Becoming a Blogger 101

What should I include in my blog? Am I doing this right? How can I make this a fun learning and developmental experience for myself?

These are all questions I began asking myself after listening to Dr. Dennen's Week 1 VoiceThread. I knew that the class would challenge me in areas I may not be as familiar with, which is PERFECT. As someone who uses various digital/social media platforms, I have not gotten into blogging, not because I don't see it as exciting but mainly because I never took the time to explore it. I never would have thought that enrolling in EME6414 for the Summer would be my start to making time to learn how to blog. Following the instructions from the VoiceThread, detailed syllabus, and week 1 Blog Journal Assignment Overview, I felt more confident in my abilities to blog. While also practicing grace with my journey of learning all about the "Do's and Don't's" of blogging. To become confident using Blogger.com, I watched different YouTube tutorials. One tutorial, in particular, helped me, which is by Tony Teaches Tech— How to Make a Free Blog Website on Blogger.com. I recommend this tutorial to anyone like myself who is new to the world of blogging, especially with Blogger.com. I used this first week of the summer session to get adjusted to my "new norm" for the next 12 weeks of being a consistent blogger; I hope to look back to this moment and celebrate how far I have come along with celebrating the new knowledge and skills developed along the way. Instead of saying "becoming a blogger," I look forward to calling myself a blogger by the end of the Summer session. If you have any helpful tips, please do share, as I am open to making my blogger journey one to remember.

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Keeping up With Technology—Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

Before this week's readings, I only partially thought about generational differences when it comes to technology. Yes, I know there have been distinct differences between how I grew up as a child compared to my parents and now my nieces and nephew with using technology. I did not always have the latest technology growing up, but when I did, it felt like I "had" to have it to stay connected to what my peers were experiencing. My nieces and nephew are now growing up with all types of technology (tablets, school laptops, YouTube, TikTok, etc.) because it is so prevalent in their experiences and upbringing. While reflecting on the readings, the part that shocked me the most would have to be the terms digital natives and digital immigrants (Prensky, 2001). I knew that these specific "identities" regarding technology usage existed, but I did not know there was a term that classified it all together until the Prensky (2001) article. As described in the article, ...

Am I missing SOMETHING? Trying to be in all spaces at once

Class pulse check! I have been wondering if others have felt similar feelings that I have when it comes to missing some of the challenge opportunities or missing commenting and exploring other classmates' blogs, etc. I often reflect at the end of each week and think about ways to improve for the following week. Some weeks have improved, but I still need to overcome the obstacle of missing something! I offer myself grace in this situation as I engage a lot and in multiple contexts, but I am still missing something. I don't know if that ever goes away because it is not humanly possible to be at all places (even online spaces) at once. What do you do when you feel you have "missed" something? Do you set new goals for the following week? Do you have accountable partners? Do you have reminders? In addition to these probing questions, how do you handle the moments when you don't meet the goals you had set for the week? I am all for wanting to engage and engage in sev...

Challenges of Online Learning in Developing Countries

One aspect I wanted to focus on for this week's topic regarding international perspectives is the impact of online learning in developing countries. I decided to explore Google Scholar and came across a very interesting article by Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih and colleagues (2020) titled Responses to Covid-19 in Higher Education: Social Media Usage for Sustaining Formal Academic Communication in Developing Countries . This article highlighted many other challenges I should have considered during the pandemic, especially regarding international perspectives and experiences with online learning. I knew that the experiences in the United States were highly challenging. Still, we had far more resources than developing countries to transition to online learning and instruction because of the access to learning management systems. However, most developing countries did not know how to continue learning and teaching safely, with no alternative resources and solutions like online learning systems...

Johnnie Allen Jr.

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