are blogs, wikis, and microblogs #creativewriting?

This chapter talked about the way that our writing and communication has changed over the past few years.  The rise of blogs, microblogs, and wikis is easy to see all around us.  Personally I have had the experience of using a blog on blogger as well as having a twitter, a form of microblogging.  My experience with blogger has been very limited.  I created one a couple of years ago, but rarely posted on it and it still sits idly waiting for me to write in it, I think the thing that has kept me from writing in it is this need I feel to make whatever I write on there funny and captivating.  I felt this bigger pressure to make whatever I was writing meaningful because you never knew who could be looking at your blog.  I know logically that my blog is just this tiny part of the internet, but I couldn't shake the fact that someone I didn't know would end up reading it and be a little less than impressed.  But another part of me loved how I could simply just use it like an online journal or a place to put all of my thoughts down and know that they would in a way be preserved.  And I think that using blogs as a place to let students express themselves through creative writing could be very helpful, but I also think that these suggestions are more useful for an older set of students.  A second grade class may not get as much out of writing a blog as a middle or high school student would.  If you were to set up a blog where students were given a grade for their ability to recap the past weeks events in that class you are not only having them think about what they've learned, but also giving them freedom to recap the week as they think best fit.

As far as my experience with twitter goes I used it at first as a way to keep up with what was happening in other people lives.  It was a way of feeling connected to people who were far away, like a way for me to share in special moment with them or laugh with them from miles away.  I still don't use twitter very regularly, but I like the way that it allows you to share little moments of your day with other people.  It is like you get a chance to let people be in that one moment with you even when they're not there in person.  As far as it's use in the classroom I like the idea of having students post comments or questions about a lesson while it's happening.  I saw this used at a church before as a way for people to ask questions as the church was going over some very sensitive and touchy subjects that people might have been to embarrassed to ask about in person.  The disadvantage was that the person speaking in this case the preacher was sometimes caught off guard by some of the questions, but that was a risk they were willing to take.  This technology I also see being more useful with middle or high schoolers because they are immersed in technology.  With younger children technology like this has more risks and you must be more cautious when making it available to them.

Wikis are one thing that i have not had a lot of experience with, but I like the idea of using them as a way to communicate between school and home.  Communicating with your parents and students outside the classroom is very important and anything that can make it easier should be welcomed with open arms.