Thoughts about blogging

Blogging reveals how information inquiry is a process. Posting every day is evidence of changes in attitudes, feelings, and ideas over time. A single written report only reveals the final product, but not the steps that led to it. Blogging is more provisional. For students who feel pressure to perform "perfectly" all the time, blogging is a useful experience because it allows for exploration and questioning. Constructivist theories of learning stress these activities as essential in the creation of meaning. As Kuhlthau says, "The constructive process is not a comfortable, smooth transition but rather an odyssey of unsettling and sometimes threatening experiences" ("Students  and the Information Search Process").

I like working through my thoughts by putting them down in writing. In a traditional written report or posting, I'm afraid of being too longwinded, but I felt comfortable rambling in the blog format because it seemed more personal and transitory. I'm not making something that is meant to last a long time, but just working through the process. Also, the audience has no compulsion to read everything I write (except maybe the instructor, in this case - sorry!) I get to share my thoughts, which motivates me to take the time and enunciate what I'm thinking,  but with a vague and undefined audience. I'm not forcing it on them, like "you have to read this!" but just putting it out there for anyone who's interested. This takes off a lot of the pressure. Caine and Caine's principles of brain-centered learning point out the the inherent social nature of the brain/mind and that learning is inhibited by threat (Caine Learning).

Finally, blogging encourages reflection and metacognitive thinking. Students discuss the strategies they are using for thinking and problem-solving, which might have been unconscious before. With better self-knowledge gained from reflection, they can adopt strategies best suited to their own learning style.

Caine, Renate and Geoffrey Caine. "Seeing Learning." Caine Learning. Web. 
Kuhlthau, Carol. "Students and the Information Search Process: Zones of Intervention for Librarians." Advances in Librarianship 18 (1994). Web.