Can blogging be taught?

I might have asked myself that question before jumping into a class that was devoted exclusively to just such an endeavor last semester, but since I already teach things that supposedly can't be taught (writing, teaching of writing), the question never occurred to me. (And, anyway, we all know questions like that are just a nasty Platonic diversion.)

But now that Marissa, who was in the blogging class, has asked in the comments below,

i wondered if you could suggest some blogs...you know, the smart people blogs about blogging and other smart people things....good examples are the ones i used to comment about on the class blog

my first impulse is to respond: well, heck, the class blog is still up and running! (Although inactive since May.) Take a look at that. The reading schedules are still posted in the sidebar, even. You've got the basics here, and then the "smart" readings on networks here. But that's all old news, of course. I myself like the smart people in my blogroll, so I recommend them, too.

And a few of the folks from the class are still blogging, even.
KR, now in Philadelphia where she'll be doing graduate work at Penn, has been the most active. Megan is blogging on her original site, which preceded the class. (She's archived the blog she kept for the class, and she has a cool page that provides a timeline of changes to her blogging.) Amy also has blogged a bit, and another person or two has added a random entry over the course of the summer. So that's 3 or 4 out of a class of 14, which isn't a big percentage, but better than nothing. And I have no idea how many might possibly be like Marissa, who is blogging elsewhere. (But I gotta beg you, Marissa, blog somewhere else!)

One of the things about the class that I felt never got off the ground as well as it might have was commenting. I just finished teaching a summer literature class, and we had a class blog. Everyone was required to post to it about three times each week and to comment in response to at least four other posts each week. Of course, some comments were meatier than others, but for the most part this strategy worked really, really well. I found them referring to each other's blog entries even in their own entries, and often the comments became cumulative, as each new respondent commented on the previous comment. Getting the commenting going is absolutely crucial to effective blogging. So in order to get back into blogging, Marissa, I highly recommend doing what you did here: comment! Comment a lot. It oils the gears. Eventually, you'll realize your comments could just as well be entries on your own blog. There you go. You're blogging again!

And something that I admire in Debbie's blogging practices and that I don't do enough of is commenting in response to other's comments. (I blame my lame computer or browser or something that I could probably fix: I can't comment on my own blog while I'm at home!) Michael Bérubé does this nicely, too (the commenting, not the lame excusing), as do any number of my fellow bloggers. It keeps the conversation a real conversation. Very Burkean. I think next time I assign blogs (which will, no doubt, be the next time I teach), I'm going to build that feature into the requirements, too.

And that, Marissa, is what I have to say about getting back into blogging, even though it's a little off the topic of what you actually asked for.