Growing my blog

Konrad Glogowski's blog of proximal development always makes me think. His post How to Grow a Blog is certainly no exception. I think his visual outlining the idea is a great one.

As I do not have studets blogging at the moment, I read the post more as a blogger than as a teacher. And I learned a lot. I have been struggling to find my blogging voice again after a number of months away. I think that I will use Konrad's visual to help me think through my own blog. What do I want to accomplish here? How can I make that happen? I have to think it through before I write about it, but look for some "thinking out loud" here. As always, I will welcome whatever ideas you might have.

"Next Blog"

After more than two years blogging on Blogger, I finally clicked on "Next Blog". I had always been curious but had never taken the time to check it out. I had heard horror stories of kids in school clicking on it and getting some inappropriate content, and I guess I figured that I wasn't all that intereted in what I might find. But tonight I clicked on it, and I was really amazed by what I found.

The first blog I got was in Chinese. I am not sure what it was about, but it had pictures of food and a few words in English. I thought that was pretty cool, so I clicked again and got a blog in Russian. And the third time I clicked, I got one in Portuguese. Finally on the fourth click I got one in English -- on Permaculture, of all things. The fifth one was in Spanish.

All of this got me wondering about the percentage of blogs that are not written in English. I know I have read about this before, but I don't remember what I read. I could see asking my students (adults) to do a little investigation on the subject. They could do informal research by starting at my blog and clicking "Next Blog" say ten times. For each blog they come to, they could be asked to write like an annotated bibliography in which they tell what language it is written in and, to the best of the student's ability to figure it out from photos or other clues if he/she can't read that langauge, tell what the focus of the blog seems to be.

This project could serve several purposes. It would give students a chance to do independent research. It would give them a reason to read a number of blogs, and it would give them the opporrtunity to write. Of all of these, though, I think I am most interested in the blog reading they would do. I have yet to really get my students to read blogs. This would be one way to give them a chance to see what is out there. From there, then, it might be easier to ask them to find a certain number of blogs on a topic they are interested in and read them regularly.

Too bad I may not have students to try this with next semester.

7 virtues of blogging

Kathy Sierra has posted a link to her slides from a recent conference presentation. They are, as usual, great. She talks about seven virtues of blogging if you want to develop a global microbrand. Even though I am not trying to establish a global anything, the advice is good. The virtues that really struck me were Be Generous and Show Respect. Kathy says, in part:

the fact that anyone comes to our blog at all is incredible. We must be grateful and try to give something of value in return.

and

Don’t post for quantity, post for quality. If you don’t have something that you believe is worth the reader’s time, think twice about posting.

If I were following that second piece of advice, I probably wouldn’t be posting right now! But these, and the other five virtues, are things I try to keep in mind as I blog.

But I would like to modify Kathy’s list a bit to make it more applicable to the way I blog. Here goes:

• Be Grateful - Appreciate the fact that readers have taken time to read and comment on your blog. Take time to let you know you appreciate them and their ideas. One way to do this is to return the compliment and comment on their blogs.
• Be Humble - Make sure you give credit where credit is due. Acknowledge those who have influenced your thinking. Remember that you can learn something from almost everyone.
• Be Patient - Accept the fact that your blogging is going to be a process. Most of us, at least, have to grow into it. Don’t look at the well-established blogs and think you have to be like them, as good as they are right now.
• Be Brave - Talk about the things that interest you — even if no one else seems to be interested in them right now. You may discover other people who are truly interested in the same things and visit your blog precisely because you are talking about a particular topic.
• Show Respect - Remember that diversity is what makes the world beautiful. Just as we wouldn’t want to live in a world with only one type and color of flower, we shouldn’t want to live in a world with only one set of ideas. We should all feel free to express our opinions, but we should always remember to do so in a respectful manner. Don’t get involved in name-calling or ridiculing others.
• Be Motivating - We can all use a little help from our friends from time to time. Don’t spend all your blogging time complaining or criticizing. Try to offer possible solutions to the problem — or at least ideas as to why the problem exists. Leave your readers with something positive.
• Be Generous - Support new bloggers by reading them, commenting, and then linking to them in your blog, too. It costs you nothing but a little time, and it could really help someone who is just starting out.

I think we could each explain these virtues in different ways. I would be interested in knowing how you would define them.

Note: Starting with this post, I am cross-posting on Random Thoughts and Moving Along, my WordPress blog. I am fairly certain that I want to combine the two blogs, and I really like WordPress better than Blogger anymore. I will let you know when/if I decide to stop posting here entirely.

Too many blogs?

I am torn. In this year's EVO session, I began a new blog in WordPress, and I have fallen in love with it. WordPress, that is; not my blog. I hate to just abandon that blog, but I am not sure I can maintain two "public" blogs. I am looking for a focus for the other one that would make it viable and still leave me with stuff to write about here.

I am going to try to get back into regular postings here while i am looking for a direction for the other blog. We'll see how well I manage to do that and what I come up with for the other blog. Wish me luck!

Let's define blogging - again

There has been a lot of discussion the past couple days about anonymity in blogging. There was the infamous Houston Chronicle article that referred to Bud Hunt and Vicki Davis as anonymous bloggers. Then there were posts on Bud's blog and a number of others. (I know you have seen them all!)

Then there is the post over at Assorted Stuff about blogging being a personality disorder. (If you haven't read the post, I should tell you that this isn't Tim's belief but rather that of someone who wrote a book about blogging.)

To me the issues are connected. What is blogging, really? I go back to old "definitions" by Will Richardson and Anne Davis. I believe blogging is more than writing online. It involves reflection and, usually at least, reading, as well as writing. Blogging is not journaling or venting. As Will says,

Blogging is not just writing in a blog. I don't think journaling is blogging because it's, well, journaling. Blogging is much more than that. To me the process starts with reading what other people have written and editing that content for depth and relevance and accuracy. It's making connections about that content to other ideas to clarify what's important about it. It's adding personal reflection to give it context because only in knowing how the blogger experiences what she is writing about can I as a reader decide whether her ideas are worth my time. And, finally, it's linking back to that content so that the ideas can be traced to their genesis.

If we take Will's definition of blogging, then there seems to be no reason to blog anonymously. If I am writing about things that I don't want my name associated with, then I shouldn't be writing about them in a public forum. And I am probably not really blogging.

I know I am preaching to the choir here (assuming anyone is listening), but I needed to clarify this for myself again. And I needed to look at my blogs again to make sure I would not appear to be blogging anonymously. Because I am proud of most of what I have written over these last two years. I am not hiding from the real world in my blog but am trying to make sense of it in my own way. That, to me, is blogging.