Blogging and Communities

09-January-2006

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[ Non Formal Learning , Knowledge and learning , e-learning in Small and Medium Enterprises , social software ]
Learning is a social activity. Blogging does not, on its own, support the social aspect of learning - neither does it support communities of practice.

Last post for the day - I deserve a beer.

Just has an interesting chat on the phone with Dave Tosh. He was saying one of the problems with blogs is the isolation. Many people get few readers and even less comments or track backs.

That is fine if the idea of the blog is as a personal diary or a place to record ideas - essentially for yourself. But many people start blogs with a more social intention - of joining the blogging community. The problem is that the community is not so easy to join.

This may explain why initiatives like EduCause, Edublogs and Elgg have been so successful - because they provide a community as well as blogging tools.

I am more than ever convinced that learning often takes place through integration in communities of practice. The sites above are not yet communities if practice as such. But they point towards how we might use social software to support communities of practice.

Moer to come on this...

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Graham Attwell; 09-January-2006 19:30:38;

1 Replies (comments)

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1 Can weblogs support learning as a social activity?

I agree, but...
I replied in the WLT-community. Unfortunately this weblog has no trackback-option.
Wilfred Rubens, 10-January-2006 10:26:28

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2 musings on blogging in education « my educational blog

[...]also having a group blog. Personally I feel that it should be used as a feature in a larger system that offers other communication tools and use the blogging purely for personal reflection and personal learning environments with the option of having people comment on each other’s posts. The blogs do not necessarily need to contain truths, and can be written in any language / lingo that the learner is comfortable with. http://www.knownet.com/writing/weblogs/Graham_Attwell/entries/1293884923[...]
favicon for the site posting this trackback , 2006-09-12 16:11:06.36

1 Can weblogs support learning as a social activity?

Interesting post by Graham Attwell: Learning is a social activity. Blogging does not, on its own, support the social aspect of learning - neither does it support communities of practice. According to Graham initiatives like EduCause, Edublogs and Elgg hav
favicon for the site posting this trackback work&learntogether, 2006-02-15 10:38:04.15