Comments

• • Terry Anderson@terrya

  

  Terry Anderson April 4, 2009 - 10:56am

  Thanks for posting these questions Glenn.

  I liked the differentiation between private, public and educational spheres. At the Moodlmoot conference yesterday, I attended a session showing the two blogs available for moodle. The standard system doesn't offer comments, so questionable if it is even a blog, but it does provide a private or public (to the Moodle site) space for each logged in user. The second 'OU BLog" allows comments but is an activity in a course, so it really is a group blog, with comments and can be made readable outside of the Moodle site - but the permissions are set by the teacher, not individual students. All of which made me think that the blogs here in elgg are much superior, but it raised a good discussion about the value of just merging/aggregating external (Blogger, WordPress etc.), which led to a discussion of the value of having an institutionally owned system.  Anyways, I'm a bit off topic here. but am thinking about blogs and other web 2.0 tools and their relationship to LMS systems.

   

  As for the questions, i wonder if I provided enough direction and expectation for the blogging experience. I pretty well left it to you as individuals to determine the quantity and type of posts, but did "reward' the experience with significant course credit. Was it too much or too little? Should have set blog topics for the week?

  I hope you get some responses to this post Glenn, and will carry it live on Wednesday's Elluminate session.

  Terry

• • Thomas Sheppard@thomassh

  

  Thomas Sheppard April 4, 2009 - 12:03pm

  Hi Glenn,

  I am impressed with the work you have done in this course on blogging.  You insights have been really interesting and I look forward to your presentation.

  Are these questions you posted what you want us to discuss during the Ellunimate session on Wednesday or are here as comments on this posting?

• • Glenn Groulx@glenngr4

  

  Glenn Groulx April 4, 2009 - 4:04pm

  Hi Thomas,I would like to invite you, Thomas, and everyone else, to comment beforehand on the questions, and then we can follow-up during the live session next week.I look forward to your feedback.Glenn

• • Thomas Sheppard@thomassh

  

  Thomas Sheppard April 5, 2009 - 5:44am

  Feedback on Glenn's Questions:

  1. What expectations did you have for yourself, your peers, and your professor when you were asked to engage in blogging?
  

  I expected to use blogging to help create social interaction and establish a learning community for our course.  This requires feedback and active participation which can be a challenge for some.  We all have different perspectives about blogging and particiapte in different ways.  some are more active while others tend to lurk in the background.

  
  2. What have been your motivations for blogging at the beginning? How had these changed, if at all, over the semester?
  

  I guess my initial motivations for blogging was to help me fulfill the requirements for the course and have a digital resource that I could organize for the portal requirement.  I was also motivated by the prospect of having a defined class community in which to particpate outside of the traditional Moodle conferences.  I thought this would lead to more interaction and feedback but I don't think that has happened for all our classmates.  I think the small class size may have had something to do with this.  I think we missed a great opportunity here to learn more from each other through blogging. 

  
  3. What factors restricted your blogging activity?
  

  Not much outside of the workload I had for the 3 courses I'm doing.  I think I have posted regularly regardless of the amount of interaction.  

  
  4. What factors might have further encouraged your participation?
  

  I think feedback through comments to postings was crucial.  It helps to establish a dialogue.  I find that I learn a great deal from my fellow classmates when we get a chance to discuss our different perspectives.

  
  5. In retrospect, what would be your own reasons for blogging in future within the private sphere? Within the education sphere? Within the public sphere?
  

  I will continue to blog about the various activities I'm involved in and for my work as a technology teacher.  I already maintain a LEGO robotics blog.  I have used Me2U as my primary edtech blog for the past couple years.  I'm going to wait to see what happens with the upgrade and hopefully some of the quirks in the tools will be ironed out.

  
  6. What would you have liked to know about edu-blogging before starting this blogging experience?

  I think I was familiar with this before I started.  I'll have to think about this more.

• • Glenn Groulx@glenngr4

  

  Glenn Groulx April 5, 2009 - 7:22am

  Thank you Thomas, for your comments.I am excited by the fact that you are involved with teaching students about legobots - sounds cool! I did not know you maintained your own blog on that topic. Would you give me the link? I have a colleague at work that also teaches LegoBot programming using Java, so it is definitely something I want to start getting into over this vacation.I have been doing two courses and teaching two computer courses during the afternoons, too. I can relate to the courseload.I think there is a natural progression for learners as they become more comfortable with the idea of open unstructured blogging. Many learners are concerned with their own area of interest, and sometimes their interests don't overlap with others. Sometimes it is prudent to wait for an instructor to set the tone, outline guidelines, and expectations, and start off with a guided intro activity, to give some learners a sense of permission to launch into blogging. The prospect of being given a free space to create however, whatever you want, might not be what many learners are comfortable with. It requires a level of disclosure some may hesitate at.Terry also openly wondered at the optimal level of guidance for learners. As a result of some research on the edublogging tool, I think that learners need to engage in a discussion at several points throughout the course about the types of edublogging, and their own expectations and concerns, comparing their own and others' previous entries, and identifying commonalities and differences. Another activity might be to invite fellow learners to share links to other resources and blogs. With just six learners, I found it sometimes a challenge to keep up with the knowledge output. Most of it is so new and unfamilar. I am intrigued by the emerging technologies, the audio and videocasting, and Second Life. I regret that I was not prepared to interact and share in Leszek's learning journey, for example, despite his best efforts. My home and school computers are too limited for me to use them for Second Life. The regional internet is limited, too, so that I often have connection issues during Elluminate sessions. Glenn

• • Terry Anderson@terrya

  

  Terry Anderson April 5, 2009 - 8:23pm

  Interesting comments Glenn and Thomas!!

  I to wonder about the optimal size of an edublog community. As Thomas suggested 6 students is probably too few. A few others from courses past (notably JoAnn) are reading, but I don't think we have reached critical mass. It makes me wonder if the community isn't interested enough, too busy with course related moodle discussions, or the tool/application is just not compelling enough. In theory the value of a non course specific tool within the AU or CDE community should add value, especially for small courses like this, but not yet!

  Anyways much food for though and thanks for your insights.

  Terry

• • Glenn Groulx@glenngr4

  

  Glenn Groulx April 6, 2009 - 10:14am

  Hi Alex,Thank you for your comments.I had been writing a reply when my cat took a stroll across the keyboard demanding cuddling, and then jumped into my lap. Needless to say, my ideas are sent to the ether. :(I share your view that privacy, ownership and authenticity are important issues. You wrote:"I often feel that my thoughts are not original, so what’s the point in saying what has already been said, and very possibly better?"I think that one should begin to blog for one's own purposes. Then invite the instructor as an observer, then a chosen, trusted mentor, then learning partners, then trusted guests, then open it ever more gradually as one's confidence grows. The assesment, the strategies, the activities, the motivations and expectations, are all context-specific, lined to the type and purpose of edublogging. Of course, others would start with a more group-oriented approach, opting instead to become more proficient in discourse within ever-widening networks of peers. They may start at a different point along the continuum of the edu-blogosphere. Introverted learners would prefer to move from the one end (sandbox) and move over time (sometimes years)towards the middle (sharing spaces. Extroverts, on the other hand, would start from sharing spaces (group blogs) and move either into a more reflective, solitary state, or move towards participation in more open, public blogging spaces.I agree that it was hard to connect with a group of individual learners all following independent projects. There were some areas I was interested in, but for the most part, since blogging was an area I was interested in, most of my activities were blog posts. Thank you again for your candid response, AlexGlenn

• • Alexandra Brierley@alexandrabr1

  

  Alexandra Brierley April 7, 2009 - 1:47am

  Hi Glenn,

  I like the idea of the slow progression, from private to invited, to group; I think for me, posting thoughts while in a course that are potentially open to anyone is somewhat like being pushed into a pool filled with ice cubes.  Kind of shocking and stops your heart for a second or two.  Thanks again, I have appreciated your participation and getting to know you - your personality has definitely shone through!  All the best, Alex.  PS.  I didn't mean to be in stealth mode above, my login had timed out and hadn't realized it. I was rather puzzled when it listed my name as "guest" at the bottom as I hit the "add comment" button.  Tried to delete, but couldn't!

• • Anonymous@AU_anonymous_comments_user1

  

  Anonymous June 11, 2018 - 1:56am

  Fell out of bed feeling down. This has bregthined my day!
  - Bettie