Refining+the+Blogging+Component

Reading the chapters Brent copied from "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Tools for Classroom" has introduced me to the various options a blogger can decide whether or not to take advantage of. Kelli, I thought it might be helpful to articulate some of the options I read about here so you would know all of the possibilities and be able to choose what you and Darren may want to encourage in the blogging based on the goals of this particular SAI trip. Here are some of the options: **

These are just some of the options. Kelli, I thought their might be some that you and Darren would like encouraged, some possibly discouraged, and others that you may just want presented to the participants as an option. Food for thought : ) -- EH
 * 1) ** AUDIENC **** E ** - The participants could be encouraged to invite family, friends, and colleagues to read the blogs while we are in South Africa. The participants could encourage readers to comment on blog posts and choose whether to create an ongoing dialogue about the ideas in the posts. I think there are pro's and con's to this. One pro is that you have readers and are in a dialogue about the ideas you are posting. One possible con is participants minds may not feel as submerged in the South African experience b/c they are thinking about the people back home reading their posts. Kelli, maybe you would like to promote either cultivating an audience or not -- or just give participants the option of doing whichever they like.
 * 2) ** DIARY vs. BLOG ** - The participants could be encouraged to think about the blog as something different from a journal (a diary of personal reflections.) They could be encouraged to think in terms of their desired AUDIENCE. Instead of simply articulating ideas solely for their personal understanding, they are writing to convey to the larger world what they are experiencing. The writing will be different depending on whether the bloggers are thinking in terms of keeping a record for themselves or trying to communicate to to others what they are seeing and experiencing. Kelli, are there plans to use these blogs to promote future initiatives for the program? Depending on how you want to use these blogs in the future could affect whether you want participants focusing on writing for themselves or writing to be read by others. Certainly, a post that is geared to communicate can be filled with personal reflections. But a focus on communicating experiences to readers would probably encourage bloggers to clarify their thoughts, write more clearly, and make connections explicit.
 * 3) ** RESPONDING TO READINGS ** - The participants could be encouraged to make connections to // Knowledge in the Blood // and any other readings they've done in preparation for the SAI trip, or any reading they've ever done in their lives. This could enrich the reflections, building connections between the real-world/lived daily experiences in SA and what we've learned about the country academically.
 * 4) ** LINKS ** - The participants could be encouraged not only to post the pictures and videos they are taking on the trip, but also link to websites, documents, images, videos, other blogs, etc. that they reference in their posts. (Ex. Instead of only mentioning The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, creating a link to the actual document at the UN website.) This may come naturally to participants who are more social-media savy. Participants who are newer to the medium would probably need more encouragement. Kelli, you may want to encourage this or simply allow participants to do as they please.