Digital Dewey

Until I took part in the Edublogs Teacher Challenge, I thought my blog was probably useful only to me. It reflected my learning journey, my experimentation, my challenges and my newly found skills. It was a point of reference to me to recall information, weblinks, and online tools. I mentioned my blog in passing to friends, showed it to a few keen colleagues and shared ideas from it with my students, but didn’t think that too many others would be interested in popping in for a look.

Then on January 7, 2011 . . . Enter the Edublogs Teacher Challenge PLN!

Suddenly you find your blog being read and commented on by other people. There are people out there who share your interests, gather ideas from your learning experiences, encourage your efforts and offer you suggestions or assistance for challenges that you encounter. This interaction makes you more aware of your audience and encourages you to pay more attention to how you communicate and share your thoughts and ideas with other people.

As the little Clustr map’s  dots grow, it is exciting to see where your readers are from and to read their comments. Curiosity causes me to turn to their blogs to find out who my readers are, what they are passionate about, and where their journey is taking them.

So now you have visited my blog. . . will you return?

I tried to put myself  in the reader’s shoes and ask the questions they might ask of my blog.

Why should I come back to your blog?

• Does a catchy title lead me to your blog post?
• Can you teach me something new?
• Will your blog inspire me to try something?
• Is your blog reader/user friendly?
• Do you have a style that I can identify with?
• Is your blog visually appealing?
• Can I interact with your blog? Will you reply to the comments I make?
• Can I subscribe by RSS reader or email to your posts?
• Will you alert me to new posts through Twitter or Facebook?
• If I don’t have much time to spare will your post keep to the point?
• Have you included useful links or resources?
• Can you entertain, intrigue, stimulate, share, guide or explain?
• Will you leave me thinking, questioning or searching for more?
• Does your blog include practical ideas for classroom application?

Please complete the poll below about new and returning readers.

You are welcome to visit, have a look around, maybe leave a comment or even a link to your own blog. Let’s share our thoughts, our musings, our passions, our learning journeys, our excitement, and our discoveries in our own individual ways . . .