Day 6- Engage another Commenter in Discussion
Day 6: Engage another Commenter in Discussion
Darren Draper on Drape’s Takes blogged about Edublogger Etiquette - Student Blogging. Since I just finished a blogging session with my after school TechClub, I was very interested in the
Darren poses the following questions to his readers:
- Must precautions be taken when posting student information to blogs (and/or other websites)?
- Is there a set of rules that one could follow that would ensure that proper publishing protocol is followed, independent of the blogger’s national, state, district, or school restrictions?
- What are your rules for publishing information related to children that you know?
I responded with the following comment:
I started blogging with about 14 TechClub students after school. Each had to create an avatar and an online identity. They were no images of themselves, they had to refer to themselves AND their club-mates by their blog identity and all comments and posts were monitored by me.
I agree with @bookjewel when he/she says “Parents often fear what they don’t understand so this part of the process is vital.”
I held a parent information meetings (not well attended) and I also invited parents in for a few minutes when they were picking their kids up after the club to summarize what we were doing.
@coach burk wrote”Parents are naive to think just because you post to a blog the whole pedophile world will come after their child. They are also naive to think that they are safe in that no one knows can ever find out any information about them. There are much more public access documents people could use to track them down then some school Blog.”
@bookjewel and @coach burk: What else do you think we can do to teach parents alongside their students to lower their fear factors and educate them?
I made sure that coComment was tracking the conversation, so I can follow any responses to these questions.
Here is the official task description:
Often, the “conversations” on a blog occur between a commenter and the blogger. That is, commenters will read and respond to a post, addressing their responses to the blogger. Conversations can become richer, though, if we also respond to other commenters. This means that we have to also start reading the previous comments on a post, something many commenters admit they don’t do.
For today’s task, courtesy of Bill Ferriter , you are going to engage another commenter in conversation. Find a post where other people have commented before you and then respond to something one of the commenters has said. The netiquette for doing this is to address your post “@blog commenter” (inserting the person’s name where I’ve referred to “blog commenter”) so the commenter knows you’re referring to him/her. If you’d like, respond to more than one commenter. Also consider this advice from Bill:Begin by quoting some part of the comment that you are responding to help other listeners know what it is that has caught your attention. Then, explain your own thinking in a few short sentences. Elaboration is important when you’re trying to make a point. Finally, finish your comment with a question that other listeners can reply to.
Questions help to keep digital conversations going!
When responding to another reader, don’t be afraid to disagree with something that they have said. Challenging the thinking of another reader will help them to reconsider their own thinking—and will force you to explain yours! Just be sure to disagree agreeably—impolite people are rarely influential.
If your thinking gets challenged by another reader in a blog conversation, don’t be offended. Listen to your peers, consider their positions and decide whether or not you agree with them. You might discover that they’ve got good ideas you hadn’t thought about. Either way, be sure to respond—let your challengers know how their ideas have influenced you.
Be sure to track your comment so you can see whether or not the person responds to you. Observe what happens. How does the blogger respond? How does the commenter respond? If you blog about the experience, be sure to use the “comment08″ tag on your post.
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May 8th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Hey Sylvia,
Glad that my commenting advice proved helpful in the Comment Challenge—which BTW has been a blast for me. While I’m not tracking the number of comments I make, I’m making a committed effort to read and comment every day—which has been a neat change in orientation for me.
Here’s an interesting question about engaging others in conversation in the comment section that has been rumbling through my head the last few days:
Do you think digital disagreements are less likely in edublogger conversations simply because of the egalitarian ethos of the schoolhouse?
Here’s what I mean….In a school building, to publically disagree with the fundamental work of anyone else in the building is pretty taboo. We’ve convinced ourselves for years that everyone is equal—which means that no one person’s ideas/decisions are more valuable or accurate or important than anyone elses.
Translating that to the digital world, wouldn’t that lead to a bunch of agreement—or simple lack of participation—in the conversations being held on line?
I only ask because I see the spirited conversations that take place on blogs aimed at other audiences and wonder why they aren’t more common on blogs in the edublog community.
Hmmnn—-
Bill
May 9th, 2008 at 2:32 am
To invite someone in a conversation, you can use coComment and share the conversation with a user (email or coComment nickname), or a group, or a social service.