On Cat Blogging, Self and Authority

Stephen Downes' observations on "Cat Blogging" are important and have made me return and think more of our recent experiment in undergraduate blogging.

While our students were keeping blogs I have no doubt that some of the most thoughtful reflective observations on personal learning came from those students who were able to "reveal something of themselves". It was through their writing about self that their understanding of personal learning emerged.
The students who told us little or nothing about themselves tended to be those whose blog entries simply reported what had been done.
Conversely there were those who wrote much about themselves but little about their learning.

What did Socrates say?

In the blogosphere and in print media we come across many who write with authority but tell us little about themselves. We often need to ask the question "who says?"
Read this little article from last Sunday's Independent.
"Birds and bees are hit by phone waves"

What questions do you want to ask? Here are mine.

• What reports?
• Who claims?
• Who is Debi Jones? an authority on bees, birds, mobile phones, electrosmog?

Now read this little article (via Kottke) on "The Dangers of Bread"

Scared?