The Fear of Blogging
This blog is turning into “What Will Richardson/David Warlick Said,” but when folks have good ideas, I have to recognize them and hopefully expand those ideas.
Anyway, Richardson had a great post today about the difficulty of blogging. He states:
While the successes are many and impressive, a good number of people still find the thought of publishing to an audience, even a relatively small, private audience of like-minded souls, to be too daunting. It’s just way outside their comfort zone, and they just believe that their contributions would either not be relevant, interesting or useful.
He goes on to get at the core of the argument:
…no matter how you slice it, blogging is a risk. And it’s a risk not just because you are putting yourself out there for the world, but because unlike many other types of writing that we do, it’s unfinished. At least that’s the way it feels for me. I don’t KNOW very much for certain. But blogging isn’t about what I know as much as it’s about what I think I know, and I find that to be a crucial distinction.
I think this has been an issue for me. I talk and talk in training sessions and classroom visits about the wonders for blogging. However, when it comes to my own professional blogging, it’s sporadic at best. On the other hand, when I blog about my non-professional interests, I find it to be easy. I’m afraid someone with way more expertise will come along and completely wipe out my ideas about education. It can be very intimidating.
Even if you’re not blogging professionally or with your students, the web can be a menacing audience. It’s what keeps us from blogging, starting wikis, writing WebQuests, or updating our websites. How do we get over that fear?
I know that reading other blogs has always helped spark ideas. Today (and yesterday) on this blog is no different. It’s helping me to blog by accessing my own personal learning network (PLN) through RSS feeds and Twitter. Now, if I could just come up with a few of my own ideas…
(Image “Blogging for Dummies” by Somewhat Frank.)
