Day twenty-nine in the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger series was yesterday and asked us to look at Day 29: Be a Rock Star. Essentially, we are asked to put the same kind of effort into our the public comments that we write in the entries on our blog that we would or do when we are just sitting around shooting the sh!t and giving our opinions with our professional colleagues.  As a way to actually turn this into something we can blog about, Steve asked us to “take the time to share what being a Rock Star means to you.”

For me it is doing the kinds of things that I am currently doing with entries like Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change The Way The World Learns and Rewind: Virtual School Symposium And Disrupting Class - sharing my opinions on topics that are of interest to people who are in my community (i.e., K-12 online learning), many of whom are readers of my blog.  I’m reminded of a comment that Erik made when he reviewed my blog for Day Six - Thirty Days To A Better Blog (Part 2). He had comments like:

Would love to have your thoughts on the top 10 list…

I read blogs to learn about other perspectives and opinions; I don’t feel that you are doing as much of this as you could. Give yourself some credit, you are one of the top researchers in the VS field, your opinions are worth a lot!

I remember early in my doc studies, I gave an article to Dr. Dawson, she read it, gave it back and told me that centrists are dull. She encouraged  me to stick my neck out and make some noise. I told her I wasn’t confident enough to get aggressive on a topic. She challenged me to do so, and I’ve been able to in a couple instances. Make some noise, I know you are passionate about VSs, make sure that passion is evident to the reader.

While I have tried to do this at times, it is often the case that I don’t have the time (e.g., tomorrow is the final day of November I haven’t prepared the VHSM Podcast for this month yet).  In an ideal world I would love to be able to comment on each article, report, news item, resource, website, etc. that I come across in K-12 online learning.  And when I have the time, like today and over the next few when I am focusing upon Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, but it seems so often the case that I am reporting more than commenting.  I think that I should do both, I’d just like to do more where I do get to voice my opinion.

Hopefully, participating in this 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger and then next month I’m thinking about participating in the National Blog Posting Month ( NaBloPoMo) project, will give me the motivation to do more of this.  But Steve, for me being a Rock Star means if I were to ask Erik for his feedback on my blog in the future he wouldn’t make those same comments.

Day twenty-eight in the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger series was yesterday and asked us to look at Day 28: Link It Up. Essentially, we are asked to consider how we link to other entries, specifically we were asked to do two things:

1) Go back through your last few posts and hunt for links that you may have missed. Could you have done a better job? Are there any things that you should have linked that you might have missed? Any places you could have added value by inserting more links?
2) The next blog post you write, go crazy on the linking. Every paragraph, think to yourself… Should this be linked up to something providing more information? Should I include a link to a definition for people that may not know the term? Should I share a few examples via links? It’s OK if it looks silly, it’s just about retraining the brain a little. And sometimes you just gotta dive in headfirst to get some quality swim time in.

Thinking about the first item, it was only a few hours ago I wrote Rewind: Virtual School Symposium And Disrupting Class and I think I did a good job of linking based upon the content.  Although Steve, I’d love a comment to this entry with your assessment of my linking in that particular entry.

Also, looking ahead this week…  Later in the week (i.e., after Wednesday) I will be posting an entry about my visit to the Odessey Cyber Charter School, and that will be the one I use to focus on for the going crazy linking in a future post.

With this entry I am officially caught up to Steve.  Day twenty-seven in the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger series was yesterday and asked us to look at Day 27 Thanksgiving Special: With a little help from my friends. Essentially, Steve asked a bunch of his blogger friends what advice they would give to bloggers.  As a way to address this item, I figured that I would summarize each and then speak to where I stand on that piece of advice.

Jeff Utecht:

• Always include a picture that frames your idea - I rarely do this personally (see Day 25).
• Always link - I think I do this a fair amount (both internally and externally as it helps with getting my blog out there).
• Find your voice - as an academic, I think this is an easier one for me because writing is part of what I do and my blog closely aligns with my own research and writing interests.

Dean Share(ski):

• Find your voice - see comments in the suggestions from Jeff Utecht (advantage of being listed first).
• Link - again see comments in the suggestions from Jeff Utecht.

Sylvia Martinez:

• Think Nike - just do it - This is one that I have struggled with over the years, particularly when I was a doctoral student.  Now that I am a faculty member, and I think probably busier than I was before, I still find time.  I have also developed more strategies for keeping a steady stream of entries too (writing entries that won’t be posted until later, posting more related announcements that I receive, etc.).

Miguel Guhlin:

• Listen to yourself as you experience other’s writing, media, as well as your interactions - I think Miquel is talking about writing from the heart, writing what moves you, writing based upon your reactions and challenging all of those things.  If so, I think I do that here when I do have the time to write out original pieces that provide my opinion on the issues.  The whole Wisconsin issue from this past Spring and Summer are a good example of that I think.
• Share what you are learning as you learn it - this is an interesting one and one that I’m not sure how I would score myself.  I can say that it is something that I have considered, and the long awaited entry about my visit to Odyessey Cyber Charter School in the next few days will be a good example of this one.
• Play with your ideas and your writing, like a cat with a ball of yarn that forgets to hold back. When you can do that with what you’ve learned from others as well as yourself of endless abandonment–play–well, then you’re in the Zone. - I’ve included this one in the full because I’m not exactly sure what Miquel is suggesting here.  If it is the notion that our entries should be our thoughts at the moment and not necessarily well-crafted, researched, vetted items, then I think I’m doing that.  But I’m not entirely sure that is what he means.

Scott McLeod:

• Invite people to respond - I do this frequently in my entries (although people rarely do respond).  In the beginning when I first started blogging, I used to e-mail a bunch of folks (some 25-30) to let them know I had posted a new entry and invite them to comment (which may explain why my infrequent entries in the first few months often had more comments than even my best later work when I assumed most of my readers were finding me using RSS).

Darren Kuropatwa:

• Write what you know and talk about what you care about - This is an easy one for me because I am passionate about the potential, and the fact that we have to be careful, about K-12 online learning opportunities - particularly as it relates to rural school students (who often don’t have a choice when it comes to distance education).  This is why I entered doctoral studies in the first place, this is what I continue to write about, so this is an easy one for me.

Alan Levine:

• Set up your flickr account to publish directly to your blog - I have done this (and used it a lot in the past with some of the other blogs that I have maintained), but also see comments in the suggestions from Jeff Utecht.

Alec Couros:

• Take a break when you need it, rather than forcing your posts - I’ve done this in the past (and still do from time to time now).  The interesting thing was in the past it often happened when I would attend conferences because I was taking note on paper and wasn’t often online (plus with the exception on maybe one conference, most didn’t have much K-12 online learning stuff being presented). But now I take my session notes in the form of blog entries, usually with a healthy dose of my own opinions added in.  There are more presentations about K-12 online learning, and most conferences have reliable wireless.  Having said that, I do often schedule entries in advance to give myself a break or at times when I know I will be busy.  I also often use announcements I receive to make sure that something is posted when I don’t have the time to do something more substantive.
• Let change come naturally - This one hasn’t really affected me yet, at least not at this blog.  In the past I have managed many other blogs (seven at one point) and I think when I was interested in talking about something, particularly when I was a doc student, I had a blog specifically for that.  This allowed me to maintain a fairly consistent focused on this blog and I am too passionate about this topic to move in another direction at this stage (or for the foreseeable future).
• Write and comment carefully, and most importantly, critically - I like to think that this is something I consider on a regular basis, but I suppose my readers are in a better position to judge this.

Jennifer Dorman:

• Write about what interests you - see comments in the suggestions from Darren Kuropatwa.

Kathy Schrock:

• Always post the feed URL of your blog someplace permanent on your blog page. - This is an interesting one, one that I have never done, and one that I’d like others to chime in on (as it is the first time I’ve ever heard this suggestion, whereas almost all of the others I’ve heard at one point in time) and I’m wondering how much of a difference it would actually make.
• Don’t be afraid to say something controversial, and, if you want to offer a post that may cause you to be criticized or ridiculed, just shut off commenting on that post - Well, I think I’ve done the former (again the Wisconsin issue is a good example), and I think I continue to do it on a regular basis. I’ve never had to do the latter.
• Don’t let content get lost - This one was interesting, because I can’t say that I have used Twitter or Plurk or any of my other tools in that way.  Maybe it is because there are few K-12 online learning folks using these tools, so I don’t lose content there. I’m just not sure.

Steve Hargadon:

• If you want to make contact with a prominent blogger, mention and link to them in your own blog in some inviting way - I like to think I do this (as evidenced by this entry).  Not just to make contact, but I think the whole blogging thing just doesn’t work unless you make those links so that you are actually conversing with others (particularly when many folks will write a response as an entry to their own blog instead of commenting on your’s) and not just talking by yourself.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach:

• Blog because you are passionate about what you are sharing, not because you feel you have to get a post up for your readers - see comments in the suggestions from Darren Kuropatwa.

Doug Johnson:

• Make your blog as personal as possible - see comments in the suggestions from Jeff Utecht and Darren Kuropatwa.

Vicki Davis:

• I find my best posts come from the heart - see comments in the suggestions from Miguel Guhlin.

David Warlick:

• Often, in my blog entries, I find it necessary to include information that is related to the article, but not logically part of the article. A sidebar serves well for quoted explanations, lists of links, and other ancillary info - I haven’t done this before.  Anything I quote tends to go into a <blockquote></blockquote> and beyond that I tend to include everything in the main body of the entry.  I also wonder if using the free WordPress system might limit me from following the specific advice that David provide further in his suggestion.  I’ll have to try it sometime.

Will Richardson:

• End with the beginning - This is not something I’ve ever been good at as a writer (either blogger or academic writer).  In my academic writing I am able to achieve it a little more because I tend to write me piece from beginning to end, minus the introduction section, which is written dead last.  Maybe a strategy for my blogging too.

Bud the Teacher:

• Be brave, and write anyway, knowing that there’s value in sharing your experiences in large part because they’re yours - In the lead-up to this quoted portion, Bud talks about not blogging because some else may have already said it or may be able to say it better or more eloquently or more informed than you can.  Maybe its because I’m in a relatively new area and there are only a few of us writing on this topic, but I’ve never suffered from this myself.

Jen Wagner:

• Use your blog to BUILD others up and not TEAR them down - While I think that I can be critical at times, I don’t think I try to tear people or things down.  Like most academics, I think I try and deconstruct positions, arguments, beliefs, etc. that run counter to my own thinking.  But I like to think I do it in non-personal manner.
• Count your “I’s” before you hit submit. Count your “me’s”. Could your “should’s”. And count the times you draw attention to yourself. Your blog might be written BY you………..but it doesn’t need to be written ABOUT you - I included this suggestion in full because I think it is an important one.  Again, while my readers are probably a better judge, I like to think that my blog is about my opinions on K-12 online learning, that it isn’t necessarily about me.
• Sometimes you don’t have to hit SUBMIT - I’m assuming that this means that there are times when you should wait before actually posting something to your blog.  Kind of like the 24 hour rule when it comes to responding to an e-mail that has got you steamed.  If so, then I do do this.  WordPress is set-up in such a way that you can hit Save or Publish - and both buttons are located next to each other.  If I’m upset, mad or simply not sure about an entry, I’ll click Save.  Then the entry is still there if I want to post it later.  Granted, I can only think of one instance in the past four years of blogging where that has ever come up.

So, those were all of the suggestions from friends that Steve provided in his guidance for Day Twenty-Seven.  Now I am officially caught up, until Steve posts both Day Twenty-Eight and Day Twenty-Nine today.