Blogging for this class gives us all the opportunity to learn by doing, in a more in-depth manner than just trying something out. The assigned exercises get us trying out various social media tools and considering their application to library services, but we’re just dipping our toes in those waters. Maintaining a blog for a semester gives us more time to swim toward the deep end (or splash about in the shallows).
Speaking of the deep end, when I read Skellie’s post on 101 essential blogging skills, my first reaction was “Wow—this is great! Clearly blogging is like any other craft—you can spend a long time improving your work and still have lots to learn.” My second reaction was “Now I’m overwhelmed. I’m still struggling to get started. Thinking about how many things I could do better is discouraging.”
This reminded me of the split in bloggers’ responses to Darren Rowse’s prompt “What I wish I knew when I first started blogging” Some people said “I wish I had just jumped in instead of thinking about it for so long” and some said “I wish I had prepared more instead of just jumping in”. By blogging for this class, we get the best of both worlds. We’re jumping in to try things out in a personal (but required) blog. No excuses for postponing it, and need to fuss about doing it “just right”. We’re also reading and thinking about how to do it better, to prepare for blogging in a library setting.
Because each student’s contributions to the class discussion are in his or her own blog instead of dispersed throughout various discussion boards in a learning management system, they form a more coherent picture of that student’s thoughts and growth throughout the semester. This may encourage each of us to loop back to earlier posts and tie our thoughts together with new reflections. I wonder, though—because the conversation about any particular topic is dispersed throughout student blogs instead of grouped together on one discussion board, is that conversation less coherent or less thorough than it might be? Are we learning more about our own thoughts by blogging, and less about each others?
I agree that when I first started wading into social media I felt unprepared and way behind all at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThis class does seem to be the best of both worlds, with learning how to use things by throwing us into the thick of it. Forcing us to start, but creating a "safe" place since it is for school not work.
I do share the concern that we are missing out on some of our classmates conversations since we are all spread out and not in a central location. I also still haven't been able to find my comments which freaks me out since I know I submitted them.
The only thing I could think of to fix this without losing the benefit of all of us blogging would be if we double posted, once in our blogs and once in a school discussion forum. Even that doesn't seem like the best solution. Anybody else have a thought on this?
Jenn
I think it helps to jump into blogging with both feet if we have a decent sense already of what other people are doing with the medium. In other words, if we take the advice of those on internet message boards and "lurk more," we learn more about the craft, which in turn helps us figure out how we can use it to our own advantage or that of our employer.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you all are saying about the lack of cohesion. I feel sometimes that I post into the oblivion (although thank you to those people who do comment). If only there was some kind of course blog reader we could use to go back and forth with. Of course, what would be the point of our own blogs. I am not sure what the answer is.
ReplyDeleteGood points. I'm thinking about blogging into the universe. I have your blog as one I'm following as it's interesting and I like it (although why I would like it if it wasn't...) Anyway - the only thing I can say is that we should be reading each others blogs but that doesn't really make it easy does it? I like RSS feeders so maybe that is the way to handle finding more information. I do like the idea of having an community blogging group for class, although I don't remember how people do that. I'll look around unless you have some ideas?
ReplyDeleteI don’t know what the solution is for making group discussion more coherent. Reposting to Angel seems too laborious to maintain for long. Aggregating everyone’s blogs in Blogger and Google Reader makes it possible to have at least a loose community discussion. I’m having a little trouble keeping up with reading everyone’s blog posts, much less following them back to each blog so I can read the comments. That makes my grasp of the discussion even looser!
ReplyDeleteMaybe the trick is to work on keeping up, and to try to catch the rhythm of this format for discussion. There are certainly differences between a group of blogs and a learning management system—if I get comfortable with the former, at least I’ll have a better basis for comparison between the two by the end of the semester.
Teresa—are you thinking there might be a way to organize our group of blogs more tightly? Something between following each other on Blogger/Reader/Bloglines and having a single team blog? I don’t know what that might be—but I’d love to hear about it if you figure it out!