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?
