The open web is a place where everyone has a voice – a place for ideas, conversations, and sharing.  However, when we “exist online” mainly inside our mobile apps, being fed a algorithm-driven diet of content based on our likes and other in-app activity, we lose sight of the importance of the democratic web.

Bloggers take time to share learning and thinking openly on the web, but this content rarely gets eyeballs inside corporately-owned sites like Facebook.

It’s exciting, motivating, thought-provoking, and encouraging to get comments on a blog post.  It means someone has read your work, considered it, and taken the time to share back.

 

If we value the open voices of bloggers who share, we need to take time to read their work and engage in important conversations.

Last month, Tina Zita encouraged us all to blog more regularly with her #10days10posts challenge

As we move into February, let’s show our love for Ontario education bloggers (#ontedblogs) by committing to comment on 5 blogs (or more) between now and February 14.

If you have never commented on a blog, now is a great time to get started in this important professional practice!

 

Here’s how it works:

As a blogger, share a link to your post on #ontedblogs

As a commenter,

  1. Find a recent blog post written by an #onted educator (resources below)
  2. Read the post.
  3. Carefully consider what you might share back, and leave a comment on the blog (suggestions and guidelines here)
  4. Share a link to the post with your comment on Twitter using the #ontedblogs hashtag (consider also #onted)
  5. Consider sharing links to all of the posts you commented on, on your own blog.  This helps draw attention and traffic to the posts.

It only takes a few minutes to leave a comment, and it means the world to a blogger.

There might even be prizes, awarded on Valentine’s Day, for the most prolific and effective commenters….

 

 

Sites to help find #OntedBlogs:

Ontario Edubloggers by Doug Peterson

This Week in Ontario Edublogs (Doug Peterson)

Lots of blogs in the sidebars on the OSSEMOOC site

 

 

Featured image by Wesley Fryer under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

 

Resources:

Using blogs to connect students – Heather Theijsmeijer

Teach Quality Commenting Skills (Edublogs)

TEN MINUTES OF CONNECTING: DAY 15 – COMMENTING ON BLOGS – from the OSSEMOOC series on Connected Leadership

 

One thought on “Showing Our Love for Bloggers – #ontedblogs”

Leave a comment