There are good reasons to encourage more people to do this, to share thoughts and ideas online, to reflect on their work, to aggregate ideas (like a portfolio), to generate and share content.
What do you think?
Why have YOU embarked on this journey?
What will motivate you to keep doing?
How about every day for a year?(the goal of us early bloggers in 1999).
Comments
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What will keep me going? Good question. I own more domains than a human should with mental meanderings strewn across the ether but have always lost the spark.
Absolutley, there's something to be said for consistancy (one per day for a year), but I think I will be using my OU blog for more introspection/randomness.
I started an 'additional resources' thread on my tutorial forum to help collate what all of us run into, so yes, I think my blog will likely suffer from navel-grazing. Not proud, but honest.
But all the egocentrism aside, I tip my hat to a blogging pioneer. 1999, eh?
Oh, yes. Another reason I blogged my first post about half an hour ago? So people have something to look at if they're like me and keep clicking the thread originator's name instead of the thread title in the forums.
Why blog?
Because it's funNew comment
Yes indeed, for fun. For as long as it stays fun, I'll keep going. Also, writing a personal blog as opposed to a solely study orientated one, which in theory anyone can read, forces honesty of a refreshing nature.New comment
Blogging gives me a sense of belonging which is different from the belonging I feel with other social networks such as family, friends, volunteering etc.
I love connecting with people by reading other people's blogs and commenting on them, and enjoy sharing my experiences with anyone who visits and takes the time to read my ramblings. I
t's amazing what you learn about yourself when writing a blog, and I find blogging is a motivator in itself. If I write that I'm going to do something, I then feel I have to follow it through. I've also learnt so much from other people's blogs and from their comments on my blog. So, for all these reasons, I'll continue for as long as I can
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The OU blog is my first and the only one to date. I have deliberately kept it in a strictly "business" style. To a greater extent it became a notebook, rather than a means of communication. On the long run I'd like to move away from this format. Blog posts lack the structure and cohestion which can be attained in articles and books. Every piece of thought should be reviewed, refined, polished and put in the big picture before being presented. I am doing my dissertation next year and have set myself a target to make it worth a publication, so that will be a good test for the above point of view
Valentin
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Fabolous to catch up with these responses; the blogging beast can anqd should be whatever you want it to be. The best description I've had (from an academic source) is to think of a bllog as digital paper ... new paper? i.e. do with it whatever you please and make it your own. All I've learnt in a decade is the value of sharing, which again, now qualified with academic papers and research, results in 'like minds' caring to link up. Gender, age, race or academic background has a nothing to do with it. It is more about having an interest in other people, the 'ego' where it appears at least being shared. Personally I read far more than I write, perhaps 50% (which may give me something to write about); I engage. While commenting on other people's blogs some 30% of the time, with the actual process of writing a post down to 20%.New comment
Hi, All
My first blog was the OU and since I have set up other ones. Winston blogs were to record my dog's adventures, not that he'll ever read it. Now that would be good. But the OU blog is more for reflection and anything that happens in my world. Thanks for the information imparted over the year or so, Jonathan. You have to make it your own, so much more fun.
Regards
Nigel
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Our dog is at my elbow. From a few months old to three years later she has integrated herself into our lives and we have adapted to fit her needs. She thankfully doesn't need to give a moment's thought to anything.