Comments make the difference indeed!

I’ve just read a thought-provoking entry by Anne Davis on the relevance of comments in blogging, and immediately thought I wanted to record that here… Basically, her point is that it is comments which encourage newborn bloggers to keep going… That made an impact on me for I related it to many issues I’ve been reflecting upon recently:

 1) When starting a blog, determining its target audience should be a first step. In the case of class blogs, this seems crucial to me. Unlike most people appear to believe, blogging’s not about what I have to say, but about who I expect to listen to me… It makes sense then to start by defining our intended readers and the best way to contact them.

(BTW, have you already listened to “I Started a Blog that Nobody Read“, by the Catbirdseat? Don’t miss it if you’ve ever started a blog!)

2) Networking blogs is essential. Each new blogger has to find blogs he’s keen on reading and acquire the habit of regular commenting on them…. Helping new bloggers master tools such as Bloglines or Feedblitz should be a teacher’s first priority… Apart from providing new bloggers with models, this will help them start getting “noticed” by bloggers who will in turn come back to comment on their entries… For the teacher themselves, finding out about sites such as Dekita or online communities such as Webheads in Action could make a whale of difference!

3) In my case, each blog entry is “inspired” by so many other cyber-friends that naming them would be overwhelming… and each time I post I feel the excitement of possible comments from unexpected readers! However, this also means a tremendous responsibility: learning to reply to comments… or do you want to become a blogsnob?

Enough blogging about blogging for a day, right?

Gladys 

Leading teams – online is not the same?

A wonderful quotation by Peter Drucker has really meant food for thought…

 Listen to Drucker’s words (my voice!)

I wonder whether this “we-attitude” can be learnt, and to what extent the leader also depends on how team members perceive their role (the leader’s as well as their own I mean). I feel I’ve learned to become an effective leader online (and I guess that’s part of the explanation for the steady growth of LearningwithComputers), and keep wondering why I failed to make this a reality when I had the chance to try f2f team management, back in 1996… Is it age has turned me wiser? :-p … Or are there essential differences between f2f and online team coordination?

Gladys

NOTE: I tried to embed a posting at Podomatic here, and failed… Therefore I’m trying inserting a link to my recording there… hope it works!

Communication, society and education

Today I start my first online course with , the site of Argentina’s Ministry of Education.  It’s called “Communication, society and education: Concepts and debates“. By now, online learning has become as much of a routine as f2f learning, the former being perhaps even more frequent to me in the last few years! Yet, this experience brings about two new challenges:

1. a new LMS… that always makes me just a little nervous…. I’ll need to look around and find my way! This time it’s e-ducativa… now, haven’t I tried this environment before?

2. it’s been the first time I’ve enrolled in a course that goes beyond “How to..”. See their welcome message:

 ”Concepto y tipos de comunicación, funciones del lenguaje, la codificación y decodificación como proceso, el universo del discurso, análisis y uso pedagógico de la imagen  son algunos de los temas propuestos en esta capacitación… La propuesta de este curso es brindar conceptos y modelos de análisis de diferentes problemáticas que permitan comprender los intercambios comunicativos que se realizan en la actualidad entre diferentes ámbitos y a través de las TIC.”

I guess it’s time I’ve started reflecting upon computer-mediated communication, apart from learning to master the tools… I’m glad about the new challenge I’ve set for myself, yet I can hear a soft voice in my mind wondering “Do you need another challenge???”

Let’s learn and live!

Gladys

BAW 2005

Just about a year ago, I joined the most enthusiastic, supportive CoP I’ve ever come across. It was the beginning of a path I could never have anticipated, a never ending way to learning from and with others, helping others learn, knowing I would never feel lonely in cyberspace again…

I always thought I should create an entry in my blog “celebrating” them, and I never did. Today, my Webhead-friend Cora Chen posted her entry on her own experience then, and I felt I could but borrow her words…

Thanks Cora!