iMatt :: The Blog of Matt Clare

At work a recently was E-Mail by a college at Brock University how was starting some research in to faculty blogs. She was interested in information or links I may have about faculty blogs at Brock University. I shared what I know about and but preference all that information with “I have my own feeling about faculty blogging/course blogging and learner focused teaching, but that aside.”

That lead to as to what those feelings might be. I was surprised to learn that I had a lot, and after banging out a few paragraphs in response I asked if I could share those thoughts in my own blog (it’s a busy time of year, and I want every keystroke working as hard as it can for me). So with that, here are my thoughts on faculty blogging/course blogging:

I don’t have a strong feeling, if I did it would impede my work, but that hasn’t stopped me from having a lot to say.

I do feel that something like an LMS (which I support at Brock University – so that’s my bias) which has an announcements tool for broadcasting messages to everyone, as messages tool for peer-to-peer private messages or cc’ everyone messages, and a forum/discussion board better servers the purposes of what most course blogs are used for. With the notable exception of a visually appealing appearance and having a strong public face. I also want to highlight that this is in the context of a class, which is a defined group of limited
size. When you don’t know who your audience is, or when they’ll be interested and where they’re from, a blog is great.

One reason I like having a blog is it keeps others updated on my goings on and contains a small spot for comments from readers. Anyone that wants to read it can, or choose not to.
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