When Does a Blog Become a Web Site?...

When does a blog become a Web site? I've been asking myself that question the last little while as I take a look at my blog and at the blogs of friends and those that I read on a regular basis. When I started writing my blog it was just that - a place to write down some thoughts - sort of a blank journal. It had a couple of extras - my profile, a picture of me and the Blog archive - neat, clean, no fuss, no muss.

Now look at my blog - at last count there were 19 different things, widgets, components, add-ons, whatever you want to call them - from links to blogs I read, my wiki, my Flickr site, my Facebook profile, blog aggregator sites like Technorati, Feedburner, Netvibes, PageFlakes, and EduSpaces. I can chat through Meebo and stay in touch with Twitter. I can tell how many people are reading my blog through ClustrMaps (come on people where are you?), and I even have pictures of my favourite bloggers on my blog through Feevy.

When did my blog get so crowded anyway? It all just sort of snuck up on me. The other thing is now whenever I set up a profile in Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn or any other social media site, I always put my blog as my web site. I own a domain but haven't done anything with it (I really should) because I'm not a really big fan of "vanity" Web sites. But if you take a look at my blog - vanity thy name is...Me! Hmmm...

Presents? Oh... You Said "Presence"!

I've been in Second Life now for about nine months or so and have become convinced that it has great educational potential. Part of the reason why I think this has to do with presence (and not presents unfortunately).

The two most common ways of communicating in Second Life are chat (public and local) and IM (private and across

the grid).These are also two of the most common ways that we communicate in the current suites of online course tools - LMSs, CMSs, etc.. But there is something different about chat and IM in Second Life. It does not feel (to me anyway) to be as disembodied or remote as it does in Moodle, Blackboard, or a similar online learning environment.

Part of this is, I believe, a direct result of the visual nature of Second Life, but more importantly its immersive nature. Ask anyone who has spent any time in Second Life and they all comment on how fast time went by - it is an immersive, experiential environment and your avatar gives you presence that does not exist in other online learning tools (yes I believe that Second Life is an online learning tool).

So is presence important in learning? Does all learning have to be face-to-face in order to work? I think that the answer to the first question is yes, and the answer to the second one is a definite no. There are all sorts of examples of very successful online learning opportunities, and legions of happy learners to prove it. But does presence add something to the experience? That is the question that needs answering. I certainly believe that it does, but I have no proof other than my own opinion and experiences and that of several like-minded friends and colleagues.

If presence does add to a learning environment, what are the implications for us as adult educators? How will we have to offer online learning opportunities if we need to have presence? Will Second Life and similar MUVEs spell the end of the current crop of LMS and other online learning systems? Will future online learning environments include a visual component to add presence? Can there be presence without a visual interface? Hmmm...

(Photo from BunchofPants)