Note that Sean Woolford’s weblog has been added to the list here. Sean is a student in Composition and has expressed interest in the weblog and I hope will be building his typepad space into a portfolio that doesn’t just contemplate the good and bad of college Composition but that also allows for tracing his learning career at Tunxis, much as Susan Gibb has been doing for the last few years over at Spinning and Learning to Spin, the Spinning splinter cloister.

Sean’s a smart guy. He expresses himself well in writing.

I want to see interested students use the weblog as a space that does a lot: it demonstrates what they’re leaning in school and out; it creates a space for examination and following of interests that can be expressed publicly; it allows for people like me to follow them; it organizes learning, knowledge, and problem solving into relevant areas. Will Sean’s weblog become his space where I can go to evaluate what he’s doing in class and enjoy visiting just to read? Hopefully. Will it become a critical tool for the things that come and are relevant to it? Hopefully. Will it come to justify its costs monthly? Susan can answer that one.

Here’s the charge for Sean: if you have and use the typepad space I don’t need a paper journal. Move the journal from paper to the online space, but keep the class notes as a map for posts; respond to the readings online; consider categories built around process; and if you come across things that apply to the current issues under consideration, such as cause and effect, generate some posts on those.

What are the advantages:

Portability
The work here can be seen by anyone: recruiters, evaluators, colleagues, friends.

Look and Feel
The space can be customized and organized and professionalized so that presentation is tailored for different audiences. Sensitive material can be hidden, excluded, or sent elsewhere. The space can be used to demonstrate whatever one wishes

Control
People are in control of the content and organization such that the weblog becomes authoritative and representative. And the archive proves the work.