Ruminations of an Online Instructor / MD

Day 4 Blog Challenge - Post a Question

May 4, 2008 at 2:14 pm | In 31 Day Comment Challenge, Blogging, Distance Education, Edublog, Educators Online, Online Instructors, comment08 |
Tags: 31 Day Comment Challenge, Blog Challenge, Blog Comments, Blog Community, Blogging, Blogs, comment08, Posts

Wow. It’s Day 4 already of the 31 Day Challenge.

One of the things that I hadn’t really thought of would happen quite so soon, is the number of comments that I’ve been receiving in response to questions, issues and problems related to the challenge.

This level of blog commenting activity is entirely new to me, since I’ve been keeping several blogs on other topics that get much fewer daily comments.

Refining My Personal Goals for the 31 Day Comment Challenge

One of the goals that I’d posted for yesterday was

7. Encourage others by visiting a new blog at least every other day.

I am going to update or refine that goal for today

7. Encourage others in the 31 Day Challenge by

• Responding to my blog posters comments within 48 hours.
• Visiting a new blog at least every other day.

With starting into a new Summer Session Tomorrow, I realize I have to give myself a reasonable window to respond to blog posts.

I also realize that since comments are being tracked and that people are theoretically monitoring their posts that those leaving comments should be seeing my comments without me needing to contact them or post responses in their blogs.

Activity Day 4: Ask a Question in a Blog Comment

The activity for Day 4 is to ask a question in a blog comment. It does seem that asking a question when commenting on other blogs could be a very good way to get a blog discussion going especially when interacting with students.

Asking questions is a very common technique in normal classrooms and in online classrooms.

Accomplishments for Day 4 of the Challenge

1. Refining my Goals for the Challenge.

2. Giving myself permission to respond within 48 hours.

3. Getting the Ruminations Blog listed in MyBlogLog.

4. Leaving a question on the Test this Darn Blog Blog and also in the Edublog Forum about an issue I was having with including the .docstoc lecture.

5. Visiting two new blogs, Test this Darn Blog and Kevin’s Meandering Minds.

6. Including a hyperlink for Blogcatalog in yesterday’s accomplishments as a response to Kevin’s post.

7. Discovering that my posts are being indexed in the Comment Challenge wikispaces page and also in Technorati.

8. Toggling the comment switch to anyone (rather than just logged in Edubloggers), in response to two people having problems contacting me and Silva’s post on the topic, Allow Others to Comment… Make it as Easy as You Can.

9. Wrote and posted Day 4 Blog Post.

10. Still to do, respond to all of the comments left so far.

Reflections on the 31 Day Comment Challenge Process

I left the same question in two different places, one a blog and one a forum. I will be interested to see which one gets responded to more quickly.

It has been eyeopening to join this new blog community of educational bloggers, which has in a short period of time been very helpful and welcoming.

I realized, thanks to Silva’s and Sue’s comments from yesterday, that this documentation process format might be helpful for others.

I feel that I am having more problems keeping up with the comments and responding to the comments left than I am with completing the daily activity task.

Revelations: Based on the feedback yesterday, it is nice to know that my documenting style seems to be a good way to monitor progress, so it’s nice to feel that I’ve made some small contribution.

Perhaps the biggest revelation today is making sure to not let the challenge overwhelm me. The process is supposed to be for fun, for learning and for building camaraderie, rather than something to stress and fret about. Posting 10 accomplishments for the day is *a bit* excessive or compulsive, I’m not sure which. Granted many of the accomplishments have to do with getting the Ruminations blog up and a running, functional blog.

Image Source: Rodolfo Clix.| Future |. Royalty Free Use.
This blog post is part of The Comment Challenge, comment08.