Reason number 12,250 why blogging rules

Scene from Mario Bava's Bay of Blood

I’m a pretty regular blogger, since December 2005 I have blogged on average 285 posts a year, every year for almost seven years. It’s not all good, it’s not all pretty (especially grammar wise 🙂 ), and it’s not all that appealing to too many people besides myself. So then why do it? I  hate that question because I don’t think about blogging like that, it’s something I do—it is a part of me, it is how I have learned to think about things and share them all at once. It has been the single greatest element of my professional life over the last seven years, and it has opened up an avenue of creativity and joy I would be less happy without. That’s it, quite simply it has made me better.

That is probably the most important lesson I try to impart on the students I’ve had in ds106, but I fail many more times than not. I  know it’s a hard lesson to “teach.” You must experience it, live it, feel it, want it—-it can’t be lectured at you. I recognize that, and I accept it—although begrudgingly. [The same goes for faculty, but I am less and less inclined to try an convert them these days, they should really know better by now—it’s 2012.]

But if I wanted to provide yet another reason why blogging has been so awesome for me here we go. I’ve been talking about a class I want to teach about the National Film Registry on the bava here and here. It is part of my process, it’s what I do: I write about ideas that I have even if they’re not fully formed. What’s more, oftentimes other people read them. I don’t always know why, there’s not always a trace, but I know that they are reading. Case in point, thanks to an email I got today I now know one of those readers works at the Library of Congress, Packard Campus and has read my recent post on my outing to see The 7th Voyage of Sinbad with the kids. The reader happened to follow a link to this post wherein I loosely framed my idea for a class centered around the Packard Campus. In short, my intentions of researching whom I need to talk to at the Packard Campus about this class over the coming weeks has been taken care of for me. If all goes well, I will be put in touch with them shortly and we will start talking about whether such a class is even a possibility. How sick is that? Blogging reminds me how awesome the web is. It also reminds me that I have staked my little claim on that space and I sometimes think that in the grand scheme of things I may be making that web just a tiny bit better for one or two people, and that is just enough. Long live blogging. LONG LIVE THE BAVA!

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7 Responses to Reason number 12,250 why blogging rules

  1. Linda says:

    THAT. IS. AWESOME.

    I guess that’s what happens when you dream out loud! 🙂

  2. @cljennings says:

    “You must experience it, live it, feel it, want it—-it can’t be lectured at you. I recognize that, and I accept it—although begrudgingly.”

    Mighty profound that. And how very true of learning. You gotta wanna.

    And I do WANT to….write my thoughts into being – get ’em out of my head….I LOVE seeing the effects of the regular practice of folks like you and Alan (aka @cogdog – http://cogdogblog.com/). I know the value – as you describe. (I could wax poetic here about what I have learned from faithful bloggers like you two – how very important you are to MY practice….but not the point right now). I think about stuff and say to myself: “I really ought to write that to come back to later or to just ‘get it out’ and share it and see who else thinks this” … And yet…

    All I can say is thank you again for doing it – faithfully – showing how it should/could be done with a just a little tenacity.

  3. Brian says:

    Another amazing story of openness. Really happy to hear this mad idea is moving closer to reality.

  4. Perfect timing. Thanks for this post. Through out the year, I have been teaching an after school course for teachers at my school to give them a state of “Digital Citzenship” We call it DC101: Blogging, digital storytelling, Networks etc…Give people a taste of thsi new “connected learning culture.”

    And no matter how much beg and plead to just try it, open up and give it ago, I often feel let down and disappointed when teacher after teacher post a few superficial post and ignores their blog after the course is finished.

    Like you I feel, “I hate that question because I don’t think about blogging like that, it’s something I do—it is a part of me, it is how I have learned to think about things and share them all at once. It has been the single greatest element of my professional life over the last seven years, and it has opened up an avenue of creativity and joy I would be less happy without. That’s it, quite simply it has made me better.”

    But they just don’t get it, because they don’t put in the time. I am nowhere near as prolific as you, but I have been at this for a while and my online spaces are now an extension of who I am, without them I wouldn’t feel complete.

    Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for being such a great mentor and model and inspiration. One thing is for sure, none blogs like the Bava. No one.

  5. Pingback: blogging rules | a gross salute

  6. Maura says:

    congratulations and long live the blogosphere!
    blogging – it’s not just for hipsters.

    and on a side-note: the girl who sat beside me at graduation, who i’d never met in four years at umw, introduced herself to me and then said “you were in ds106 weren’t you? i’ve read your blog.” #ds1064life

  7. Pingback: How to Start Blogging Like You Mean It | The Tech Savvy Educator

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