My Purpose

The beginning of a conversation between strangers is always awkward. You don't know where the common ground is, or what the common interests are. And although I have kissed the Blarney Stone, I never got the Gift of Gab to get that conversational ball rolling. So, forgive me.

Hello, world! My name is Stephanie Eller (hence the "misspelled" stellar of the Blog title) and I actually started this blog to fulfill the requirements of a class I'm taking. It is a prosaic beginning, I guess, but I will be talking quite a bit about blogs, wikis, and podcasts, and how they can be used in an educational way, and I thought you should know why.

Now that I've set up my very own blog, though, I am already planning to use it for more than just my homework. Maybe I'll post my thought on interesting stories, or funny videos, or maybe I'll talk about my day. This is a new experiment. Will the fact that I'm sitting quietly in an empty room make it easier to reflect on issues and events? Will a real conversation begin with people I've never met? Or will this be a modern version of writing to myself in a journal?

I watched an episode of "House" where Laura Prepon (the tall girl from "That 70's Show") played a girl named Frankie, a dedicated blogger. She blogged all the time, including during her stay at the hospital, and she blogged about every THING. The episode asked how much personal information should be kept private, and how real the relationship between a blogger and her online audience really is. The show made me curious. I'd like to see if I can answer those questions for myself. I have contributed as a commenter to a few blogs, but now I'd like to experience the relationship from the other side.

Also, for my class, I want to experiment with the different faces a blog post can have. Introspective musings? Reflections on a piece of art? Criticism (positive or negative) of a written article? Invitation to a discussion in the comments? What works? What doesn't?

Well. Anyway. We'll see what happens.