Home+-+Why+Blog?

Find Your Voice
A blog allows you to express yourself and create content in ways that only a digital space can. Blogging gives you a platform where you can play with ideas, speak to a real audience, and participate in conversations about your passions and interests. You can be an author, a poet, a filmmaker, a scientist, a podcaster, or a musician and share your creations with the world. Unlike traditional writing, where publishing is the end of the writing process, publishing a post often begins a two-way dialog between you and your readers. When you blog, you become part of a community of thinkers, writers and creators. You may find yourself influencing and being influenced by the the members of the blogging community to which you belong. At its best, blogging and writing and life become interconnected and you will find yourself growing as a writer and as a member of a social and intellectual network of learners

Link and be Linked To
// "Digital texts have the potential to make a big, juicy mess of a linear experience. Or to turn a so-so piece of writing into a masterful collection of references,"linktributions, and pointers to other good stuff." -- [|Bud Hunt]in his post, [|Thinking 'bout Linking]// Hyperlinks are one of the foundational technologies of the Internet. You have probably clicked on them, and found yourself traveling on a wildly connected journey across sites that you would have previously thought had no relationship to each other. Reading on the web is a much different experience than reading in print. Writing in a digital space (i.e. blogging) can be, and should be, different as well. The internet is a network of people and sites that are connected to one another through hyperlinks. [|Will Richardson] calls this connective writing, where you intentionally link to, discuss, and share the ideas of others through the use of hypertext. Linking means that you are not writing alone, you are writing in the company of others. Linking changes writing into a collaborative, social activity.

Create a Positive Digital Legacy
Have you Googled yourself lately? With college admissions offices [|using social networks] like Facebook, Twitter and My Space to find information about applicants, what you do on the web can have a lasting effect, good or bad. The online profiles that you create now as a middle schooler can last a lifetime. Your web presence is how many people will be introduced to who you are. Blogging is an excellent way to to start managing your [|digital legacy]. In addition to showcasing your writing skills and creative talents, your blog can reveal your personality, likes and dislikes, and even your sense of humor.