Blog Project: Rationale

As I have studied the different forms of digital communication currently available, I have come to believe that blogging allows for a more academic conversation than instant messaging, chat rooms, or discussion forums. One of my UAA peers told me that he believed forums were the way to go when presenting a topic for discussion and argument because “blogs are personal journals that are just used by you.” Although blogs were and are still considered by some to be personal, online journals, the realm of the blog has become much more academic and political in the past few years. Also, while discussion forums are often used to present arguments and pursue discussion, the formats of these forums make following and reviewing threads cumbersome. In addition, my fairly extensive personal experience with discussion forums has shown me that attempting to return to a discussion and find previously mentioned information in the threads is much more difficult than reviewing a blog entry where the search capability allows the reader to search for key terms or phrases. It is my belief that blogging will provide a unique opportunity for my students to improve their writing process, expand their computer skills, and gain a deeper understanding of the highly digital world they will be making their living in after entering (or reentering) the global work force. Therefore, it makes logical sense to use blogging in an entry level college composition course.