Messy, unsophisticated and indisciplined…

Posted on | November 29, 2007 | 6 Comments

Can two examples equal a trend? Probably not. But if you type ‘learning log blog’ into google.co.uk, the first two entries that appear are the respective blogs of my good friends, Don Ledingham and Laurie O’Donnell. Neither of them any longer writes just a simple blog. Don started the ‘trend’ by calling his blog, Don’s Learning Log. Now Laurie, persuaded by Don’s compelling argument on the subject, has changed his blog title to Laurie’s Learning Log. And good on them both. Both are immersed in education, and both, like many of us, are passionate about the power of learning to change lives – and their ‘learning logs’ reflect this.

However, I think I will just stick with the simple ‘blog’ nomenclature. On the one hand, I suppose I do use the blog for my own learning – I read, I discuss, I think, I argue and, occasionally, I write something of what I learn on these web pages. On the other hand, my blog is also simply a channel for the odd musing or comment that really does nothing to add to my store of learning, or to anyone else’s for that matter. I enjoy, certainly, feeling that I am part of a broad community of people who are willing to share their thoughts by this particular means, willing to open themselves up to comment and criticism and to hustle and tussle with the ebb and flow of ideas that swirls around in the blogosphere. But, taking one of Don’s arguments for using the ‘learning log’ title, I do not feel that I bring any particular sense of discipline to my blogging, nor, for that matter, do I consider my blog an educational blog (or ‘edublog’, to use that slightly ungainly, but much liked, term).

Indeed, I have been taken to task (kindly, I should say) on more than one occasion for not sticking to my ‘core competencies’ of education and ICT in my blogging – but frankly, my dear (as someone once said) I don’t give a damn I enjoy hugely having this simple outlet to write about pretty much anything that comes to mind, anything that strikes me as interesting and worth sharing. So I write about education and technology (still the staples, I guess), but I also like to write about the media, the Web, politics, philosophy, economics, business, globalization, science, logic, sport, humour, books, religion, and so on. And, of course, I have my little travel blog to store the occasional thoughts and images from my sojourns in various airts and pairts around the globe. My blogging, like me, I guess, is a little messy, a little unsophisticated and highly undisciplined!

So, I wish Don and Laurie well, and I am sure that Don’s term will be picked up and used by others as well to describe their efforts, but I will continue to be boring and stick to this lowly, cluttered, indisciplined, mongrel of a critter that I’m happy to continue to call a blog.

Postscript – and another fine learning log joins the fray!

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Comments

6 Responses to “Messy, unsophisticated and indisciplined…”

Don
November 29th, 2007 @ 11:09 pm

John

Messy, unsophisticated, undisciplined , cluttered maybe – boring – never!!!
john
November 29th, 2007 @ 11:17 pm

Messy, unsophisticated, undisciplined, does it for me.
I’ve really been enjoying some of your ‘tumble’ like posts recently along with the longer pieces, always food for thought.
Messy, unsophisticated, undisciplined I’d like a t-shirt;-)
Don
November 30th, 2007 @ 7:56 am

I like the sound of it but what do you mean about “tumble” posts?
Ewan McIntosh
November 30th, 2007 @ 11:13 am

Hi Don,
You can see what a Tumble blog looks like by going to tumblr.com and having a wee browse. They’re basically snippets of other folks’ stuff you want to share.

I shoudl also point out that the phrase Learning (b)Log was first coined in a research paper back in 2004/5/6, by some guy called McIntosh :
http://www.scilt.stir.ac.uk/SLR/Issue12/Index.htm
and
http://www.scilt.stir.ac.uk/SLR/Issue%2013/Index.htm
john
December 1st, 2007 @ 10:08 am

Don,
I was referring to the shorter posts, quotes, video and photos John has been posting here.
my tumblelog is:
http://tmblr.johnjohnston.name/
Where coincidentally I’ve quoted both yourself and John recently.
I think of my tumblelog as a place to keep things I’d have like to blog about if I had the time.
Tess
December 1st, 2007 @ 3:32 pm

Hi John.

I have a fear of the word ‘amount’. This is due to the fact that in the Sciences if a pupil uses the word to describe how much there is of something they will loose a mark (in a test or an exam). Pupils need to quantify. They need to use more specific terms like Volume, Mass etc. I have been so conditioned, I can’t even use it socially, and occasionally I have found myself correcting my friends!

The same goes for the ‘B’ word. Learning Log, digital log, website and at a push, web-log are all good.

I think I am going to stick with ‘Website’.