Anyone out there? Weblogs - A one-way conversation?
In his article , Blogging as pedagogic practice: artefact and ecology Marcus O’Donnell answers a lot of questions I have been thinking and experiencing about blogging and how we are integrating it into our learning.
“In the simplest case, a weblog post is fully and only embedded into “a conversation with self”, a personal narrative used to articulate and to organise one’s own thinking. A single blogger could have several of such conversations simultaneously, returning to ideas over time. Next, each of the posts can trigger a conversation with others that can take several rounds of discussions as well.” (p5)
So far my experience has primary been personal, a discussion, reflection and dialogue with myself (thanks to John , an experienced blogger, I have had one comment and was able to reply!) but that has been about it. Not sure what is happening with others but on observation the comments have been few and far between….. (it goes without saying that I completely understand I must have something of relevance or interest to solicit a post…will try!)
Marcus O’Donnell goes on to say
“The personal conversation or the monologic aspect of blogging can be simply left to grow spontaneously or we can learn to work with a blog as an evolving hypertext essay by thoughtfully linking backwards and forwards to our own as well as other’s posts. In fact new software plug-ins encourage this type of practice by allowing authors to display a series of related-post-links with each entry.” (p5-6)
Ok so it got me thinking…. I will start linking and replying to others blogs as I way of saying “Hi I dropped by….or I like what your doing or agree or disagree with what you are saying…and here is a link or two!.”
Oh yeah…great distraction to getting the assignment done!
Happy Easter 
5 Responses to “Anyone out there? Weblogs - A one-way conversation?”
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G’day
I have has similar thoughts - I feel like my site is more like a book than a blog. My blog has been up a few weeks and John’s been the only one to leave a comment. I think it’s nice to get some feedback (so here’s some). I have list’s of student’s blogs in my blogroll and have a look. It’s a good way to see what other’s are thinking.
But … I think it’s nice to know that people are reading your stuff.
Thanks Phillip - will drop by your blog and check it out. With all the reading and theory emphasising feedback it is useful to see some in practice!
Thanks
Debra
Phillip also raised this point on my blog on a post on Observation vs Participation. I think that it is very much a timing factor. Right now we are all struggling to keep up, to complete the assignment, to get on top of the readings - going and looking at what other people have written is a luxury I think many of us don’t have time for (yet!).
But Phillip has galvanised me, I too am going to make an effort to check out other blogs and leave comments - particularly for John who is very proactive in doing this already!
I do look forward to when our blogs become more of a discussion piece, but at the same time I have always found that to write about something clarifies my thoughts on it. So posting a blog is a great way for me to be really clear on what I am thinking about what I am reading and learning.
By the way, he voki was very cool. Tomorrow I am going to put a whole heap of them up on my study skills website.
Happy Easter!
Prue
Think it just takes time. The more readers you get - the more comments you get. But just because no-one is commenting it doesn’t mean that no-one is reading it. Keep on blogging!
Not so sure about the hypertext book. I think my blog is more a research notebook. It’s a place for ideas and my own comments on what I am reading / viewing etc.
Hi Debra
Know exactly what you mean - it’s certainly exciting when you realise someone out there is reading your blog. Since I’ve finally found the time to start looking at others blogs I’ve become a bit of a serial lurker but your post, and the couple of comments I’ve had to date, have inspired me to comment, so like you I’ll try to make some meaningful comments on the way.
Heather