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 
Early Reflections of Learning with new technologies
Some observations so far:
Wanting to reach for instructions/help manuals or someone to guide the learning process
Reinforcement that we are on the right path or doing the right thing. Not really knowing what the norms or online social conventions are.
Support of the Ning community with profiles/faces and dialogue feels like an extension of a classroom (although meeting everyone F2F in a block class helped reinforce this)
Extended periods of time spent online as opposed to reading journal articles is a new phenomenon for most of the group (feelings of guilt are interesting - however it would be interesting to speak to younger generations who probably would not have those feelings)
Is there a perceived less value in the learning that is occurring with your weblog experiences than reading a journal..?
Perception would certainly be there as learners of a generation where this was the norm. It is about breaking these beliefs and perceptions with awareness and achievement. However at the moment definitely feel I am achieving more and learning more through the weblog experience.
Is that the tension between formal vs informal learning? Or between structured vs unstructured learning?
Threads of “feeling guilty” or words such as “playing” seem to denote this.
Is it informed by your expectations of University study - which is supposed to be about copious readings and formal essays?
University and particularly Masters study does conjure up images of being locked in a library with a maze of bookings/journals and trying to remember how to use the Dewey Decimal system or the latest technology “microfiche”.
Sigh of relief that times have changed…..
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