How I have used this blog this semester

This blog was really useful to me this semester! I used it to:

• process the readings - as I read, I took notes on significant passages - it helps me to remember and understand what I'm reading
  
• one aspect of the power of blogs is the ability to tag postings - that allowed me to categorize each post according to theme or topic -E.G. Was it a wrap-up post or was it a post on reading strategies?" By giving each post several meaningful tags, I can then search by that tag to gather the postings later - If I want to just read my wrap-up posts to help me write my final course reflection, I can do that because I've been posting and tagging all along. SO the blog can help me to synthesize my thinking
  
• Just the fact that I've tried to write an entry for each reading I do - helps me to process the reading more - I can then pull out sections of my own thought to add to the discussions in Oncourse
• It would have been nice to have input into the blog from others - but I got this from the online discussion in class - so this worked as a personal reflection space and resource gathering location
• I was able to share this application of blogs with faculty locally - I ended up helping a communications faculty incorporate blogs into her course this term - a course on political ads - students used the space to look at ads and discuss them - As I saw the potential of my own blog in helping me in the writing process - I talked to her and we decided to do a follow-up session with her students to get them to use a blog to help them write their research papers - reflective writing as they read sources + tagging(organizing their thoughts) + input from classmates = better paper.... we'll see...