Have you ever read a couple of articles that just seem to pull everything together? I’ve just read a couple of articles, mentioned by the cogdogblog, sometimes known as Alan Levine. They are so great I have to pass the links along, even though my classroom is currently in a highly transitional state (that means its a complete shambles) and I need to prep for classes starting on Tuesday. Ah well, what is blogging if not a truly terrific way to procrastinate!
The first article is Educational Blogging by the ever illuminating Stephen Downes. Stephen is always lucid, relevant and engaging. Consider the following:
Despite obvious appearances, blogging isn’t really about writing at all; that’s just the end point of the process, the outcome that occurs more or less naturally if everything else has been done right. Blogging is about, first, reading. But more important, it is about reading what is of interest to you: your culture, your community, your ideas. And it is about engaging with the content and with the authors of what you have read—reflecting, criticizing, questioning, reacting. If a student has nothing to blog about, it is not because he or she has nothing to write about or has a boring life. It is because the student has not yet stretched out to the larger world, has not yet learned to meaningfully engage in a community. For blogging in education to be a success, this first must be embraced and encouraged.
Brilliant! Why do I blog? I blog because I have read something that has excited or aggravated me so much, that my brain can’t stop working on it, like a tongue being drawn to a loose tooth! When I feel this way, I can only fully understand something once I have written about it.
The second article is Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not by Brian Lamb. Brian is one of my favourite ed-tech bloggers, and this article shows him at his best – witty and informative. He presents a terrific overview of wikiness, how it can be utilized in education, and some of the thorny traps along the way.
Alan Levine mentions that both Stephen and Brian are Canadian. I don’t think this is a coincidence – we have a tendency to produce a goodly number of communications theorists and educational technologists here. I also know that both Stephen and Brian have a prairie connection – maybe it has something to do with the wide open skies providing good training for looking so far ahead!