31-Day Blog Challenge

I found this challenge at:
http://www.theedublogger.edublogs.org/2008/04/30/commenting-learning-and-the-comment-challenge/
through Michelle Martin's blog, the Bamboo Project. It is a challenge to help us become better bloggers and hopefully bring us out of our own little "groups". There are prizes and activities you must complete daily for the next 31 days. I have completed the first two days without signing up. But I have managed to run into trouble very quickly - I can't figure out how to sign up on the wiki! Actually, that is quite funny, joining a challenge I can't even figure out how to sign up for! Off to a rip-roaring start! lol

The entire reason I actually decided to sign up on the challenge was because my faculty associate, Betty Gilgoff, from Simon Fraser University's (SFU) TLITE (Teaching in a Technological Environment) field studies program was in town today and I finally managed to check out her TLITE website http://tlite.edublogs.org/ where she had invited the TLITE students to join this 31-day blogging challenge.

What have I learned so far in my self-audit:
I really found the comment from Gina Trapani's blog "...like being in someone's living room and joining a conversation" very enlightening. For me it was a great way to think about commenting on blogs and also explained why I find it difficult. I'm not that outgoing and I am both careful and hesitant about joining in conversations with others, most especially with people I don't know. So I almost never comment on blogs.

Of the guidelines she gave, I found make the tone of your message clear, a stand out for me. This has kept me off commenting and, for the longest time, off forums. I had enough trouble with this in emails. I had a real "Yikes!" moment emailing a parent from my class when the tone of the email was untendedly misunderstood in a negative manner. Boy, learned quick from that little error. Discovered that smiley faces can do wonders!

Other things I have learned so far:
1. I can't figure out how to sign up on the challenge wiki! Painful!
2. There is netiquette to blogging. I don't want to be seen as a virtual
"Tom Cruise-jumping-on-Oprah's-couch" type commenter.
3. We tend to stick to our own little communities and that "bridging" between communities is
great for sharing ideas between different professions and/or interest groups.

Day 2
Have I commented on a blog I've never commented on? Only two so far, first Michelle Martin's and the TLITE online. I read the netiquette bit by Gina Trapani after I did the first comment. Hmmm, should have read that first!

Trying to catch up: Tomorrow - figuring out how to get a comment tracking service. Hopefully that goes smoother than signing up on a wiki! :)

And if you are part of The Comment Challenge remember to add the comment08 tag to your post. (I hope I did this right.)