(title change – used to say “Why i’m not a blog-evangelist,” but the gist of the post changed before the end.l
I want to emphasize, once again, that I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Rosen and his work, and am not intending to pick on him. It’s just that his article has brought a series of issues to mind, and started some great conversations that I’ve had a chance to be part of. I hope that Mr. Rosen will see this (that is, assuming he does see it) as a conversation spurred on by his thoughts rather than opposed to them.
I got blindsided in a discussion with some colleagues last night. We we’re sitting at the bar, casually talking about some soccer tournament ( 🙂 ) and he turns to me and says “how can you say that blogging is going to democratize the world?” And I said… “excuse me?” we debated, and i was a little taken aback by his enthusiasm for the topic. He explained to me that someone had told him this and he thought it was poppycock. And he was darn tired of everyone telling him he needed to do it. His classes are fine he says, he’s a purist.
Now… blogging is great. I’m writing this, you are reading it. We like blogs. That liking can turn the corner into proselitization, and certainly in the case of this friend of mine, it REALLY TURNED HIM OFF. We eventually came to a common ground once i clearly stated my concerns regarding blogging. It took us about 30 minutes to find that common ground, and, for posterity, i thought i would try and record some of what we worked out here…
Blogging (in its wordpress type form) is probably a transitional technology.
At the moment blogging allows for only a pretty rudimentary interactivity. There is one (or several) central characters, and then peripheral characters. You might argue that in the case of a classroom blog, everybody is a member and primary contributor, but i would say that a learning landscape is better technology for that.
It can, very often, lack accountability
A very clear example of this is during the o’reilly debate some nefarious dude kept coming in and posting that o’reilly was a chaild mohlester. No name. no recourse. Also, people can start a blog on any number of blogging sites and remain anonymous and then slander people.
It is not, by any means, a silver bullet
There are many situations where a blog won’t suit the needs of the given person.
No one (at least not me) is suggesting that blogging should replace good teaching
Blogging, in and of itself, will solve nothing. It will neither make a bad teacher good, nor will it save terrible curriculum. It is one, potentially important or central, but still one piece of the puzzle.
There are still a number of very important social justice issues around blogging that stop it from being the IDEAL democracy tool.
One is access. Can’t get to a computer, you can’t blog. Don’t have time? can’t blog. The second is the requisite literacy set. If you can’t understand Mr. Rosen’s style of English, or don’t understand the western conventions of argumentation, you can’t play. No matter how much you want to.
Yes. Many of the most vocal bloggers will probably one day work for major media corps.
However
There is blogging and there is blogging. Good blogging is bound into a community. A community where people aren’t anonymous and are rewarded (read) according to the quality of their work. This is good. Also, it does mean that we have a media that is not controlled in its voice sense, by money. Nasty comments can be moderated out. And blogging can give voices to many people. It can, in its own way, contribute to a more democratic world.
After we established these premises, we had a very productive conversation, and I might have convinced him of a situation in which blogging would be of use in his classroom. To some people telling them they need to do something like blogging, is tantamount to saying they aren’t currently doing enough. We are all salespeople in the new media revolution. We need to be realistic about what we say the technology can do so we can keep encouraging those middle adopters to join the party.
Dave,
Your posting and your response to Stephen struck a chord with me. When you wrote,”We are all salespeople in the new media revolution,” I felt that you really understood the reality of many students and teaching practitioners.
I teach pre-service and practicing teachers about educational uses of the Internet. Having taught in a public school classroom for over 30 years, and also been a student myself during many of those years, I know that for both teachers and students TIME is a very valuable commodity. In order to encourage teachers to buy into using educational technology, we have to really be salespersons, showing them the pedagogical benefits of using certain tools while recognizing that these tools must be used as judiciously as any other teaching methods. We also have to acknowledge to them that specific tools are transitional. The important point is for them to realize the interactive nature of the changing classroom and be willing to try out some tools that will help them test and become comfortable with that idea by using one or two tools. That takes some real salesmanship!