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 | No Comments
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.

Continue reading Day 4 Blog Challenge – Post a Question…

Joining the 31 Day Comment Challenge & Major Frustrations

May 2, 2008 at 11:15 am | In 31 Day Comment Challenge, Blogging, Edublog, Ruminations Blog, comment08 | 1 Comment
Tags: 31 Day Comment Challenge, Blog Challenge, Blog Comments, Blogging, Blogs, comment08, Posts

I received an email update yesterday from Edublog encouraging me to Join the 31 Day Comment Challenge and I decided to sign up.

I am # 92 on the list, signed up the the Ruminations of an Online Instructor / MD blog.

Getting this blog up and running is my personal summer project, so joining the challenge seems like a good way to accomplish that goal.

The primary purpose of the 31 Day Comment Challenge is to encourage participants to

“spend a month of focused commenting for us all to become better blog citizens by actively participating in conversations and sharing our learning, especially with those new to blogging.”

My Personal Goals for the 31 Day Comment Challenge

1. Get the Ruminations of an Online Instructor / MD Blog up, running and established.
2. Follow along as possible the 31 Day Comment Challenge Daily Activities.
3. Meet, interact with and leave blog postings for other fellow participants.
4. Learn more about blogging and educational uses of blogging.
5. Record and reflect what I am learning about the process.

Activity Day 1: Do a Commenting Self-Audit
The questions for the first day were about the frequency of commenting on other blogs and tracking blog comments. Since I don’t tend to comment on blogs in general, my frequency is nil and there are no comments to track.

Activity Day 2: Comment on a Blog You’ve Never Commented on Before
This was pretty easy, since I was confused a bit about the process. I left one comment on Silvia Tolisano’s Langwitches Blog on the 31 Day Comment Challenge- Are You Up for it? post about needing a crash course in ‘blog comment speak’ and about using coComments without installing it.

I left a second post on Sue Water’s Edublog post on How keep track of new comments on other bloggers’ posts still trying to figure out how to get coComments to work without installing it into a browser window.

Continue reading Joining the 31 Day Comment Challenge & Major Frustrations…