Dutiful blogging... and blogging as exploration!

[Laura Gibbs]

Note: This is a blog post for general consumption AND for Maria. You'll see what I mean. :-)

True confession: every semester I start off with this great plan to blog here at Fireside and also to keep a blog in conjunction with my online courses. DOH: I end up without the time to do that. I post sporadically here at Fireside, and I've never really had any impetus at all in keeping up a separate blog for my courses. Now, this is not to say that I do not blog - I blog every day for my class announcements (like today, for example, where the fun tidbit is about Laika, the first dog in space), and I blog every day with Latin fables and proverbs (with hundreds of subscribers to that one; it is a lot of fun). I've also been pretty good at doing a fable a day that is geared to helping students read Latin out loud with confidence, although that project may be reaching the end of its natural life (I think I will stop with 200 fables; right now, I'm at about 130). I also have a Technology Tips blog that I worked hard on building up; it's pretty much dormant now, but goes through bursts of activity when I have some new technology I am trying to learn about and share with others (esp. my students).

So, I do blog religiously, so to speak, but I don't really blog in a spontaneous, reflective way… at least, not too often. Sometimes there is something I just HAVE to blog about and Fireside is my outlet for that - either because I really need feedback from people or because I just have to get something off my chest virtually speaking or because I notice something online that I want to share with people, and also keep a record of for myself in case I want to refer to it later. So, it's spontaneous, but it's also something very sporadic, and there are plenty of times when I realize I should blog about something here at Fireside, but I don't, just because I am in such a rush with other stuff going on.

Now, though, I have a good reason to blog here - Maria has contacted me to explore some kind of mentoring. So, I thought blogging would be a good way for us to share ideas with each other - and with a larger educational community, too!

So, Maria, this is my blog post! It is a confession of the fact that I am not always super-virtuous about blogging here at Fireside, but I do aspire to be virtuous, and blogging could be a great way for us to start getting to know each other and see how we can help each other in our teaching adventures.

I noticed that you also have a Blogger.com blog: great!!!
mariawilliams486.blogspot.com

As you can see from my other blogs, I am a fan of Blogger.com, too. So, it's also worth pondering where best to blog. There are some advantages to having both blogs available to us.

Fireside:
* good for sharing with the Fireside community (shows up in Fireside Activity)
* helps build identity at Fireside (especially as posts accumulate over time)
* some dynamic content is possible (video embedding works great, for example)

Blogger.com:
* good for sharing with a much wider educational community
* build identity not just with post but through the way you design the blog layout
* much wider range of dynamic content possible (javascripts, for example!)
* great RSS feed options (Ning RSS feed is pretty terrible by comparison)
* you can back up the content (Ning still does not allow backups - ARGH!)

So, there are definitely some advantages to having access to a Blogger.com option in addition to the Fireside blog! That way, you can decide for a given post just which blogging option is best to use, based on the different communities that they reach, and the different technologies involved.

In fact, one possible mentoring project might involve learning some of the really powerful tricks and techniques for taking advantage of your Blogger.com and how it integrates with all the other amazing Google services online.

Anyway, we'll see how this evolves.

Now I will give myself a pat on the back for having posted something in my Fireside blog. It always ends up leading to something good… even if I cannot be sure just what that good thing will be at the time! :-)

[Laura Gibbs]

Great, Maria! I am really curious to learn more about your teaching and your interests! :-)

[Maria Williams]

Wonderful start! And a good example. I hope to jump back in soon - more so for having read your post.

[Laura Gibbs]

I love all the things you have made possible for us here at Fireside, Connie!!! My fantasy is to have some kind of Ning at my school for online teachers to use for sharing and collaboration, but so far the resistance has been intense (I find some diplomatic way to propose it every year, and every year the answer is NO... and any effort to initiate it on my own would be viewed as a threat to the people who are "in charge" of professional development and online courses where I work). Isn't that crazy? There are so many benefits that this casual, unstructured, generous Ning collegiality has to offer - and apparently that is something the folks at my school see as a threat rather than as a gift. Will I ever figure that out??? Argh! But my students love our class Ning, so that's something at least! :-)

[Connie Weber]

Lovely post, Laura, and beautiful way of intertwining your mentoring work with a reflective project. And you're highlighting Maria's work in the process.
Such a teacher you are, through and through.
Sigh... A happy sigh, of appreciation. So good to have you as a colleague!