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.

The Downes side

Reading Stephen Downes' blog Stephen's Web yesterday caused me to think more deeply about the nature of blogging. Stephen very kindly makes links to three of my recent blog postings from the ICL Conference in Villach, Austria. But Stephen my friend, I think you missed the point.

Here's a quote from him, er, quoting me.... "Summaries could be more informative and less, um, colourful ("two papers that shone out like diamonds in the mud in an afternoon of mediocrity")."

Hmmm... my first response is that it's my blog and I can use whatever poetic licence I like to convey my thoughts. But it goes deeper than this. Words are powerful, and often, metaphors can provide a lot more meaning than mere description. There are other conference blogs that are more informative. Go read those. Those who regulalry read this blog, I hope, have gotten used to my 'colourful' language and 'tongue in cheek' approach, and realise that this is the style these postings will take. It's a happy situation, I think you will agree... that blogs are not all the same, and that bloggers should use any devices they want to, to get their messages across. It would be a pretty boring blogosphere otherwise!

Thanks though, Stephen, for remarking that my links to the presenters were useful. It's certainly driven more readers to my site over the last few days. Oh, and I really like your 'colourful' picture on FaceBook! Cheers mate.

Blog of the day

Found another interesting blog today - Keith Bryant's blog on e-learning reports all the bits about EDEN that I probably missed. Have a look at it when you get the chance, as it's well worth a read. That's the great thing about the blogosphere - what someone misses, someone else nails down. Keith holds the same opinion as me about Teemu Arina, and makes some interesting points bout what was discussed during the Web 2.0 sessions at the conference. I will add his blog to my blog roll when I find out what's causing the 'error on page' message that keeps popping up. Probably an error on the page...

Bloggers' Fear?

Good grief. Now someone has been jailed in Egypt for expressing his views on a blog. A BBC News item today reports that Abdel Kareem Soliman, a former student at Al-Azhar University has been tried and convicted of insulting religion (for which he received a three year sentence) and insulting Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak (for which he received a one year sentence). Well, I have a two word sentence for the people who try to stop us voicing our opinions on the web ...... but I won't be able to say it here, in case, um... someone is watching.

Makes you sick, all this surveillance, doesn't it? Only last week I read an article in the Independent newspaper about Catherine Sanderson, a British woman who had been sacked from her job with Anglo-French accountancy firm Dixon Wilson because her employers thought she was being disloyal to them in her blog La Petite Anglaise. When the news broke, her blog traffic went up exponentially overnight. She has now reportedly signed a £100,000 deal with a major publisher to write about her experience. Mais quelle domage! (That's French, you know) See - you can't keep a good man, or woman down. And sensoring the blogosphere is just plain nonsense. What would happen if we censored our students' essays? Or if our universities or colleges tried to censor our thoughts? I would like to hear your views... you have freedom of speech, you know.