One of last week’s Dear Abby columns was dedicated to the perils of blogging on the job, specifically the potential headaches for employers when their employees blog, to which Jon Udell sent an articulate response. With a [few tweaks], it fits for educators too:
Here’s something to consider, though. A blog can be used to narrate the key events and accomplishments in your [educational] life, to establish your reputation as an authority on subjects in your areas of [study], and to educate the world about [the things you’re learning about].
…If you’re one of those [educators], how might you judge a blogger’s abilities? That’s easy. Instead of extrapolating from a two-page [test], you can evaluate months or years of exposition and online interaction. And you can tap into other evaluations too, thanks to the blog network’s highly-evolved mechanisms for measuring citation and influence.
Not so sure about the last line, but I think you get the idea. Yes, there are potential problems with leaving such a trail, but we need to keep looking for opportunities to show kids how this is going to work for them, not against them.
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