Blogging Exercise: The 10-Minute Post
Jenny Mackness has unknowingly thrown down the gauntlet on a blogging exercise I think is very worthwhile and will be trying here into the foreseeable future. The idea is that you take 10 minutes – and 10 minutes only – and devote it to writing a post. The context of this idea is a video clip available on YouTube that was referenced in a recently The Daily, circulated by Stephen Downes.
Not having the clip right in front of me, I can’t be sure of the exact “rules” (if they can so be called) – so instead here are the guidelines that I’ll be following here:
- Thou shalt not plan your post in advance; it must come off the cuff in a stream of consciousness if need be.
- Thou shalt not edit the post after 10 minutes passes. When 10 minutes is up, the post is etched in stone. The only exception as I see it is if you need to correct a reference to an external source.
The point of this exercise is attributed to a couple of ideas.
First, honesty and sincerity in blogging. This is not to say that these notions don’t already exist in this blog, but rather serves as an exercise to further drive home the point. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
Following on that point, finding the conversation in blogging. Once again, this is not to say that blogging can’t be scholarly or intellectual – but that the medium of blogs speaks strongly to the notion of connecting with others. In that sense blog posts represent a gateway to discourse with others. By couching your ideas in an easily digestible language it facilitates the discussions that can occur in their wake. In my view the value to learning in blogs lay as much in a culture of considered commenting and conversation as it does in the formulation of the idea that inspires the discussion.
My 10 minutes is up.
