So the news is that my essay in Edutopia last October “The New Face of Learning” is a finalist for a “Maggie” award which is given to the best writing and design in publications west of the Mississippi. I have to say it’s pretty heady to be listed among work from seriously big name magazines like PC World, Mother Jones, Sierra and others. And for some reason, almost even moreso than writing the book, it’s brought home that fact that I am, finally, the writer I always wondered if I could become.
While my lack of blogging of late has primarily been because of a crazy travel schedule and my desire to actually play with my kids when I’m home, it’s also been because I’ve been trying hard to keep the promise that I set for writing outside of online community and try to get more of these ideas into print. It’s been a whirlwind…along with my new gig as a monthly columnist for Disctrict Administration magazine, I’ve written or co-written articles for Education Canada, Kappa Delta Pi Record, School Library Journal, Classroom Connect Newsletter, i.e., and a couple of others that I just can’t think of right now.
Obviously, blogging has set the stage for most of this, not just in giving me something to write about for print but in giving me a vehicle for practicing the craft. It’s the most obvious pedagogy associated with blogs, the ability to consistently write for an audience. And it’s the hundreds of thousands of words that I have put down in this space over the last six years that have trained my writing brain.
Now I know that simply by blogging I became that writer. I didn’t need all that print stuff to happen to in some way punch my ticket. But there is a lingering piece of tradition in my frame of this that assigns validation to the traditionally published stuff. It’s one thing to have readers that consistently push my thinking on the blog, but it’s still something different altogether when the “outside” world can read it too.
So, here I am, living the writing life in many respects. Reading everything through the lens of a writer. In many ways living through that lens, because my life is fodder for the blog. I don’t think I can express how different it is, and what a love/hate relationship I have with it at times. It’s amazing when the words flow…torture when they don’t.
So what’s next? Well, I have an idea…I just don’t know if the step might be just a bit too high. It feels like I’ve broken through a couple of ceilings in all of this so far…the next one is staring me in the face. We’ll see…
Technorati Tags: writing, Edutopia, reading, learning
5 Comments
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Will,
You get my vote on the Maggie Award! I have several “web 2.0 usergroups” going in my school district in Michigan and use this article as a discussion starter - it is perfect for this purpose. I’ve been writing about my experiences with the usergroups on my blog. I look forward to hearing you speak next week at the MACUL Conference!
Congratulations on the recognition! I do think it is important to do the print writing too; you can reach people through print who wouldn’t be exposed to these ideas otherwise.
And you are a wonderful writer–regardless of whether you get the award or not.
Will, Congratulations! What wonderful news. Your writing, your ideas, your conversation with your blog readers is a constant highlight in my blogline day.
“Now I know that simply by blogging I became that writer. I didn’t need all that print stuff to happen to in some way punch my ticket.”
I think that writing is an extremely insecure profession, I once met Saul Bellow through a mutual friend and he professed such doubt as a writer. Perhaps all writers are a bit masochistic. They certainly have been know to self-medicate with alchohol a bit.
But when ever you feel that print or anything else needs to validate that you are a “writer” , and that really wonderful piece you wrote for Edutopia is not enough, go over and re-read some of the pearls of
virtually printed pleasure by Stephen Downes, and tell me do you think someone who is so clear a thinker, original in thought and succint in expression (even if he does seem bent on pissing everyone off in the edu blogosphere part of the time) should question whether they are indeed a “writer”? Then re-read your piece from october and know that puts you in the same class..
Congratulations
[...] I do have my own answers, and one way I use this blog is to try to articulate them to myself and anyone who might be reading. However, I also know I’m not smarter than the collective professional educational community, and that a single voice doesn’t have as much power as a collective one. We need to build answers collectively. Some places where I do see this happening include the K12Wiki, the School 2.0 wiki, and the conversations that are happening among many of the edubloggers out there. While this is good, it’s also mainly just “preaching to the choir.” We need to find ways to extend our voices beyond the school walls and into the public and political arena. [...]