Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Blogging

I have been reading posts on e-learning topics from EdNa, and have been thinking about blogs and their uses. I can see how they are useful educationally for posting assessments, reflections, and for having discussions based around topics of interest. In general though it seems most bloggers post alone - they get little feedback on their reflections. Blogs really do seem to serve a reflective purpose, but don't generate much actual discussion or exchange between minds. Forums seem to be better at doing that, especially when you can have new comments posted to you by e-mail. I am much more likely to read forum postings that are e-mailed to me, rather than check everybody's blogs every day. I guess you can have blogs that send new comments to you via e-mail too. It is kind of nice to have a reflective journal online however.

2 comments:

Susan Hurley-Luke said...
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Susan Hurley-Luke said...

Thanks so much for YOUR comments, Faith (is it Faith?) Yes, my name is Susan. You had it right. And I am glad to hear your further reflections on blogs. It sounds as though your Master's course blogging became a community alright - and that is what others have told me has happened to them. Stephen Downes even calls it 'The Blogosphere' (if you have never heard of him, he works for the Canadian government as a sort of advisor about e-learning/technology - you can see and/or subscribe to his newsletter here: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/subscribe.cgi) as he says it is a whole network of communities online that exists sort of beneath the surface of visible community life. I love the idea of blogs as reflective journals and also as communities of interest.

What type of management courses do you teach? I teach the DI-ploma of Community Services Management at Tropical North Qld TAFE in Cairns, though I am based in Atherton some 90 kms away from Cairns..

Susan