Something's not quite right

So I've been noticing something. I'm going to share my observation with you all. Maybe somebody will feel validated. Definitely somebody will throw an egg at me, think I'm out of line. That's okay. Maybe I am.

Often, I'll hit my Bloglines account and think, 'Sweet. Four posts from Classroom2.0.' Only two are not posts at all. They are advertisements for another blog. It goes something like, 'I'm swamped just keeping my own blog going. So check it out: here.'

I've got my own blog, too. I want a readership, too. I get it. But I think it's inappropriate to take advantage of a forum like this to advertise for oneself. I have no problem with folks cross-posting and mentioning it, even linking to it.

At the end of the day, this place -- as I understand it (and set me straight if I'm wrong) is about collaboration. It's about, 'Hey, help me figure this out.' or, 'What do you think of this?' It's about the thousands of miles that separate us actually acting as a bigger bridge.

And, please, check out my blog, if you get a chance ;)

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on September 17, 2007 at 7:29pm

Agree, I would reciprocate.

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Permalink Reply by ddeubel on September 18, 2007 at 4:56am

I've tried and tried to do a blog but really don't feel any "value" in it. I'd rather poach.

I know, hundreds of you disagree. So be it. Just my own take. I prefer the flow and ebb, ebb and flow, the frolic and maybe and the thrust and paree of a forum. Ideas come on a knife's edge and they vanish in the mist.....

Blogs to me say -- Permanence. But I don't see how anything is of permanent value. It is all just coming and going, going and coming.....I prefer conversation. Forgotten tomorrow? Yes. More human, I think so.....
Blogs play on our vanity, our Dorian impulse. I agree with Johnson,

The best of conversations occur when there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments

But I am not innocent, guilty as much as anyone...

So how's the weather in your part of the world?

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on September 18, 2007 at 6:43am

Blogging is hard, especially when I don't like to write. I also don't have anything really profound to say on my personal blog. I do have a blog on Using Primary Sources in the Classroom called A Very Old Place which I really like. Potentially it would be a great way to share ideas, if anybody actually visited it!! :)

I do like my students blog http://areallydifferentplace.org I think there has been some good writing going on there. Could we use another format to increase writing skills, sure--but the kids like blogging.

Other opinions on blogs in general--a lot of the "famous" bloggers just blog about each other, and rehash the same topics, articles, etc,. I've read wonderful well written entries, look and there are "zero" comments; it might not mean no one but me has read it but it seems like it. And the #1 most frustrating thing about blogs not being able to follow up on a post I've made and stay in the conversation. I like the more informal forum format, too. You can say what is on your mind without having to be a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and you don't have to quote your sources!!

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Permalink Reply by samccoy on September 18, 2007 at 7:06pm

Loved your student's blog, especially the Paolini, Pullman, and Pierce update, an excellent link.
I ran a few preliminary searchs for your blog per your directions. I think I may have missed the link (or the point, lol). Would you share the link for "...blog on Using Primary Sources in the Classroom called A Very Old Place..."?

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on September 18, 2007 at 8:58pm

Here is the link to A Very Old Place Let me know if you are interested in primary sources in the classroom and I will add posts more often.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer McCaleb on September 19, 2007 at 10:29am

Completely agree...I think blogs are boring and self-serving for the most part. I would so much rather read a good book.
These conversations are interesting, sometimes. Why does everyone need thier own blog with the pressure to try to make it interesting, cutting edge, etc. etc.? Ego, ego, ego...most of the time.
I would rather take a walk in the park than re-invent the wheel.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Carmichael on September 25, 2007 at 8:14pm

Yes,
Interesting, and I agree - however it points up the new competition for time - how social can any one person be? And how do we prioritise? More to the point, how do we educate our students to prioritise their web 2.0 existences in the interests of education? Can we (and they) be so connected that we have no self to contribute, but become consumers of others lives and opinions at an ever-increasing rate?

Yet the point is clear - if we are to busy to be here, it's a bit of an insult to invite people away. If our opinions and time are so precious, yet important to others, how about a copy-and-paste to this forum- from our priority world - of the pearls of wisdom our colleagues here would otherwise have missed?