Edublogger Cocktail Party

There has been quite a disturbance in the edublogosphere lately about the idea of the edtech blogging community being compared to an exclusive cocktail party.

Jon Becker (who has been blogging 31/2 months) writes this on his blog:
So, three months of posting and never more than a handful of comments on any one post and a Technorati authority of a whopping 22. That’s not at all bad for a baby blog, especially considering I’ve done NO marketing of my blog other than claiming my blog on Technorati and including the URL in my digital e-mail signature (this despite being a regular reader of Seth Godin’s blog). Oh, and my arrival on the Twitter scene probably gives me some small amount of exposure ....

... I think where I’m going with this is that I worry that the ed. tech. blogosphere is reasonably saturated. Related to Darren Draper’s post on Twitter Set Theory, I feel like there are some central figures whose spheres overlap considerably and a whole lot of us outsiders trying to penetrate that inner circle. It’s as if folks like Will Richardson, David Warlick, Wes Fryer, Vicki Davis, Dean Shareski, Stephen Downes, Chris Lehmann…(and, yes, you Scott) are having an awesome cocktail party conversation and I’m standing on the outside staring over their shoulders and listening in, trying to get a word in, but not penetrating that conversation at all. I know there are LOTS of us on the outside looking in.

I thought I'd bring this topic to Classroom 2.0 - because this is where a lot of newbie bloggers start out and find a home.

It can be disheartening if you never receive a comment on your blog - but if you actively participate in Classroom 2.0 you find plenty of people to share ideas and receive input.

So, I throw this out to the Classroom 2.0 members. Do you feel excluded from the blogosphere? Why do you blog, comment, podcast...?

Make sure you read some of the responses to Jon's post - they are quite insightful.

Tags: blogging

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Permalink Reply by kolson on April 14, 2008 at 12:13pm

Sean -

I agree with you about replying to comments on your own blog, it's common courtesy and shows that you care about what your readers have to say. I do the same as you, I try to reply to all of my comments even if it's not until days later. The comments continue the discussion and are what make blogs a "live" piece of work.

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Permalink Reply by Gabriela Sellart on April 14, 2008 at 12:51pm

A year ago I started blogging for my students. Then I started writing about my experience, at first just as an attempt to set my messy thoughts in order. Soon I discovered that other teachers were interested in what I was saying. I could say now that in my blog in Spanish I have more commenters than readers (yes, I know that's impossible). I admit I’m really proud of being able to trigger some thoughts.

However, none of my colleagues at work had read my blogs until last week when one of them commented orally on some of my posts. That was certainly one of the happiest blogging moments. I know I cannot make a difference in global education, but I can make a difference for my students and my coworkers. And that’s something more difficult to achieve than the attention of any “blogging elite”(we all know the tricks).

Finally, I’d like to say that even though I’m not keen on cocktail parties (I’d rather go for a round of beer in a pub, or a good bottle of red wine in an Argentine “asado”), I’ve never, never ever, felt excluded. On the contrary I’m grateful to all the people who know much more than I do, and share their experience so openly.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Smith on April 14, 2008 at 10:31pm

gabriela,
I know the feeling. In a staff meeting at the beginning of the semester the teacher sitting next to me stood up and talked about something and finished off by stating that he had read it on EFL Geek - I just looked at him and said, "that's my blog" he was pretty surprised.

Good feeling though.

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Permalink Reply by leewin on October 13, 2008 at 10:41am

Kudos to you Sean on the mention of you blog in the staff meeting.
I like you don't receive a lot of comments, yet, on my posts on my blog. However, I am happy to know that it is being read by both students and colleagues alike. I'd like to see more traffic on my site but as blogging becomes more popular it may be hard to have the comments that I have put on other sites answered or for people to come and comment on my site. However, now that you have mentioned your blog I'm definitely going to check it out and I would invite you to do the same.

Cheers!
Mr.Winik's Class Blog(I'm a newb to all of this so please put any feedback on my About page to help improve my blog. Always looking for some constructive criticism.

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Permalink Reply by Cindy on April 14, 2008 at 6:39pm

I'm one of five Ed Tech Specialists for a large urban school district. We (and others in the Ed Tech Department) started blogging as a way to share ideas with the classroom teachers we work with: news, photos, announcements, resources, handouts, etc. When we go out to schools to do training, it's easy to point the faculty members to the blogs and say, "Here you can find some help with the topics we covered today." It's also a way for us to share ideas with each other; when we discover a new tool and try it out, we can let each other know its pros and cons. Of course, I would love for readers to comment more, but it's really ok if it doesn't happen. Like everyone else, I read many more blogs than I have time or inclination to comment on. Come by and visit us sometime...