kabrenlevinson.com/blog/

My Blog Moleskine.

My blogging practices have evolved a lot lately, especially now that my entire life is structured differently (being in college and all). i’ve been thinking a lot about the purpose of my blog, especially since I made several design improvements over the past few weeks. I thought I’d give a brief outline of how I blog and my thoughts and ideas for the future of the blog, content wise.

How I Blog

During the 3 week intensive workshop in Language and Thinking I took in August as part of my matriculation into Bard College, my instructor had us write, by hand, for five minutes each morning - a free write, no limits, no directions, just write. I enjoyed putting pen to paper, I have never enjoyed it so much in my life. I hand write almost everything these days, from essays to blog posts. I urge you all to try writing freely for five minutes each morning - it helped connect my thoughts with my pen. I have a Moleskine dedicated to blog posts. Not every post I write in the notebook makes it to the blog. Hand writing gives me the opportunity to get all of my ideas out freely, and hand writing makes a great first draft - it is, in my opinoin, much easier to edit my own writing when going from pen and paper to the computer. After I hand-write a rough draft, I type it up directly in Wordpress, and modify specific words, add subsections and images, and check the overall spelling and grammar of the post. When I hand-write, my honest opinion comes out, my exact thoughts. I also try to write my first draft away from the computer, so the post contains my true, honest thoughts (the computer is also really distracting). Whereas when I write on the computer, it feels detached. Blogging has greatly improved my own writing (in and out of school), and I’m willing to bet that it will have the same effect on your writing too.

Future of the Blog

THis is a personal blog, it’s not for tech news and reviews (that’s what my podcast, Nerd News Radio, is for), but it is for content relating to my life. At times, a review of some sort may pop up, only if it has a direct impact on the way I conduct my life. In the future, I see myself writing more about technological philosophy and politics. Now that I am separated from the EduTech program I created in high school, I will probably write less about academic technology, but we’ll see. I also added Skribit, a “blog topic suggestion application,” to the blog, so please, make suggestions!

Conclusion

Now that I started writing by hand, I find it much easier to sit down and focus on writing a blog post without the distractions of the Internet (don’t worry, I still love the Internet, but at times, it needs to be quiet!). I used to hate writing with pen and paper, but today I love it, so give it a try. Please give me suggestions, I want to hear what you think about the blog and what you would like me to write about.

How do you blog?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been focusing primarily on the Tech Fellows aspect of my EduTech project. A few weeks ago, I began working with Martha, a History teacher at my school, to figure out how she could use technology more in her classroom. We talked a lot about her use of the school’s discussion forum - she’s an early adopter. I figured she should start a blog that would allow her to post items for the class and would require students to post, comment, and respond to other students’ work. You can see her blog here: http://marthasclass.edublogs.org. Read the rest of this entry »