Over the past two years, my thoughts around blogging as a learning and networking tool have been slowly evolving.
In Oct 2007, the LCB asked - Should All Learning Professionals Be Blogging? I summarized the responses in: Top Ten Reasons To Blog and Top Ten Not to Blog
At the time, while I felt that blogging was something good to do, I didn't push all that hard. But, slowly I started pointing to:
Now I'm starting to feel that blogging is such a powerful learning tool that if I was going to send an employee to a conference, I'd want them to use a blog to enhance their learning. If they were starting on some new learning activity, I'd want them to blog.
Certainly in a few cases (formal learning), I've seen blogs be mandated as part of a course. But, otherwise, I've not seen anyone making it mandatory. I'm also thinking that a conference could be a significantly better experience if blogging was essentially mandatory as part of the conference. See Reframing Conference Social Tool Participation and think about the experience if people were blogging and we used an aggregator - ideally pre and post conference as well.
Has anyone else felt this transition from blogging as a nice thing for a few people to something that you want to find ways to force on people?
And Stephen, before you complain about the words force and mandatory, understand that this already happens in classroom settings. I'm extending that same notion to other settings. But I recognize that few (if any) conference organizers would actually go so far as to make it mandatory for attendees. (Although they might if they really wanted to help attendees learn and network.)
Learning Blog
I often suggest learning blogs (see Learning and Networking With A Blog (T+D article) and Personal Learning Strategies). In other words, blogs are a fantastic tool for Personal Learning. I often suggest during presentations that starting a blog at the beginning of any learning endeavor is a great move. I just saw this:
I have decided to take the plunge into the world of National Teacher Board Certification. I am going to record my thoughts and experiences here as a way to keep myself grounded, to have a record of the process and hopefully so that other educators will find this blog and offer encouragement, help and companionship along the way.I know this happens all the time, but it's a quick reminder that creating a learning blog is a great move.
Twitter Status
My twitter status just changed.
Sue Waters - who I met through the posts: Reframing Conference Social Tool Participatio and Social Conference Tools - Expect Poor Results yesterday walked me through what she had done at a couple of conferences. See her page: mlearn2007 by others and mlearn2007 my notes.
Along the way, she convinced me that Twitter was something that I should stop resisting.
She did this by sending a tweet out that asked how Twitter helped people with their personal learning. She quickly got back:
So, I broke down and now am on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tonykarrer
So my current twitter status: I'm still not convinced, but am willing to try.
Sue Waters - who I met through the posts: Reframing Conference Social Tool Participatio and Social Conference Tools - Expect Poor Results yesterday walked me through what she had done at a couple of conferences. See her page: mlearn2007 by others and mlearn2007 my notes.
Along the way, she convinced me that Twitter was something that I should stop resisting.
She did this by sending a tweet out that asked how Twitter helped people with their personal learning. She quickly got back:
dmcordell @dswaters Hi, Sue. I'm the only LMS in a rural district. The world is my network with Twitter!That's interesting both from the content and also from getting a question answered pretty quickly. Not sure how I'll think about using LinkedIn Questions vs. Twitter, but it's still good stuff.
Gregory Thompson @dswaters I use Twitter+YahooTubes+RSS Aggregator and it brings me wonderful content via links every day, a place for inspirational sparks
barbs1 @dswaters love the community of sharing and support for our celebrations frustrations sorrows Huge impact on learning new stuff
onlineteacher @dswaters Twitter is critical app 4 me b/c shared brilliance n human connections brighten everyone's world n I can share n do same (teach)
Sunshinetalia @dswaters because i can stay current with what other educators/ elearning peeps are up too! I get great links to resources & readings 2.
RobynDennis @dswaters Twitter allows us (no matter where we are in the world) to receive *instant* updates on the latest news or topics. Great for PD.
jeffmason @dswaters chat room with hyperlinks, alerts to ongoing conversations and pd opportunities
coyenator @dswaters oops. meant none can keep up individually, together we have a better shot at it
coyenator @dswaters none of us can keep up with emergent change everything individually, strength in numbers willing to share connections, knowledge
tjshay @dswaters Just started Twittering last week, have found countless resources...Websites, videos, etc. Faster than blogs
SarahStewart @dswaters Gives me instant access to group of people to share information & ask for advice
k1v1n @dswaters without twitter I would have never met you. And I learn tons from you.
suzievesper @dswaters - the sharing of collective knowledge and the support of like-minded educators.
Inpi Twitter keeps us in touch with the last discoveries in "webland", gets help for "web-troubles", most of all feeds sense of community
So, I broke down and now am on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tonykarrer
So my current twitter status: I'm still not convinced, but am willing to try.
