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Mark Bernstein, Phil Wolff, Nathan Edelman and Pat are a part of a panel on the importance of Web logs with writing, and it’s spurring some pretty good threads dealing with the issues of implementation, privacy, plagiarism, etc. One obvious issue that I’m noticing is the difference between personal blogging and educational blogging, especially on the K-12 level. A lot of us use Web logs with our students, but how many of us really have students that are “blogging” in the essential sense? In fact, the question may even be can our students really “blog” at all given the limitations imposed by school districts and the fears of teachers and administrators? I’m not discounting the worth of using Web logs to teach writing (and other things), but I guess the distinction to remember is that we’re really not teaching blogging. My issue is that I’d love to teach blogging…

Mark Bernstein thinks that blogging is going to evolve in to something very different from what it is now: “This is the way we did it for a couple of years when we didn’t have a clue.”
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John Dvorak of PC Magazine skewers Web logs, and I mean skewers.

Writing is tiresome. Why anyone would do it voluntarily on a blog mystifies a lot of professional writers. This is compounded by a lack of feedback, positive or otherwise. Perseus thinks that most blogs have an audience of about 12 readers. Leaflets posted on the corkboard at Albertsons attract a larger readership than many blogs. Some people must feel the futility. The problem is further compounded by professional writers who promote blogging, with the thought that they are increasing their own readership. It’s no coincidence that the most-read blogs are created by professional writers. They have essentially suckered thousands of newbies, mavens, and just plain folk into blogging, solely to get return links in the form of the blogrolls and citations. This is, in fact, a remarkably slick grassroots marketing scheme that is in many ways awesome, albeit insincere.

Sheesh…it couldn’t be that he’s worried about his boring old print job, could it?

People are starting to arrive to the Sunday conversations, and I’m really psyched. Last night at Fort Mason was great…good food, some live guitar playing in the background, and a lot of great conversation. (For some great pics, go to the unofficial NCTE EdWeblogs site.) My highlights were meeting some people who can count me as a fan: Karen McComas, Tom Hoffman, Terry Elliot, Jake Savin, Al Delgado, Cathie English, Josh Allen and others. We had some pretty serious (yet fun) early conversations on things like the creation of a tool just for teachers and schools, barriers to entry for teachers, what the future holds and more. I’m looking forward to today as I think it’s going to generate a whole slate of other conversations we need to start having if we’re going to make this happen. Unfortunately, the connection is a bit spotty, so post during the sessions may not be happening. But I’m sure there will be much to say later today.
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