WebedtecH

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.

Here’s some excellent insights into the benefits of student blogging.  Perhaps the issue isn’t that there’s benefit from the mechanics but rather the term "blogging" has been attached to too many negatives over the years.

• EduBlog Insights » Blog Archive » Rationale for educational blogging

  • There are many skills and concepts that need to be addressed to effectively help teachers learn to use blogs throughout their curriculum to foster these new literacies. It is not just a matter of transferring classroom writing into digital spaces. Teachers need to address writing for a public audience, how to cite and link and why, how to use the comment tool in pedagogical ways, how to read web materials more efficiently as well as explore other ways to consider pedagogical uses of blogs. Blogging requires us to teach students to critically engage media. Students need instruction on how to become efficient navigators in these digital spaces where they will be obtaining a majority of their information.
  • Blogging engages students in conversation and learning.

One of the biggest addictions in the blogging world stems from the company who’s motto is “do no evil.” Google Analytics and it’s ilk feed the ego needs of many a blogger. They’re driven to check their stats over and over, trying to coax one more visitor out, pondering and mulling over how to get a little more traffic to their blog.

Bah. If you’re going to use analytics (not just Google’s but anybody’s) then use it for the right reasons.

Search terms

Most SEO (search engine optimization) snake oil salesmen will try to convince you on the wonders that is meta-tagging, long tail search terms, blah, blah, blah. If you’re really trying to create a blog that delivers value (see Gallagher - “totally new concept!”) then look at your incoming search terms for what they are…the words people used to find your site. Remember though there’s nothing that says they were LOOKING for your site. Yours just happended to match the words they keyed into their search engine of choice. You can use this to improve the quality of your blog by writing and gathering content matching the interests of your visitors. If your most popular posting over time is “streaming video cell phone” then you have some insight into the types of readers you’re drawing in.

Feed vs. visitor

If you’re pumping out an RSS feed from your blog (and you better be if you know what’s good for it) you need to combine the traffic metrics from your feed with your site to get a more accurate picture of your readers. Think about how you use a reader. Do you go to every site on every feed or do you read the article and move on? If you do the second then you move the counter on the feed but aren’t counted as a site visitor even though you may find wonderful information in the article you read.

No instant gratification

You will learn more about your readers and your blog by tracking single articles over time rather than your whole site on a given day. Take a popular article and look at it over the course of a month. Does it cycle? Is there building interest? Was it a flash in the pan? All these kinds of questions help you gauge how future content will be rececived by your audience.

Cause and effect

If you’re like me and have hooked your Wordpress to Twitter you can see the direct correlation between a posting and the response it gets. There’s a strategy called “A-B testing” where you have users compare the same thing with only a singular variable changed and determine which is more popular. Titles are great example of this. Take an old posting that wasn’t all that popular and come up with a new, exciting title and repost it. More often than not you’ll see a bump of traffic corresponding with the title change.

Conclusion

Use analytics for what they’re intended. Gather data, interpret, and take action. If you want a telethon tote board, add a site counter to your site and stroke your ego. If you want to improve your blog…you now know what to do.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the recent chatter in the edublogsphere (made up word) about the “cocktail party” and “echo chamber” for writing and being read as part of this community. I think it’s time we shift our thinking. Rather than wasting time worrying whether the bloggerati (another made up word) are following what you have to say and the profound effect it is or is not having on the world at large, let’s focus on the the people we can truly make an impact with…the teachers and staff we deal with on a daily basis. Strategic planning and conceptual models are good for creating mission statements and visions but if they’re never followed up by operational discussions, implementation plans, and success reviews we’ve become nothing more than pointy-haired managers avoiding real responsibility and accountability for making a difference in education.

If you want something to write about of value, get away from the theory and “fluffy thinking” rampant in ed-tech and concentrate on the practical, tactical aspects of what can be done to deliver more value to the students and staff. Digital citizenship, immigrants vs. natives, and all the 30,000 foot discussions floating around the internet deliver little practical value to the students and staff members who are trying to make this stuff work day in and day out. If you want to be read write about something worth reading such as the successes you’ve had implementing certain technologies or better yet the challenges you encountered and how you overcame them.

Based on this I am stepping away from the theoretical discussions. I leave those to the experts. I’m a strategist with an eye for implementation and that’s where I’m focusing my time, my writing, and my blog from now on. As for the cocktail party…I’ll be down the street having a coffee at the diner.

I’ve started using Diigo to generate more content for my blog.  Here’s a basic diagram of how it’s working right now:

Once a bookmark is grabbed it can be sent through as a blog posting.  It also shows up as part of my Diigo tag cloud and my Diigo bookmark tag roll.  The blog editor is a little weak, but the overall solution is robust and easy to use.