Week 2 - Task 1

Firstly blogging is different to real life seminars as it is unlikely all the students will be online at the same time and therefore any replies or remarks on eachothers blogs may not be read or replied to at that time, or even on the same day.

In seminars, there is always a teacher who leads the converstion/debate and even ensures r attendance to a certain degree. In r blogs, it's up to ourselves to make sure we contribute and keep our blogs up to date. This means we're all kind of equal. But in terms of our own blog we're in a way acting like the tutor as we are conducting the conversation and expecting responses/debate from other students.

With blogging, it means we can just post when we feel like we have thought about the tasks enough, rather than jus posting a lot of rubbish because we feel like we have to. Like in seminars sometimes when no one else speaks we find ourselves answering or speaking just to stop the silence even when what we have to say isn't completely relevant or the best answer we could think of. It is the same with replying to other peoples posts, you don''t necessarily have to answer straight away, you can go away and think about it and develop your opinion before replying. I like this, as sometimes when we're asked stuff in seminars we just say what comes straight in to our heads then later on think of something that would have been a much better response.

In real life seminars everyone tends to sit with their friends as well, whereas with blogs it makes it easier to communicate with eachother and find out what eachother thinks of certain things and their opinions on people's work. I also think this is good as because it is not face to face it is easier to disagree with eachother or form an opposing opinion. In real seminars sometimes we don't speak out as it seems easier just to agree with eachother, especially if it's someone we don't know very well.

In real life seminars it's possible to sit and get away with saying nothing, but it's also possible for 1 student to do all the talking and debating with the tutor. Online, we all have to say something because if we didn't our empty blogs would reflect the fact that we've done no work. But also one person can't manipulate and take over a whole blog.

As far as identity goes we all know eachother and we understand how eachother communicate. Especially with our close friends, we know how they'll explain stuff. Speaking in a conversational way on r blogs is also better with r close friends and people we know well as we know their speech style and can hear them in our heads explaining it. This can be helpful, rather than reading some1s blog who you don;t know that well and don't really know how they speak.