Blog – sociosphere or semiosphere?

Reflection triggered by yet another comment from Tom Erik Holteng (min digitale hverdag)

The idea of utilizing blogging for educational purposes seems to be not a bad idea. But, … there are always some “BUTS”. I’d like to refer to the “but” related to “social” factors that could create “barriers” for blogging. Some claim they are not social enough to expose their ideas to “public”. And I have a bit of a problem with this particular problem. I have a problem working out if we’ve got here a problem with social interaction or a problem with the content we are supposed to put into the messages expected from us (e.g. with reference to educational tasks). Social interaction is one thing and creation of meaning to solve a problem (whether socially or not) is another thing. I do agree with the opinion that teachers to be should be developing social skills in the course of their studies so that they make true professionals (and I expand on that belief in the post Utilizing Simple Media to Develop Deep Approach to Learning), blogging will only help develop these skills. Social skills are  practical in their nature (by the very definition of the term skills), and blogging is “PURE” practice (social practice of communication), and this “challenge” shouldn’t be avoided by teacher students.  I’d like to attract your attention to the notion of semiosphere and provoke reflection on how it relates to social functioning.