A short article on the art of being connected: Seven Habits of Highly Connected People. A few points made in the article resonated with with: the importance of reading/commenting on the work of others, rather than simply producing content...and the importance of finding places online where we can "add value rather than to pursue a particular goal or objective".
Posted by gsiemens at April 3, 2008 7:25 PM | TrackBackOne of the issues my students and I have been discussing is the role of blogs in our own learning and in distance education, especially in terms of "community building" and feeling a sense of belonging. Most of my students participated in an outside community, either blog, social network, or discussion forum. Surprisingly, one outcome of this exercise was they felt no sense of belonging (although they did find good information and did believe there were time constraints that might have impeded their sense of belonging) from Blogs. A group had also participated in both a Ning and a Facebook group and found that they felt alienated in the Facebook group, but not in the Ning group. There were also mixed reviews on the discussion forums.
As the comments on this article indicated, connection requires two way communication. People might post, but without some feedback from the author, there is no connection. Why? Lack of trust (especially "cognitive trust"). I did not see mention of trust in either the original article, or this one. I find I can connect after I begin to develop a certain level of trust. I know those blogs which I have on RSS feed are those that the author (as well as the readers and commentors) have some authority (either through experience, recommendation from others I respect, past posts and links/support for their views, etc..) for what they are writing about. I may not agree with them, but I know their posts have integrety. (By the way, yours is one that I have an RSS feed for).
Posted by: Virginia Yonkers at April 5, 2008 2:09 PMHi Virginia,
Interesting experience - i.e. feeling alienated in facebook vs. not feeling alienated in ning. Your focus on trust important. I find that reading blogs - even where I don't comment or spend time directly in discussion with the authors - requires a degree of trust. And trust is not formed over night. Trust takes time...a long time! I have found various networks have different levels of trust and identity built in. For example, while I was initially somewhat unsure of Twitter, I have since come to see it as valuable for adding a more social dimension to people I've only followed in terms of concepts/ideas (your term of "cognitive trust" resonates here).
George