Why I blog and other issues
I got offered a job blogging a few weeks ago.
It was a good offer – to contribute some 10-15 items a week to a blog about Open Educational resources. The items did not have to be long. And the pat was quite reasonable.
I thought long and hard – and finally rather reluctantly turned it down. Reluctant – because it seems a bit of a dream to be paid for doing something I enjoy writing about something which interests me.
But there seem two drawbacks. The first is that I find blogging on the road to be difficult. When I am involved in a run of intensive meetings and workshops I don’t always have the headspace for blogging. And the second is that I am afraid it would destroy the fun of blogging. Along with others, I have always wondered how Stephen Downes keeps writing OL Daily, day in, day out. Sometimes I just don’t want to blog – I don’t feel I have anything to say. And at other times I have a lot to say. For me my blog is part of my everyday work and everyday life – and the blog has to fit in – not the other way round of me having to write the blog.
I am interested in these issues because of an emerging discourse in the Emerge community about the possibility of a project on using Web 2.0 and social software for supporting academic writing.
It is an interesting idea and an important one. Often, if I am working on an academic paper or a contribution to a book, I do not blog. The style of expression is just too different to quickly switch formats.
So, I suspect we may have to reconsider just what is academic writing. I have been involved in a number of projects trying to use Wikis for co-development and collective writing of research papers and training materials. It is not easy and requires a great deal of planning. I suspect this will be the way we work in the future – especially in the context of European projects involving collaboration between researchers in different countries. But we have a lot to learn about how to do it.
I’d be interested in anyone else’s thoughts (and experiences) on this subject.
Hi, just came across your blog site and I must admit I agree with what you were saying bout blogging.
There are times when you could blog all day, everyday and then you could go a couple of weeks before you blog again.
Sometimes it is because there is nothing to blog about.
I have used my blog account to be political and then I have used it to just talk to people.
You can blog about anything you like, that is what I like.
Will keep reading your blog.
Thanks