Hi Jeffrey,

I confess I’ve fallen dreadfully behind on FOC08. I have every intention of picking it back up again very soon – but I’ve gotten lost in the reading for CCK08 the last while. Much of it is new to me – particularly the learning theories – and I’m trying to get a handle on many of the foundational concepts.

That said back to Blog Networks…

As far as our FOC course is concerned, I’m with you on your statement:

“many of those in our online course (FOC08) do follow and comment on one another’s blogs. However, I am not sure if this happens enough to consider their blogs a community.”

I do think that communities, or at least quasi-communities exist in the course on a smaller scale – I just don’t think it exists at a unified scale – at least not yet.

I believe a variety of factors need to be present before a network – and particularly community – emerges amongst bloggers, which can or might include common professional or personal circumstances, belief or value systems, technical comfort levels or usage preferences, personal learning objectives and in particular interactivity and dialogue between members of the network.

Based on the discussions that took place early on during the introductory phases it seems pretty clear that we are a very heterogeneous mix in FOC08. This isn’t to say that diversity precludes the development of networks, but I do think that the interrelationships need to compliment one another. I think there are some areas of philosophical discord amongst the student populous in FOC08 that would arguably prevent an aggregated network from forming.

For example, those who argue for centralised management of learning via an LMS and those who advocate devolved learner-led models. I’m not trying to say that one has more merit than the other, merely that after a point the two are mutual exclusive viewpoints.

I also think networks take time to develop – especially when they’re very organic in nature as they are online. Just because networks aren’t (or may not be) clearly apparent now doesn’t mean they won’t emerge over time. I suspect your point about the vastness of the Internet might tie in here.

Thanks for the post, it’s motivating me to get back on track here 🙂

Cheers,

Mike