Why do I bother?

Reading Tom Barrett's post 'Why Bother Blogging?' got me thinking about my own reasons for blogging. It can be hard work, but it can also be very rewarding. Some readers have remarked that they wish they were as prolific as me when it comes to blogging, and other have asked me where I get all my ideas from to blog about. Well, I'm not half as prolific as I would like to be, and others out there in the Blogosphere write a lot more than I do and on a more regular basis too. It is difficult to find material to write coherently about, but that is probably one of my main reasons for blogging:

1) I blog because it keeps me on my toes intellectually, thinking up ways to express what I know about how learning technology is progressing, how my ideas are being challenged by new methods and emerging technologies, how my own practice is being enhanced, my skills extended and how my students are finding new ways to learn through emerging media and devices. Thinking about the content of my next blog post often prompts me to read a lot, interact online and face to face more, and generally encourages me to reflect critically on what I believe.

2) I also blog because during the process of thinking and reflecting on my own professional practice and what is happening around me, I need somewhere to keep a record of these impressions. Blogging gives me a chronological record of my own thoughts, dated and time stamped, complete with hyperlinks to useful related online resources and materials, and images I have selected which have evoked an emotional response in me. All of these features combine to provide me with a digital artefact that captures a moment of my thoughts in time.

3) I blog because it attracts feedback from readers on my ideas and views, and the comments box can sometimes overflow with excellent responses from readers of my posts. I value greatly the comments of all those who take the time to respond to my posts, and I learn a lot from them. Many the time someone has commented on one of my posts and this has led me to either modify my own ideas, or to confirm to me that I am on the right track in my reasoning.

4) Blogging helps me to make concrete all the ideas I have, and reifies the thoughts I want to keep. Somehow, putting down these ideas in a manner that makes them publicly accessible, makes me strive even harder to articulate my ideas in a coherent way. In writing I am written, and blogging is more than just a part of my personal learning environment. It has become a key part of my professional development and practice.

5) Another reason I blog is to share my ideas and thereby contribute to the intellectual wellbeing of the community of interest I belong to on the Web and add to the shared knowledge we rely upon. Others share their ideas freely, and I want to reciprocate. This frank exchange of ideas and content is what makes my community of interest such a wonderful thing, and enriches all of us who claim to belong to it.

6) It's a creative process, and can be great fun. I often lace my posts with humour or irony, and enjoy the way my posts come together. Dreaming up pithy titles for these posts is also great fun, and it is surprising how many people make encouraging comments and give positive feedback on these little additions. It's a great exercise for my mind and keeps me from getting bored.

7) Being able to publish my ideas instantly to the world is a great asset. Knowing that more and more people are reading my posts, following regularly, and responding too - is both a pressure and a pleasure. It's a little like owning your own newspaper, but potentially a lot more powerful, because posts can be updated, enhanced and linked on the fly, and they enable interaction between the writer and the audience.

There are probably other reasons why people blog, but those are my personal 'magnificent seven'. Now tell me ... what are your reasons for blogging?

Image source (edited)


Learning with 'e's by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.