I really do! I have many, not necessarily highly viewed or read (at least not that I know of) but I do like the idea of having access to a space where I can easily post my thoughts, share ides and discoveries in simple ways.
The idea of BLOGS was probably born from the need to open accesses on the internet to people's voices, at the time when website language was still quite obscure to the majority of us. And since by now we are all familiar, one way or the other, with simple word-like interfaces, the genius who invented the BLOGS thought of combining the code in the back end of the blog tool while we, mortals, face a familiar set of icons we can do simple things with and share ourselves with the world.
The most one can react with through a blog is a comment or the sharing of a link of video. However the author of the blog remains in charge of what is seen, when, how, and who can post comments and of what nature. So not as much an interactive site like wiki spaces, but definitely a place to quickly communicate with the world.
I keep narrative blogs myself, especially during my travels. I have gotten a bit better over the years, and they become a manifest of treasured memories.
However, in this context of language learning ideas and technology implementation, I want to share with you how I exploit the possibilities of blogs as the platform where most of my teaching ideas become lesson examples and source of gathering links and meaningful thoughts for teaching languages.
The way I interpret these simple spaces is to use them as the organizing space for a specific theme or lesson, and create simple pages that I can organize as I wish to post activities, input files (especially media) and connect with students and teachers in remote fashions. Of course, to make every single piece of the content I post on a blog truly interactive, one could also consider opening a podcast space (most of them are free) and I am open to that possibility. But I still find blogs quite easier to set up for lessons and activities, and that makes me want to do more and more as years go by. Which is what I hope will happen to you once you discover the different possibilities of blogs.
I list below some examples of the blogs I have created especially for teaching. In another page you can find simple steps on how to set a blog up for a lesson or mini-unit, where you can combine your work together and simply re-use the content for all your classes (or change it as you go along, within a few minutes).
