We are in the fourth week of #ONL192, a truly connected course, in which the participants are asked to write reflective blog posts and in which the participants can connect their blog to the course homepage. Although the requirements of the course do not require to blog for another week, there is a massive amount of posts being aggregated from large to small. For a true believer of academic blogging and open education like myself, this is great to see. Here are some reflections on a good handfull of posts from the last days.
As the first topic of the course is on digital literacies and online participation, it is not surprising that most of the blog posts related to those topics. We have some very active online participants with a long history of digital tools, some who actively restrict themselves from social media use for very good reasons, and for many starting a blog is something completely new and somewhat scary. The reflections also related to the question around privacy and some of us want to keep private, while still sharing their blog and reflections, which is obviously totally fine.
In one of the blogs, the question was raised as to why to write a blog, while providing a very solid answer that:
this is likely the quickest and most effective way of sharing my ideas about teaching with colleagues and receiving feedback from them.
It is this passage, which reminded me of one of my favourite videos and explanations about the course design around connected courses and I have shared this in previous ONL iterations. What Dave Cormier says in the video is that blogging in itself will probably not lead to any sharing of ideas and it is very unlikely to receive any feedback at all. If sharing ideas and receiving feedback is the goal, then, as Dave continues, one needs to network. Actively sharing ones post via Twitter, visiting other blogs and commenting there and by doing so, hopefully get some colleagues to ones own idea. It’s probably not a bad idea to ask for feedback explicitly, when one really needs it. Here is the video:
If you are an ONL participant who has not connected their blog yet, and is unsure what and where to begin or what to write and feel stressed I would like to calm you down. Relax. Don’t worry. I know the feeling from writing my first post here. It’s alright. It will be fine. It doesn’t have to be advanced at all. Here some advice from other bloggers, which might be of help:
Five tips to become a more confident blogger
Four Reasons People Don’t Blog and Ideas to Help Change Their Mind
15 Lessons from 15 Years of Blogging
So, hope to be able to read your reflection on the ONL course homepage soon! If this was any helpful, interesting or if you disagree, please drop me a short line. I would love to start a conversation.
Have fun during the course and see you out there!
Photo by Oliver Cole on Unsplash
