Blogging for me has been a mixture of two worlds. In one sense, I found that many weeks blogging was indeed a fruitful experience that was worth putting some time into. These times were generally the weeks where I was trying to tackle some issue that I lacked a solid understanding of. The weblog creates a convenience store of office hours, ie it is open 24 hours a day with convenient, timely responses to questions. Ultimately the effectiveness of this service relies on the professor's commitment to constant monitoring of the blog space (much like the convenience store worker who sells you middle of the night items). I thought Bud did a great job responding to blog posts, or at least responding to blog-questions in class. So in this sense the weblog was invaluable at facilitating class questions and information between teacher and student.
The second world of thought I have was that several times throughout the semester I found myself blogging just because it is a required component of the class. At times this seemed to be a constant task instead of a value added experience. This is probably just a personal view, but nonetheless something I found myself thinking repeatedly. I have a suggestion for future blogging classes: Have an optional weekly topic that students are free to explore if they so wish. This would give students something to focus a blog on during those times where a blog topic doesn't necessarily pop into mind. Students would still be free to post other items if they so pleased, but a little guidance for us blog-newbies is always appreciated.
Overall I do feel like blogs were a valuable component of the course, and I would really like to see this type of thing expanded to non-tech-oriented courses. A functional weblog would have been an invaluable item in many of my courses last year.
Happy holidays everyone
Neil
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