Thing #7 Commenting

Commenting is especially useful and meaningful in the world of blogs because an author can see an almost immediate response to his or her posts. Unless they are on a fairly extensive and interactive book tour, authors do not generally have the opportunity for such immediate feedback from their readers. Not only do blog comments give an author immediate feedback, they also allow for the blog's readers to interact with each other, expounding on common interests and digging deeper into the subject at hand.

Blog readers, unlike book readers, have the capability and the opportunity to comment and interact with the blog writer and its other readers instantaneously from all over the world. A positive aspect of the commenting capability is that a reader might feel more comfortable expressing him- or herself in a blog via commenting rather than in person. This could make for more interesting interaction on the blog, and hopefully, if well received, the commenter might gain some confidence in his or her opinion and be able to see that change can be effected this way. On the other hand, it is very likely that someone could use the commenting capability to do very unhelpful things. I would guess that this is why many bloggers would reserve the right to regulate the comments before they are published. Some might take issue with this, too, because it might show a bit of "oppression" in their opinion.

I have enjoyed reading the comments on my blog and on others of classmates here. I find the interaction encouraging and thought-provoking.

Thing #6

Here is the bottom line: I'm too interested in too many things, and setting up Google Reader for me is like someone gave me the first rock of crack for free. Information crack, that is.

Life for me is pretty busy and full of energy-sapping activity (My husband and I have a 3 month old son, and we both work full time), so I am trying to determine if having my favorite web sites skimmed by Google Reader will make my limited internet time more or less efficient. My first instinct tells me that it will make things less efficient, simply because I might get sucked in with all of it right there at my fingertips, the steps of having to enter the URL address skipped over . . . just one click on one site, and I can look at NPR, NY Times, BBC News, etc.

I love sharing relevant information with friends and coworkers because I know that not everyone has (or takes) the time to pursue continuing education. Sometimes, our interests get lost in life as we know it. As a new parent, for the first time in my life, I can fully understand and empathize with that reality. So, the "Add Star" and various "Share"/"Email" features of the Google Reader that could be VERY helpful in that respect -- you can share what you know your friends/family/coworkers will find interesting right from the Reader.

Thing #5: Using Google Reader -- NY Times

I love reading the NY Times online, and I used to be a subscriber to the paper edition, but I simply could not keep up with it -- and then, it seemed that I was subscribing solely to contribute the newspapers to the recycle bin. Senseless, because all content was offered to me free online, wherever I had an internet connection (virtually everywhere these days). Anyhoo, NY Times is my home page, and I allow myself to skim over the front page daily -- once I start reading, though, I am sucked in for a while. So, of course, I made it one of my Google Reader feeds. It might make the skimming more efficient for me. Here is the article that drew my attention today: Understanding The Anxious Mind. How do you NOT read that article? It deals with a study done by Harvard psychology professor Jerome Kagan, in which, in 1989, he took as his subjects babies whose temperament and its effects he wanted to observe in a longitudinal study. He opted to track the babies' temperaments based on a single dimension: whether or not they were easily upset when exposed to new (unfamiliar) things. His hypothesis was that the most edgy infants would grow up to be the most inhibited, anxious, and shy adults.

Throughout the article, he refers to "Baby 19." In his study, the first eighteen babies proved not to be "high reactors" to the unfamiliar stimuli, but Baby 19 was visibly distress, flailing, crying, and arching her back. Kagan goes on to share results of an interview he did with Baby 19 when she was a fifteen-year-old high school student. She tells the interviewer at first that she does not know what she worries about, but then pauses and goes on to share a laundry list of all of the things in her life/surroundings that provoke worry and anxiety in her: social issues, performance issues, how she will deal with the world when she is grown.

The articles notes that four significant long-term studies are in progress which have all, with minimal differences, determined "that babies differ according to inborn temperament; that 15 to 20 percent of them will react strongly to novel people or situations; and that strongly reactive babies are more likely to grow up to be anxious." The author notes that cognitive behavioral therapeutic interventions appear to work with children as they do with adults. Therapists try to teach anxiety-ridden clients to replace the tendency to ruminate with a more rational inner voice.

One interesting finding in Kagan's study was that higher-reactive kids appear to avoid some of the traditional pitfalls of adolescence. He says that because the higher-reactive kids are more restrained, they are less likely to experiment with drugs, to get pregnant, or to drive recklessly. Interesting.

Thing #4 (A la Dr. Seuss)

As you read, consider the following questions (feel free to adapt and expand on any of these or add your own):

• What do you notice about the genre of blog writing in general?
• Blogging, in general, is written in the style of a conversation, or, in many cases, a diatribe. When I blog (and I have been doing it for years), I use my speaking voice. Without trying, I write with the same passion and inflection with which I speak to friends and family. When I write about something that makes me happy, my reader can sense that emotion. Likewise, when I write about something that bothers me, my typewritten words convey it.
  
• How is blog reading different from other types of reading? How is it similar?
• Blog reading is less laborious, in general. I love reading (and cuddling up with) a great book, but reading a great, well-developed blog is just as satisfying. As I teach my students, we read for different reasons and purposes all the time. Also, when reading a blog, if the blogger is doing their "job" well, the reader gets a real sense of the blogger's personality and almost feels like he/she knows the blogger, even if they have never met. Kinship is created, and a "relationship" evolves. Just as we are faithful to favorite authors, we are similarly faithful to favorite bloggers.
  
• How is blog writing different from other types of writing? How is it similar? In general, I think that blog writing is a little less formal and uses a bit more of the vernacular as opposed to formal language. Of course, that aspect varies from blog to blog, depending on the writer and his/her purpose. It can be quite a bit more succinct and focused -- sometimes with content following an overall theme, other times with content varying with the blogger's thought process of the day.
  
• How does commenting contribute to the writing and meaning-making? Commenting, if monitored by the blogger and its "followers" should provoke new ideas and thoughts from both blogger and reader.
  
• Is there a "blogging literacy?" How does blogging affect the way we read and write? For me, blogging language is more like my conversational voice rather than my academic voice. I don't see blogging language as casual as I do text message language, but I suppose it depends on the writer. Obviously, I believe that a blog written by a professional education should be grammatically correct and error-free, but the tone is variable with the blogger's purpose each post. I believe that any appropriate content (if used for academic purposes) will help to encourage students/readers/followers to become more actively engaged in the reading process, and if commenting is encouraged/required, ideally, the students/readers will find themselves more engaged and thinking higher on Bloom's taxonomy as they analyze and synthesize posts and comments from various readers.
  
• How can blogging facilitate learning?

Thing #3.2

23 Things is a great way for teachers and learners to familiarize themselves with the mountain of new technology that is available for use by regular people! I have had personal blogs for years, and folks who read them regularly always marveled at the instant availability of the posts and the ease with which I told them they could be done. New technology has a way of intimidating the everyday citizen, and often, adults become more and more resistant as we spend more time on the earth. Once someone has and takes the opportunity to dive in, what they generally discover is a total lack of mystery, and they figure out that they are just as capable of being a "blogger" or "Facebooker" as their child or grandchild! My mom is a great example of just that: she has been here this summer helping out in our home and with our new son, and my siblings and I had a race to see who could coerce her onto Facebook first. My sister won, and my mom LOVES being able to keep up with friends and family that way -- she's been busy, too, as a new grandparent, and now that she's retired, she's not in the whirlwind center of public life in her hometown anymore. Technology -- she hsa a Gmail account, too! -- is helping to link her to people and activities she might have found herself removed from in her retirement.

Using blogs, especially, could be very useful for an educator with students because of the immediacy and the ability to share information. Digital learners have become conditioned to seek and share information in cyberspace, and if we leave those children behind, we will find ourselves in quite a mess. They need to know that we, too, are keeping up, if not moving beyond them , in order to continue to respect us and trust that the subject matter we are trying to share with them is up-to-date, too. I cannot imagine a history teaching simply using a textbook to teach history. "Current" events has a whole new meaning in 2009! This week's TIME magazine isn't even "current." We have people posting news stories as they are in progress.

All of these tools can be used to support my own learning simply because they are requiring me to engage. I think that is the greatest first step in learning that exists!

Thing #3.1 Lifelong Learning

• Which habit(s) may be most challenging for you to employ as part of your Learning 2.0 experience?

In general terms, I am a lifelong learner -- I crave it. I am constantly reading books of all types, and I love to share what I've learned with others. I have always been drawn to jobs, hobbies, and careers that demand continuing education. It is difficult for me to fathom working in an atmosphere that did not require a constant updating of knowledge and skills. Most challenging for me will be using my time wisely. My son is just about ten weeks old, and as many of you might know, it is an unusually demanding time in his life! With a few early (earlier than usual, anyway) rises, completing the requirements for this course should not be that big of a problem.

• Which habit(s) will be easiest, or are most resonant for you as a lifelong learner?

Writing is a lifelong love for me, so being required to write will not be difficult for me at all, except with regard to finding time to do it. I also am a bit of a techno-geek, so zipping through technology-exploration tasks will not be anything but intriguing for me. 23 Things and I were meant to be!

• Which habit do you think will be most important for youas you work through this course, and why? The most important habit for me as I work through this course will be to make a regular time to sit down and get the work done. I've found that creating a firm structure like that is something that is almost essential for me -- I am the poster child for adult ADHD at times. And I had to make a decision a few years ago, when I started work on my Masters Degree at UNT, that I was going to have to build into my day certain times to accomplish my reading and note-taking and test-studying and paper-writing. Luckily, that decision has served me well, and though it's been difficult at times, my GPA reflects some pretty good study habits. It doesn't hurt that I am SO interested in what I am studying. I believe the same tenets will apply to this course.