I haven't done much investigative work yet (oops- time is marching by again), but I have been reading the blogs on this course. I am getting more interested in the history of the blogging regime, and how its being used in Education (and other areas). It seems that as the forms of web 2.0 communication evolve more, the uses change and blogs are now being used for a lot more than perhaps they were originally intended? Even for Business purposes Rachel? -I checked out our own institutes public web site and there is even a blog there-sadly though-its not being used obviously :-( so not much marketing there....)
I found this comment with respect to blogging being the killer Web 2.0 application that has the capacity to engage huge numbers of people (again) . It got me thinking about the reading we did earlier from Mark Pesce
"This, That and the Other") and the need for a 'something' to contextualize our social networks(of which Blogging is part). It seems that Blogoshere is a start.....I will need to keep reading it seems...I recognise 'Technorati' but only just...
I always thought of blogging as a just a reflective journey, more for self interest, rather than a social medium. From an education point of view, though, it looks like "it" ("This?") is starting to replace that weekly trip to the library where you used to go and read through all the latest journals and serials (to keep an eye on publications and news- I know, years ago, before we had the Internet on our Desktop computers at work). Now- you track your learned colleagues' blogs straight from our desks, and there are so many of them it seems!!! How do we start to connect? How do we chose who to follow?
It seems that 'the web' is a huge, huge, hyperlinked hyperspace that needs a huge commitment to start with, but once the connections are started, you just have to keep on the tracks and never get off, otherwise it will be too hard to reconnect- if you do, then there will likely be some new Web 2.0 software that reconnects you...
A good place I thought I would start with is with previous eFEST conferences, and check out people who I listened to over the last couple of years- see what they have been blogging about-
I'll post again when I have done more research....
DebraM
4 comments:
Thanks for sharing these thoughts and particularly the questions. I'm wondering about your comment about the need to: "keep on the tracks and never get off, otherwise it will be too hard to reconnect". In a way it isn't so different to relationships in the real world - if you only ever ask for things when you need them, it's a bit one sided. Which I guess brings me to a word we haven't mentioned on the course - reciprocity. Giving/ receiving. But that implies finding a defined place to give, or at least known people or an understandable environment. At least I think it does - or does the web make this redundant to.
PS If you're off to eFest (which I've never come across before) I'd encourage you to be brave and put up a discussion topic on the wiki (eg is blogging a useful tool for learning). Let us know how it goes. I've been to a few open space events - happy to share some insights.
Hi Stephen, thanks for the post reply. I did think about putting something up at the efest open discusssion, and will have another look over the weekend and see how brave I can be. Its going to be interesting to see how things evolve so I was going to try twitter as well, but don't have a laptop- however since the conference is here at UCOL I guess I won;t be far from my desk!!! I'll keep an eye on things and do some research. I read Leigh;s latest blog post and see that he refers to one of the presenters topics at the T&L conf. so I might be able to make some connections there...( well I think he does, haven't asked him yet?)
Back to your comments though- yes, I agree, this 'social connectivity', blogging and the like, its not that different to the real world, and can be just as one sided. "The Lonely Blogger"... what happens if I blog and no-one replies???? Arrghhh//
But I wonder now, if the ease of the social side to the web is working towards making it harder in some ways to have that reciprocity you mentioned ( or is it how we use the web? since its so easy to get "there", but not so easy it seems to be a community?). Finding this defined PLACE- thats our so called COMMUNITY aspect, isn't it?? The redundancy might come from the ease of use. I was talking to some fellow colleagues today- we thought that blogging was getting over come a bit by the Twitter Community. And I checked out the eFEST site and the open forum set up of the e-day looks like being enhanced by the use of TWITTER -arrghhh (again!) http://efest-teach-learn.ning.com/profiles/blogs/use-social-media-to
PS it's now Saturday -am going to be brave and join up twitter tonite!! (still haven't finished the readings for the last fortnight though......
thanks for your comment debra- I obviously need to work on the hyperlink skills. will be in touch.
Hey Debra, Great graphics. Thoughtful blog. My concern is, to use your analogy, if I am a train on the tracks the speed is buidling so fast that it may become overwhelming.
I followed the efest link and it was good to see what has happened since. I chatted with the Midnight Youth group and was/am intrigued by them and their presentation. I spotted myself in one of the photos too.
I have updated the links on my blog, full marks for passing the test :)
Debra
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