This week on Work Literacy, we're exploring how to use blogs for personal learning and as part of more structured formal events with learners.  I haven't done a week-long series in a while, so I thought it would be fun to spend this week sharing different kinds of activities that could be used to support learning with blogs.

Today we're going to talk about how we could use quotes as a springboard to learning through blogs. This is an activity that you could do for your own personal development or that you could use with a class.

Write a Quote Post
The basic premise is pretty simple--you're going to use the quote as a springboard to posting, essentially a writing prompt to explore further thinking.

• Find a list of relevant quotes. If you're doing this for personal development, then search for quotes pertaining to the area that you want to focus on. If you're doing this with a class, then find quotes related to the theme or topic of the class.  At the bottom of this post, I've included some links to quote sites you might want to explore.

• Select one or more quotes that you agree with or that you disagree with or that somehow reflect a learning point you're exploring. You could also select several quotes that perhaps are in conflict with each other or that somehow complement each other and then blog about those. 

• Write a  blog post considering why you agree or disagree or how you could use the quote to think about future action. If you select multiple quotes, write about how they might work together to make your learning point.

Comment on a Quote
If you're using the quote concept as a tool for formal learning, you could use your own blog to post a quote and then ask learners to use commenting to respond to the quote. As comments develop, the learners can also respond to what other learners are saying.

Quotable You
In a twist on the quoting concept, you could also come up with your own quote related to a particular theme or topic.  Write it in a blog post. Try to capture the essence of the learning theme.

Quote Board
For a formal learning event, write a blog post asking people to share their favorite quotes on your learning theme. Have them post their quotes in the comments section of your blog post. Encourage them to comment on the quotes posted by others, too.  This could be a good icebreaker for an online course.

Quote Resources
Here are some sites where you can find quote prompts.

• The Quotations Page

• Quoteland

• Brainyquote

• Quoteworld

• Despair.com--This is the world's greatest source of "de-motivational" quotes and it never fails to crack me up. For a change of pace, visit the demotivators and find one to use as your quote prompt. Particularly good for exploring issues like teambuilding and leadership.

What are other ways you could use quotes for learning with blogs? Write your own post or leave me a comment.

Photo via Mr. Bren