Dear Mr. Richardson:
I am happy to report that your manuscript, “Web Logs in the English
Classroom: More Than Just Chat,” has been accepted for publication in English Journal. In an effort to correspond in a timely fashion, your official acceptance letter has been attached to this email…

Ok, I’m stunned. And happy. (And I hate the title.) And the best part…I think there’s still more to come…soon. (Update: The article will run in the September issue.)

As an aside, Dave Winer in the latest Newsweek says

We’re in a middle of an explosion right now. In the last few weeks, things have just gone crazy. It’s unbelievable to see what’s going on now…It’s in the air. Maybe it is. When we look back, it’s going to be hard to tell which one of all the different things that are going on [had the most impact]. But there’s just a lot more interest in Weblogs right now. From all corners.

Time to watch, think, and plan carefully…

I’ve gotten a smattering of e-mails in the last few days from teachers wanting to know more about Web logs and blogging. I think more and more people are starting to catch on to the potential, and I also think this is a great opportunity for eBN to establish itself as the support network it’s intended to be. The new look Web site, the publicity of late, and all of our good thinking seems to be gelling together at the right time.

Anne includes some excerpts of e-mails she’s been exchanging with teachers across the country, and one strikes me:

Some say weblogs would certainly lead to some revolutions in publishing given the speed it grows. I’m not that worried. However, I do want to try some blogging. I’m wondering whether those who have tried can share their experience of implementing weblogs in teaching.

That is exactly what eBN is about…I’m wondering if Pat or others have some ideas for beginning to gather that content, and whether we need to solicit some article ideas, set some deadlines, and just develop the content in general. Suggestions?
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There is a convergance happening in my brain (a scary thought to begin with) with this whole RSS piece and the other nascent multimedia Web log work we’ve been engaging in lately. Pam’s been audioblogging, and today Tim includes a video clip into his post. in Jenny’s “Aggregating Your Life Into One Page” post yesterday, one of the comments she got was from Ryan Greene who said

Jenny - You forgot getting feeds from your favorite bands as to their new releases and remixes, new episodes of video and audio blogs, including the kid’s school reports. I mean, why not teach your kids how to do multimedia blogging if the tech is there, and they have an interest in learning to use it?

This morning, George is writing about meeting the needs of different types of learners, and he says

Text, interactive activities, video clips, Flash presentations, audio, discussion threads, chat sessions, synchronous presentations, reflective journals (or blogging), self-test activities, group presentations, etc…if these (and other components) are used throughout course development (within reason…and for a reason) and instruction - learners will learn.

Then, Marc Canter, in an interview on the Corante site, says

5% of the populace (probably even less) can create. The others watch, listen, read, consume. I think one of the destinies of digital technology is to enable the other 95% to express their creativity somehow. That’s the gestalt view. Digital cameras, story telling, assembling stuff from existing content, annotating, reviews, conversations, linking topics together - are all forms of creativity. That’s what our tools are all about. There’s plenty of image, audio and video editing software out there. Now is the time to integrate and aggregate media, communications and personal publishing.

I always love when things just seem to connect like that, and one of the best things about Web logs is the ability to bring that connection into formal existence and to think more deeply about it in writing. (I need to ask my students to do more of this.)

I still haven’t digested the implications of all of this, and I think someday it’s going to be interesting (to me at least) to look back on these posts and watch the evolution of this still fuzzy picture into reality. How cool is that going to be?
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