Jun 06 2008
EdTech – Echo chamber or just another community?
The Edjurist Accord: The Ed. Tech Dominance of the Edublogosphere
While I agree with Justin on some of the aspects of his post (Lord knows I’ve railed about the ed-tech echo chamber before) I need to take a few minutes here to counter some of the points that both he and I have made before.
“…it is hard to bring in non-education tech. folks. It is a struggle just to get K-12 educators to visit blogs.”
Inspiring other future-tech (the term non-tech doesn’t sit well for some reason) teachers to follow blogs from the ed-tech space is challenging, yes, but not due to a failing of either community. When you’re new to a topic space you research and dig, looking for information and contacts who can assist you along the path of learning. The same thing occurs within the ed-tech space however there is an initial hurdle. Most of the information in the ed-tech space is shared using the very tools the future-tech teachers are trying to learn. It’s a catch-22 for most people.
“Second, largely the ed. tech. field seems to be expecting new bloggers to come to them. Why? Isn’t that the opposite of Goal #1 above? When you see the blogosphere as a competitive marketplace for ideas, other bloggers on different topics (who will probably not be giving you Technorati bumps) are competitors, no? Why promote another’s blog, especially a non-ed. tech. blog who is not going to reference you back? To me, that is the exact wrong way to visualize the education blogosphere if your goal is to nurture new edubloggers so that they can in turn help their students.”
I have to question this statement completely. The number of edubloggers who read and comment on the blogs of others is (in my completely unscientific estimate) proportionally higher than in other blog spaces. There is a sense of community and support obvious if you follow more than just the postings of the “big guys.” Bloggers such as Will Richardson and Stephen Downes put lots of content into the channel but also comment and encourage just as well. At least twice a week I’ll receive a Twitter posting touting a new edublogger who we should read, receive our comments, and support.
“I don’t blame ed. tech. folks for always pushing the envelop and wanting to try new things, that’s their job really, but it makes for a pretty scary learning curve that I am sure is discouraging to new bloggers.”
The possibilities may be intimidating, yes, but there are many, many edubloggers who write about the trials and tribulations of getting a blog off the ground and spreading the word. There’s a touch of vanity when it comes to monitoring your FeedBurner stats and your Technorati rating that adds a bit of thrill and anxiety to the task but when blogging we should all be thinking about the greater goal. If you’re producing content and sharing information that helps another succeed in being a better educator, that’s worth far, far more than any web metric.
“It is concerning to me that we are primarily using Web 2.0 devices to … talk about Web 2.0 devices.”
I’ll recommend this to anyone who feels this way: go to a couple blogs who you do follow now and look at their blogrolls (the list of blogs that author recommends.) It’s a great way to diversify your sources and see there is much more out in the ed-tech space than just the next Web 2.0 startup.
