSS feeder would be to have an RSS feeder subscription to a foreign city’s newspaper-in the target language. In a Spanish classroom, it is important to be aware of current events in some of the most important cities to the language. To do this quickly and have the end result be receiving the news from a foreign city in the target language, a RSS feeder would be set up. Students would be able to see the latest news at their fingertips daily. This would eliminate the need for foreign newspapers, magazines, television programs, and even the need to search Google every day. It would be set up right there for the students.
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