Intentionally swimming against liminal currentsGasping for breath in the wake of cascading reflectionsGrasping blindly at dark stones on the murky bottomI tread water seeking yet finding no clear directionCraning my neck to peer backwards and forward From within the mirror of middlespace Inspired by Jen’s ideas at Jentropy, a creative sharing space:http://www.jentropy.com/archives/10/comment-page-1#comment-479The Private Bloggers' ChoiceAn essential issue that has to be accounted for is the encouragement of a learners' choice to open up one's blog posts to others, and become more transparent to a larger audience. In helping learners make such a choice, educators provide a private space and alter the assessment requirements so that the transition to more autonomous, tansparent blogging is not seen as coercive, and a requirement for academic success.Many students would likely want to have a choice over what to post to a more public blog, and be given supportive examples of what should remain private, and what should be posted to a public space. The reluctance over posting to a more public space might be due to concerns of being criticized or ridiculed. The Personal Bloggers' ChoiceThose who encounter a hiatus after years of blogging, and reach a stage where they step back and reflect about whether the one blog represents who they are, have begun the journey of becoming a personal blogger. Such a blogger can readily shift between types of blogging contexts, from private blogging, to blogging entirely for self, to blogging for others in a sharing community, to anonymous blogging. This journey now involves an expansion beyond the tasks one has set for oneself, and there is a process of discernment, of soul-searching, over what to change in how one perceives oneself, and the consequences of how others might perceive you. Each shift between blogs is the result of a conditional compromise of the created self. The blogging tool affords us a lifelong opportunity to re-invent ourselves over time, repeatedly, taking on and maturing in different roles. I consider it as part of a transformative cycle of learning, in which we repeat the cycle numerous times over decades. I sense that time-outs are essential, to allow us a chance to regroup, revive ourselves as physical beings. Blogging can play a number of different roles, and its often a case when I blog sporadically, in spurts, followed by idle periods of silence. The blog is a liminal space. Moving from blogging our most intimate, private thoughts to building confidence to sharing with others our experiences and becoming autonomous learners (blogging in public for oneself, inviting comments but not being demotivated by their absence) is a threshold. I am intereated in helping literacy learners move through the liminal space between private and autonomous blogging.Before learners feel sufficiently comfortable blogging within an embedded context (among a supportive learning space of co-learners) they need to practice publishing their creative thoughts and intuitions anonomously. The anonymous blog enables literacy learners a liminal space in which t try on ideas, engage in role plays, showcase creative work, tell stories. Once comfortable with posting to a group space, the choice would be theirs to move to an embedded learning environment. The transition the liminal space between anonymous blogging to embedded blogging is the role of an educator, acting as a learning companion (Cranton)Slow blogging is an example of an activity of a liminal blogger, one that transcends the expectations of learning events within formal schooling. A liminal blogger recognizes that the pursuit of change and growth is lifelong. Such a blogger is energized by swapping stories within many different communities, engaging others in a number of voices (all parts of one’s own, just “tamed” for the specific audience and context), building, facilitating, mentoring, leading, withholding, pulling back one day while pushing forward the next. A liminal blogger intentional seeks out and plans (even creates) learning events that places the person n a state of liminality. Such bloggers are quite adaptable to changes in learning context, and able to adjust expectations rapidly.