Moving in every direction

It’s obvious that the typology I proposed earlier on research approaches to blogging is too simple, though I’ve just found something similar in an article from 2005 (Lawson-Borders, G. & Kirk, R. (2005). “Blogs on Campaign Communication,” in American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 548, Dec 2005, Sage). They distinguish three approaches to research on blogging: Blogs as social diaries, blogs as organizational tools and blogging viewed as a sort of participatory journalism.

From the perspective of educational science something is missing in that list(: On the other hand: blogs as organizational tools is quite similar (or identical) to using blogs in educational contexts, when this means using them as a form of LMS (Learning Management System). But there is another strand within educational research that is focusing on the language use in blogs, and how blogging may boost the learning of literacy (for instance Huffaker, D. A. (2004). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom)

In surveying the field one could also use other distinctions. Descriptive research differs from prescriptive (action oriented) research (though the lines may be blurry). Some see potential changes in their branch (typically journalism). Some see another chance for preaching about technological enhancement of learning and educational processes. It is somewhat self-oriented to only ask what a new thing might do to you. It is somewhat upside down to continually ask what new things may to for you.

At the moment I’m progressing without direction; getting closer to a target that surrounds me, rather than being some specific point. And maybe Monty Python's Quest for the holly grale wasn't just absurd after all?

Bateson again

Once I was very interested I cybernetics and the application of this approach to the human sciences. I read Bateson and liked his high flying ideas. He uses his concepts and principles all over the place, from cells via human communication to evolution. It’s full of insight and very far out. If you are curious about cybernetics, The principia Cybernetica page is a nice place to start.

I don’t know if any of that will help me now, but there is hope of using some of the ideas in discussing socio cultural theories of participation. At least I think so. Jay Lemke shares many of his interesting thoughts one his pages (a lot of drafts and some finished work of his is there). He seems willing to go beyond the “blind man and stick” analogy in applying Batesonian theory to research on Internet communication and learning conditions in the knowledge/information society.

Bateson’s learning theory is especially interesting here. Yrjö Engeström saw this in the early 80’s, but it is somewhat swallowed by the activity theory and ends up losing it´s biological aspects. But things may change

Blog research

I’ve been writing about research on blogging in general and have tried to summarize in four broad categories: 1) Blogging as a new form of, or at least a very special challenge to, journalism. 2) Blogging as writing “an inside-out diary,” a more traditional understanding of what’s going on in a blog, focusing on things like identity and identity construction. 3) Blogs as tools or, more correct, as potential tools, in schools or other organizational contexts. 4) Blogging as participation in different sub-cultures or discourses, a more socio-cultural view.

Any comments on this are of great interest to me, of course. I know that people have tried different taxonomies on blogs, ranging from rough differentiation to high resolution. This is next on my agenda, but surveying the field should, the way I see it, include a description of different “entrance-points,” so I will first try out the four “streams” described here, before I connect it to the categorization of blogs.

One way to “try it out” is writing about it here, I guess. And I really advise you to click on the link at the beginning leading to “the introduction of the iRack.”