Welcome to the world of Blogging
Previously published (August 2007) on an English 11 Blog, that no longer exists.
One of the themes of our course this year is the rise of public voices. In the early days of our country, people made their views known through pamphlets and newspapers. By the end of the Revolutionary War, there were 43 newspapers in print. These days, people are still expressing opinions and wanting to know what is happening, but more and more, the news is read online. And the sources of information are shifting too. With the creation of Blogs and Wikis and other Web tools, anyone can add Web content. While not all of the ordinary user content is good, some of it is very good. Independent Bloggers are becoming strong, democratic voices. Politicians are one group paying attention to what Bloggers are saying.
Thomas Friedman wrote that “the world is flat,” which means, for one thing, that the peoples of the world have the technology to communicate with each other independent from the media giants who have previously controlled what we see, hear, and to some extent, know. The Internet means instant access to the world.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)So, what does all this Blog business have to do with you?
Plenty. But what do you think it has to do with you? Leave your answers to this question as comments.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
In CyberEnglish9 today we read John Haines’ poem The Legend of Paper Plates in which he personifies trees and laments the loss of forests and the fact that we dispose of paper so casually and easily.
It made me think of what my husband told me about a huge vortex in the Pacific Ocean that garbage swirls endlessly in, so I mentioned it to my 5th hour class. We didn’t have time to look it up, so I did and this is what I found.
There is so much I don’t know, so much I can’t do anything about, but maybe I can commit to making less garbage in the world.
Uncategorized | Comment (1)Lost and found
This blog had been lost in cyberspace since September of 2006 when I first created it. It was called Lit Space back then, and I had begun it as a place for my CE students to discuss books. I am not sure why I abandoned it, but now I have resurrected it to serve as a more immediate place for my students to have access to their classwork, to announcements, and important links.
I would also like it to serve as a sample of a teacher blog for business, not reflection.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)