I have never really written for a blog, however, my understanding is that blogs are a form of personal thought expression. As such, the intended purpose for our group blog seems to coincide well with Knight’s first chapter where he discusses writing as a means of capturing ones thinking (1). Through this form of writing, we are able to organize our thoughts to make sense of them and yield a clear focus. Nevertheless, although diverse benefits exist from writing, issues of privacy arise. As Knight refers to these expressions of thoughts as private writing, it makes me wonder whether we can really call blogs (‘online writing’) private writing? Knight does address this issue partially by reassuring us that our writing can benefit by sharing it with “critical friends” (1). However, what is the boundary of this friendship? If a blog is open to the World Wide Web and any individual in the world can comment on our posts, can these ‘commenters’ be considered our critical ‘friends’? Does this form of online private writing hinder insight of our own thoughts or can it reek the benefits?
Good points Karolina - What *does* it mean to go through these processes in a public forum - to think "out loud," and potentially be much more accountable for our mistakes than we would be writing in a private journal? On the other hand, how is the process expanded and potentially enriched by the open and collaborative nature of a blog (or other online forum). How does this contribute (or does it?) to the transparency of the research process (and researcher) - by revealing our mistakes, dead ends and other aspects that might otherwise remain hidden?
ReplyDeleteLovely! Its great to see how you're thinking and what you're thinking about such topics.
ReplyDeleteI like your perspective/style of open ended questioning better than my take of loud mouthed opinions. I think next time I'll opt for the questioning approach.
Thanks so much!
Writing as part of the critical making lab. :) I like it.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone else ever tried those online editor groups, or story circles, or whatever? I write fiction in my (copious, I wish) spare time, and I have never found these groups worth it. You get a lot of "Great idea!" and "What?" comments... with very little actual critical thought put into it. So perhaps the issue is less if it's public, and more if people actually read it. As Varsha said-- she's done blogs before, for classes. But if no one reads it... A little bit like the 'if a tree falls' scenarios.