I did it for my MPhil…and will do it again for my PhD. Maybe I should have started…maybe in a way I have already, although having changed PhD research topics recently brought me back to square zero where my doctoral research is concerned…which is not the same to say that my learning ventures up to know (in trying to find my feet) were useless. No, no, no…they were quite helpful and I still engage with the topic I wanted to do research on in my 1st year: Informal Teacher training… ( as a follow up of my previous research project)

Blogging…once you start it for real, you do not stop. Nevertheless, sometimes you might need to take a break. That is what I did, not really because I was tired of blogging, but because I needed a break from myself …stay away from my research for a minute or two, and try to figure out what it meant for me. I am back, and slowly writing again in public. As I said last week at the Online Educa Berlin Conference, where I presented about the Digital Storyteller, my blog is where I voice my opinions for others to read and comment on. It is where I write a story in progress…and story that is mine, but equally a journey that in shared with many more. Blogging not only enables me to learn what others think about the topics I am interested in, it also helps me to learn about what I know… does this make any sense….? What I mean to say is that while writing I discover things (thoughts, ideas, conclusions) I never thought I could come up with…the process of writing is one of self-discovery, of maturing of ideas and of exercising my critical thinking in a progressive way.
Not less important is the fact that while doing so I benefit from the ‘reactions of the community/ the networks’… those who read and share their comments with me. They too constitute valuable lessons…even if/when we sometimes disagree or share different point of views.
Finally, blogging is possible my most private, yet public, window into my inner world, which both ‘stranger’ and friends have access to.
And your blog’s title says exactly what I feel about my blogging venture: it represents a silence voice which I need to hear…and which needs to be heard. By making it available to others, it is amplified to an extend that otherwise would not be possible. (I am very quiet in conferences, I like to take it in, to listen and then reflect and ask the questions in my thinking corner…I guess this is my blog!

Great post..I will have to blog more about it later! 😉