No More the Nomad!
July 16, 2007 by Diane
Lately I’m starting to feel like a nomadic blogger. In one sense that’s perfectly fine; many conversations that take place in the blogosphere bounce around from blog to blog, needing no fixed place or time. Ideas cross geographic borders in a heartbeat and find welcoming hearths in diverse locales. So, does it really matter where I blog? Until recently I thought not.
I blog with students, teachers and scientists on all of our collaborative project blogs:
I blog with teachers, students, and pre-service teachers on all of the Ontario Blogs sites. I blog with educators exploring the concepts and tools of Web 2.0 on the Classroom 2.0 ning social networking site. And last but certainly not least, I comment on the blogs I read, (if I feel I can make a contribution to the conversation that justifies taking up blog real estate).
So what’s missing?
One of the most important things I’ve learned this past year is the power and wisdom of the “network”. Through the “magic” of RSS, I have been able to pull together an incredibly effective personal learning network from the edublogspere. I have learned more in a shorter period of time than at any other point in my very long career – from reading, commenting, reflecting and conversing with edubloggers. My learning network has become almost organic; it changes as my own thinking progresses and morphs as conversations start, finish and evolve. My Google reader regularly drops and adds feeds, letting me pull in, aggregate, tag and take part in the conversations that resonate with me at any given moment.
What I feel I’m missing is a way to add to the network, to nurture connections I’ve made and forge new ones. I need a way (or more specifically a place) to pull my thoughts together or just let them flow organically, a place to both start conversations and archive my thoughts and experiences. This is the place I’ve chosen to settle – a tiny, new node in the network. Welcome!
Technorati tags: personal learning networks edublogs connected learning
Image Citation
Teseum. “Nomads in Imperial road.” Teseum’s Photostream. 21 October 2004. 10 Jul 2007 < http://www.flickr.com/photos/teseum/427556119/>.
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The new blog is great. I like the idea of having a place that is knida separate. I’m running two Educational Disciourses (tells you how creative I am!) Really, I do have a blog that I haven’t used in a while at bloglines that I consider to be a place where I can just let things flow. I’m hoping to use it more this year. Your posts are very interesting and I enjoy just leisurely going through them, that’s why I’m posting on your first post. Takes me a while to read through things. Hope you are enjoying S’toon, the river and the sites.
Thanks for the comment Kelly. I had thought that I’d use my Classroom2.0 blog as my main one but it doesn’t have the same “this is my blog” feel. Plus, I’m no longer lugging my laptop through airport security, unpacking it and having it swabbed. I’m functioning just fine on the road with my Palm Treo WX, but the ning sites won’t load on it. So, when I set up mt new Ontario Blogs project sites, I just set one up for myself. Thanks for visiting…it was feeling a little lonely in here