Learning In a Flat World

Kai Ora Britt!

The great poets – you can name some of them – say the same thing. It’s all very well writing great stuff. Many people do and throw it away. John Keats did just that when he happened to have scribbled one of his greatest poems: To A Nightingale.

A friend of his (he had many) who consolled him over the crisis he had at that time pulled out the scraps of crumpled paper on which was scribbled the legendary piece that same day. Keats had stuffed them behind some things on his mantlepiece.

Keats sure did have a crisis that day and we may never have had the opportunity of appreciating what has since been claimed to be one of the great masterpieces in English literature.

Cheers from Middle-earth

Britt–

The idea behind the purpose and audience of a blog is one I wrestle with briefly–and then move on because I feel impelled to write or I will forget what I was thinking.

My blog has multiple purposes and audiences, but I have just left it under one umbrella for my own sanity.

1) I write for my students to show them models of how to blog, how to summarize and respond to research, and post screencasts for “how to’s”–mostly technical stuff.

2) I write for my students’ parents to explain my rationale and keep them informed.

3) I write for my colleagues (known and unknown) who might be interested in adapting the project.

4) But it seems mostly I write for myself to get down the teaching reflections that sometimes find their way to a post-it note (and sometimes not). I’m trying to be deliberate in my reflections.

5) And the added bonus is when someone I don’t know does read my blog and adds insight that I would never have had if I had just written in my journal.

So while I don’t expect to become a world famous writer, it’s nice to know there is the possibility of a wider readership than just me.

Great comments, Ken and Melissa – I like the thoughts behind the words!

Britt,

Thanks for the link. Just thought I’d give you some context as to my thoughts revolving around trackbacks and pingbacks.

After blogging for over nine years, sometimes you need to re-evaluate things. Part of the reason I stopped allowing comments is because I was around when trackbacks and pingbacks were still nascent technologies and were promising big changes in web conversation. They didn’t really end up doing everything we all had hoped them to do, but it was worth trying it out at the time.

I do, now, offer commenting on my blog, but we’ll see where that goes once new tools and new ideas keep coming up in the web world. That is, in fact, the power of the blog, right? To adapt and change as necessary?

Hi Britt,
I love using this month to really think about this issue and like you for the longest time I loved just writing on my blog for myself. I wrote movie reviews right after I saw something, while it was still fresh, I reflected on my work and life and brought cool resources on as well.
And then I got a great comment, just one to start, someone was out there reading me and I started responding. Simple start and now I like you, see the power of this web network.
I am obsessed with it actually. I can write and share in my pjs, how perfect especially when the camera is not turned on.
Bonnie

Thanks for responding to me so quickly and so thoughtfully. I am newer to this place and just in the short few years, I have marveled at how edublogs has been able to deal with spam thankfully.
Like you, I am willing to be out here open to what’s new and worthwhile.
Glad we connected in this challenge.
Bonnie