Couple of day’s back I wrote about how entrepreneurs can benefit from blogging. And continuing the discussion forward how blogs enhances individual’s professional growth, my focus today will be on analyzing blogs from students’ perspective.

When the University of California at Berkeley introduced web logging as part of its curriculum for their new media course, it received equal doses of bouquets and brickbats. The who's who of the cyber world expressed their opinion - from the ever-popular Slashdot and Metafilter, to Wired and Weblogg-ed.
But the Berkeley faculty and policy-makers were undeterred, and its flagship project was created - the Berkeley Intellectual Property weblog, where not just journalism students, but even the law, computer science and information management and systems students participate.
This popular Web technology had also caught the eye of several Indians. For starters, I believe that the media people are best suited to the concept of blogging. It's a great tool for them to air their thoughts clearly, as well as exercise their writing skills. Besides, it can act as a portfolio that will help them showcase their skills and help in the job market.
There are a variety of issues and aspects about blogging. Blogs can be used as a personal brand image builder, a knowledge management tool, and its use in education. Students are hesitant about the concept. They think it is a complicated thing and involved complex programming with databases. Probably that’s one of the key inhibiting factor which has not let blogging demonstrate its power among student community.
I personally feel blogging is a way of organizing your thought process. And students persuing career in journalism, in particular should blog as writing is essentially an art of organizing your thoughts and putting them across in reader-friendly way. This exercise will also help to cultivate an individual style.
Blogging is an excellent way of showcasing your talents to the world. It is the closest you can get to have your own paper. So here is 2 cents worth of advice I would like to pass on to students. Blogging will benefit in following ways

• It improves your writing
• It helps you develop contacts
• It encourages you to read widely on the industry
• It shows the world that you’re passionate and enthusiastic
• It gives you valuable Web 2.0 skills
• It makes you think and reflect

Potential Drawbacks

• It’s a public record and can be read by anyone
• Blogging requires persistence and commitment

Advice if you’re starting a blog

• Read as many blogs as possible first
• Talk to your lecturers, peers, contacts and other bloggers