All That Blogging Has to Offer

I was just asked to provide some information on what blogging has done for me in terms of how it has impacted my learning and social networking.

I started blogging the day after the eLearning Guild Conference in Boston. So April 14th and have since written 82 postings to my blog (not including today). That’s a little less then an average of one a day, but in reality it’s about 3 a day with weekends off. I’m not sure if that qualifies as perhaps a little addicted to blogging. I think so, because I am finding myself reading more about events that happen and if they are blog worthy.

I find blogging to be currently my main and most important source of learning. I recently took a course that was necessary as part of the core curriculum for a certificate and can honestly say I learned nothing new during the semester. It was titled Facilitating Online Learning and was anything but that. The course and my blogging started at roughly the same time. During time I was blogging I learned some of the better open source wikis to use, how to engage staff to participate with the wiki, ideas to help motivate staff to be excited to use web 2.o tools, and I was even able to use some of the knowledge I had now collected to do my own presentation on these tools to a network of colleagues. At the end of my presentation there was a scheduled discussion time to go over the ideas I presented and make a decision. It turned out that the group liked my own recommendations so much that the discussion was dropped entirely and they went to a unanimous vote to go with the tools I had picked. Had I not the knowledge behind me that I had gained over the past several months this would not have been possible.

My social network has begun to grow. This I find is a little slower a process because I feel a little as if one has to prove themselves a bit more in online environments. One does have to work at communicating with other people, asking questions, and responding to questions (directly asked of you or as comment responses). It takes some work and dedication to “put yourself out there”, but is very much worth the effort. I think I may now have a few people that recognize my name/face popping up here and there on various postings and network sites. I have begun talking with a few people I think are “key” and feel that I can at least go to them for guidance and advice on various topics or ideas that come into play in my environment. The one thing I have really noticed and experienced about the elearning/technology blogging community is that everyone is extremely friendly, open and willing to share ideas and be mentors to one another.

Other than the fact that I feel I’m always looking for the next thing to write about, I have no negatives to think of in regards to blogging. In fact this drive to find the next thing to post had kept me up-to-date and current in the happenings of elearning, technology and the news. I feel more a part of the “current” world then perhaps ever. I also apparently like to write. I never ever considered that to be something I was capable of, but it appears to happen day after day. So, I’ve also been able to learned and develop a new skill.

I can’t see myself stoping this learning any time soon.