Drape's Takes

Will Richardson announced this week that he has "decided to pretty much bring [his] run at Weblogg-ed to a close." Instead, he'll be using Tumblr to facilitate his sharing and provide a space for him to disseminate his thoughts.

Being one of the first to join the educational blogging scene, I see Will's abandonment of traditional blogging as a clear marker for the beginning of the end of long-form educational blogging. While I don't think blogging will disappear entirely, I have noticed and experienced a substantial shift in how people prefer to collaborate - and even share deep thinking. I elaborated further on these shifts three years ago, as I began to flesh out my own thinking on the matter.

Around that time, I took a graduate-level course on the diffusion of innovations from Dr. Gary Straquadine, one of my favorite professors and teachers with whom I've ever been able to associate. As I explained to Dr. Straquadine my efforts with blogging and OpenPD, he was naturally fascinated by the diffusion aspects of these technologies and seemed genuinely impressed with the potential afforded by these once-emerging collaborative techniques.

At the same time, he asked me pointedly, "Darren, do you think you'll still be blogging five years from now? Do you think it will be as popular then as it is now?"

Shocked that he might be suggesting that blogging would one day have an end, I defended how immersive and incredibly powerful the technology was and how I had hoped all teachers would embrace its use. He then expressed his apprehension in blogging's long-term shelf life and his heartfelt confidence that improved innovations would eventually and inevitably come along.

He was right.

While blogging, for me, has been an incredible experience and convenient method for collaborating and sharing deep thought, other tools have emerged that now make some of this sharing easier. Will Richardson is moving now to Tumblr because its "flow" better accommodates his preferences. Similarly, I've changed some of my procedures by using ifttt.com to automatically push my shared items in Google Reader, along with my comments, neatly and nicely to Twitter. Posterous makes it dead simple to grab content and comment, although I haven't yet used this tool to its full potential, and the Diigo bookmarks I add to a specific list likewise push to Twitter. Flow.

Regardless, I continue to appreciate this space, the feedback you're willing to give me here, and the platform traditional blogging provides me when I need to elaborate.

In the end, I'll be curious to know how many of Will's original followers decide to move with him over to Tumblr. We're becoming more flexible in the tools we use to share information; are we equally flexible in our manner of acquisition? (Currently there are 18,461 Weblogg-ed and 69 willrichardson.com subscribers in Google Reader. Perhaps Will would be willing to share his actual subscription numbers in the future.) Furthermore, I wonder how our increased tendency to share snippets of thought alongside snippets of 3rd-party content will continue to impact our level of truly deep thinking - presumably forced (or more openly embraced?) by the constraints of blogging as our once-preferred medium.

As a society, if our move toward more convenient flow also translates into at least equal levels of shared deep thinking, then I'm all for it. If not, however, then the increased-ease-of-use for increased-shallow-thinking trade-off will be harmful in the long run.

My challenge for you now is to help me understand just how harmful it will be.

I suppose my discussion the other day about Twitter and its effect upon writing wasn't entirely fair. http://tinyurl.com/363yy9

While I was focusing entirely upon the writing aspect of Twitter, I ignored completely the social interaction of the network.


That, in and of itself, is what makes Twitter so invaluable. Ever heard of networked learning? http://tinyurl.com/ywjcly

Twitter is the PLN (aka PLE) that made PRN famous (aka the official food of the network). http://tinyurl.com/2tgefb

Which is what makes Twitter so fun/valuable/interesting.

Yep. http://tinyurl.com/2s3evy

Twitter is *far more* than letting STALKERS know your answers to the question "What are you doing?"

In fact, I would estimate that less than 20% of my posts to Twitter actually address what I'm doing.

Moreover, it's not even about the 140.

Nope.

Not even close.

Rather...

Twitter is about connections. Twitter is about people. Twitter is about learning, interacting, and experiencing. Together. As a network.

Twitter is *my* Personal Learning Environment. Or at least an integral part of it.

Twitter: association, collusion, combination, fraternization, joint effort, participation, partnership, teamwork, working together. Ahhhhh.

And I honestly think that participating in social networks (like Twitter) can/will actually elevate your thinking. http://tinyurl.com/3ye9k8

Elevate. Your. T h i n k i n g.

You know, I also think that (surprisingly) Twitter can be about creative writing. http://tinyurl.com/3czqsm

At least I *think* it can.

But then again, I've been (1) writing for years, (2) didn't grow up with Twitter, and have (3) known life pre-IM-Speak.

Our kids have not.

Do they understand that writing in paragraphs longer than 140 characters can actually *expand* one's thinking?

o hav our kds LernD dat ltl chunks of thawt R simply gud Enuf?

In conclusion...

The American writer (and teacher) William Zinsser once stated that "Writing is thinking on paper."

If *writing* IS *thinking* then what will --- future thought --- look like?

Here's to the hope that it doesn't always L%k lIk DIS!

In 140 characters or less.

Image Source: Nimages DR

Technorati Tags: twitter writing creativity think socialnetworking

In a previous post, I wrote about how D. Keith Robinson has learned many things through blogging. To his list, I think it is now appropriate to add a few of my own.

Things I've Learned From Blogging

• Teachers that blog are as nice as teachers that don't blog - I'm amazed at how kind teachers around the world are. Ours seems to be a profession full of kind, generous people that are anxious to help those that are anxious to learn.
• Writing requires a lot of reading - As I've been a contributor to the blogosphere, I've found it extremely helpful to read before I write. Reading the work of others spurs ideas.
• Writing is hard, reading is easy - It ain't easy comin' up with smart words to say on a regular basis.
  
• The world is both bigger and smaller than I’d ever imagined - Keith listed this one, too, but it's too true not to include. Since I've created my blog, I've conversed (in person and through writing) with people from all over the world.
• A good picture can make a good post.
• There is great power in tagging - I'm almost convinced that tagging makes the world go around (or at least it will in the near future) because it makes for quality, inexpensive search-ability.
  
• Like teaching, there's always tomorrow - No matter how bad it goes today, there's always a tomorrow.
• Like teaching, there's always tomorrow - No matter how good it goes today, there's always a tomorrow.
  

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Technorati Tags: blogs education writing