Blogs are here to stay

Brian just posted the growing list of our JOMC221 class blogs. If you're not one of my classmates, take time to meet their online personalities by clicking through my JOMC221 blogroll in the sidebar.

I surfed all the available blogs and now realize that my fondness for blogs has increased since last semester in JOMC223. It's great to see the blog personalities of classmates whom I knew last semester in my non-bloggin' class of JOMC222. It feels like like running into an acquaintance from work or school in a random, far off place. I've not met the vast majority of my other classmates, during other classes or real life, yet I see at least one who has another blog that she's maintaining for academic reasons (see Callie Birdsell's English 519 blog). One classmate's URL hints at previous blogging experience.

All this by the end of our first week! I've had several job interviews this week, and in more than one I've veered into a discussion about the practical/business value of blogs as tools for online project management and as infinite bulletin boards. In addition to critiquing our classmates' writing, in this week's workshop we'll also demonstrate the pedagogical value of blogs in our 3-way writing workshop.