Thing 11

What do you like / dislike about leaving comments? How did you feel when you received your first comment? Why do you think commenting is so important in online communities? What might this mean for students who share their writing online?

I like leaving comments on blogs that I read frequently. It is almost like I know the author personally after reading their thoughts, seeing their pictures, and learning about their points of view. But usually, I read without commenting. The reason that I usually don't comment is that I don't like publishing my email along with my comment. I appreciate it when the author sets up their comments to allow the commentor to hide the email address. On the other hand, I do not like posting anonymously.

It has been so long since I started blogging but I know the feeling of checking in on a post to see if there were comments there--wondering if anyone was reading. It was a nice feeling.

I have noticed in many online communities that very strong bonds are built through the comments. I personally have not built extremely strong connections with my commentors, but I have seen other bloggers who develop life long friendships with people they meet through online communities. I guess it is the pen pals of the 21st century!

I think that a teacher using this tool in the classroom have to be careful to regulate the comments. I am trying my first assignment using posting comments on this blog tomorrow and am interested to see how it progresses. I will definitely be moderating the comments and right now only want them commenting to my prompt- not commenting on each other. I can see the potential of it being very engaging and interesting...as well as having the potential for many pitfalls as well.