Blogagogy and the troubling of the spheres

The whole issue of public/private writing that blogs seem to trouble in interesting ways has been on my mind ever since Marcia quietly pointed out to me (over email) that I seemed to be saying something I didn't mean in my 8010 syllabus:

"The individual weblog is mainly a space for you to talk to yourself: to think through ideas, puzzle over ideas, etc."

But how mainly a space to talk to self if self is talking in a public space? Indeed. I do think there's a distinction to be made between a collective blog and an individual blog (which is the distinction I was groping toward), but the distinction can't really be a traditional expressive/transactional distinction. Surely collective blogs also allow for what's been called "expressive" discourse--language for working out ideas rather than for getting things done. But expressive discourse also always gets something done; it's just that if we don't show it to anyone, it's not doing much for another one.

What's lost, though, by making the analogy between a paper diary or journal and an individual blog is the sense of interaction that Marcia and some of the folks over in Collin's class are talking about. (I know I should ping but don't know that I've quite figured that one out yet.) The idea of "getting out of the way" is a sort of bizarre belief that writing is, despite the collective work we do in a class, really a matter of the individual genius doing work. Wouldn't want to mess with that.

So now I regret telling the folks in my 8010 class that I wouldn't comment on their individual blogs unless they asked me to. I've also apparently established myself as being outside of the collective blog, too, though I think I could probably join in without too much of a big deal. I like what Derek says about "writing alongside students, engaging in dialogue with their writing, and offering links to other conversations that might do any number of things to shape, guide and coach." This makes much more sense than the idea of "writing without teachers" or "the withering away of the teacher," concepts I've critiqued in my writing but seem to nonetheless continue to try to practice. The teacher can't wither away, anyway, and by being this silent lurker on student blogs really comes to seem more like a Big Brother (or Sister, I guess), keeping an eye out to make sure the work is being done (hello Foucault!). And, lest we forget, Freire never told us to wither away. He said to dialogue. And the teacher isn't exactly dialoguing if the teacher is only reading, never writing back. In fact, the lack of writing back only reinforces the difference of the teacher.

What do I do???

See, Marcia--you're absolutely right. This is why instructors should do a modicum of research before jumping on the blog wagon.

(But, hey--does that third ping work? Maybe I do know how to ping.)
Answer: No, it doesn't. No, you don't. Have to work on that another day.