I think it depends on how you want to blog, and why. I blog daily, with a few restraints: no (or very few) mentions of my job, no mentions of my employer, very limited mentions of family, and few references to where I'll be for the day or during the week. I do keep a weekly journal - in analog format. :)

I haven't shut down commenting, thought I have deleted a few commenters or banned them outright with an htaccess file, but that's been a fairly rare occurence. I think the trick is to try to build a blogging community around yourself and a few like-minded blogs. The experience seems to become much more meaningful that way.

Hi heather,

Thank you for your comments.

I agree that there is a real need to be careful about not disclosing too much of your private identity online. Yet I do wonder about the dilemma of blogging about my teaching experiences with students. This is a challenge, and, for me, an area of controversy. I can definitely see the benefits, but there are definite problems with it as well.

My thinking is that it is all confidential. If it occurs within a school, the event that involves students is not "yours" to disclose. It might be a personally significant learning event. But the journal entry that results is best left to a private diary.

I have been working with adult literacy learners who prefer to weave their personal narratives in with their learning. Some of the content is highly emotionally charged. In these cases, the student blogger seeks to engage in soul-work using a variety of creative outlets, for example. many of the learners i work with enjoy scrap-booking, and have an entirely different perspective on why they write. They are frequently motivated by a wish to contribute to the well-being of others. They spend time creating projects that are often hands-on, visual, and involves several others.

Glenn

Can you comment on why you suggest "Knowledge Building" is an inherently structured activity and would only occur in a cohort. Does this suggest knowledge building does not occur in a master/apprentice or mentoring relationships?

hello eric,

Thank you for your comment, and your question.

My initial thinking was that the dominant activity for cohorts involved knowledge building; however, the processes occur within all four spheres.

Knowledge building most definitely occurs within mentoring relationships, but my thinking (from my own experience) is that the dominant activity is not knowledge building (primarily cognitive) or networking (narcissistic harvesting of others' resources for personal use) but instead involves a combination of community building and identity building.

My hypothesis is that knowledge building requires a teacher actively modelling and evaluating the learning activities, and providing feedback and encouragement for participants. The skills required for successful adjustment into an online cohort depends on the learner adapting to what their instructor tells them. In my thinking, there are crucial skills needed by learners best learned within a cohort with the aid of an expert. Gathering data, sifting and filtering, evaluating, and capturing the data harvesting process systematically can be most efficiently organized when learners are taught the skills step by step.

I think that the Moodle LMS is a very powerful tool for encouraging blogging - the editir, for example, lends itself very well to demonstrating activities such as texturing and weaving.

However, the ELGG environment is better suited for learners beginning to hone their blog posts using tags, categories, and access settings.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Glenn

Yup, that shuold defo do the trick!
- Trevion

Thank you Christine for dropping me a note, and letting me know your initial impressions. I am always interested in taking another perspective on how students approach actively blogging in the open.

An even more signififcant question is: what would you feel needs to be done to have you become more comfortable with contributing?

Glenn

Although a deep introvert, I find the idea of making someone momentarily happy or meeting their expectations just by responding to a discussion posting brings me joy. It's a painless albeit disembodied form of social success.

hi Mary,

Your comment reminds me of what Stephen Downes mentioned at some point about the need for us all to cultivate a sense of altruistic reciprocity. I think it is really true that many learners want to contribute ideas, and are motivated by the reason that you describe, but are concerned about the perceptions from others (peers and their instructor). In effect, the de-motivator of judgement sometimes cancels out the joy of dialogue.