The Edjurist Accord: Recent Comments

Comment on The Ed. Tech Dominance of the Edublogosphere

Carl Anderson — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:06:12 GMT

I am going to go out on a limb here and make a broad generalization that I know does not apply to ever edublogger out there but nonetheless needs to be stated. What we have come to think of as the edubloggosphere is largely a movement against the type of education philosophy that would support standardized tests or standardized education. The talk you do hear in this community surrounding standards is usually done out of a spirit of distain. Standardization follows a strict behaviorist view of how people learn. Technology supports constructivist pedagogies which are largely in conflict with the whole notion of standards in the first place.

As for the maps, who cares what maps Scholastic is pawning these days when there are tools like Google Earth, Google Maps with Street View, Virtual Earth, and the like. The same is true for textbooks. I for one am all for never spending money on textbooks ever again.

I suspect the answer to your last question here is the reason ed tech dominates their posts is ed tech is the one thing they have most in common with other educators using this medium. They talk tech on their blogs because when they talk tech they find conversation. If they talked geometry or emotional behavior disorders the chances are less that they will find engaging conversations (the readers have not come yet). The other possible reason there are so few posts that have to do with other topics is most educators I think feel limited in what control they have in their classrooms (at least under NCLB). We tend to accept what we cannot change and dwell on those we can. We can use technology to affect the changes we want and we can see immediate results with that technology, when it comes to other education issues our hands are more tied.

Comment on The Ed. Tech Dominance of the Edublogosphere

Justin B. — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:19:39 GMT

Great point that the conversations extend beyond the blogs ... and that is an absolutely fantastic thing. I don't mean to diminish that and I clearly think that is having a positive impact on kids. The Twitter conversations do wind up helping kids.

But, my concern was exactly what you stated: "blogs themselves aren't likely to attract the majority of k-12 teachers." Why not? Is it a content problem? Is there not interesting enough content in English education to keep your normal, non-techy 35 year old English teacher engaged? And if not, don't the English teachers that are currently connected have some responsibility to help build that social network so that teachers can enter the conversation on whatever interests them?

Comment on The Ed. Tech Dominance of the Edublogosphere

Justin B. — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:12:51 GMT

That is a good point. And certainly there is plenty to be excited about, with new technology tools helping our classroom. That is a good thing, absolutely. But is it possible to have those same conversations about social studies standards? About new maps from Scholastic? About the latest textbook? When I was teaching English, the majority of my time was not spent trying out digital book readers. If these folks are teachers as well and are clearly dealing with more than just ed. tech. issues in their daily lives, why is it still the ed. tech issues that dominate their posts?

Comment on Video Cameras in Schools

Justin Bathon — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:02:52 GMT

Thanks. Right, just like everything else video cameras can be use for good or bad. It is not the technology that is the problem, it is how people respond to the technology.

Comment on Video Cameras in Schools

Arnie Kriegbaum — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:40:12 GMT

Interesting that cameras in schools (the ones controlled by the school) are first and foremost a tool of social control. I would like to have a live feed of my room (I don't see this happening soon) for parents to view what is happening with their children in my class. Again, my goal would not be to hightlight the kid trying to sleep in the corner, but to showcase how learning goal and process has changed since they were in school. It has changed.
Great post and stunning video.

Comment on The Ed. Tech Dominance of the Edublogosphere

Kimberly McCollum — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:30:34 GMT

Justin wrote, "as far as I can tell, the ed. tech. field sees as Goal #1 the spreading of education technology knowledge to all k-12 educators which will help students learn." He also suggested that the online conversations between ed. tech. people are 100% insular and as a result do little to further Goal #1. Since it "is a struggle just to get K-12 educators to visit blogs", I admit that blogging by itself is a poor recruitment tool. However, in my job as an instructor of pre-service teachers, I share the best practices that I find in blogs. The blogs themselves aren't likely to attract the majority of k-12 teachers, but my point is that the ideas in the blogs don't stay on the web.

Most of them members of the "edublogosphere" or whatever you want to call it are also members of local education communities somewhere. The online activities are only a part of the picture. The off-line conversations that they inspire aren't visible for analysis, but my personal experience would indicate that the ed tech community is far from an echo chamber.

Comment on The Ed. Tech Dominance of the Edublogosphere

Carl Anderson — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:41:11 GMT

How many edtech bloggers do you think are primarily techies? Most of us are or were classroom teachers in other content areas. I am an art teacher for example but also an edtech blogger. David Warlick I believe was a social studies teacher. Clarence Fisher is an elementary school teacher. Clay Burell is an English teacher. I believe Will Richardson was either an English or Social Studies teacher. We could probably go on like this for some tme. My point is that most of these bloggers are only edtech bloggers because they are excited about what these new technologies mean for their classrooms, for their students, for education.

Comment on The Ed. Tech Dominance of the Edublogosphere

Scott McLeod — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:17:29 GMT

I've said before that I hope that one day I am the one that looks like he's 'dangerously irrelevant' rather than our K-12 schools (note: some would argue that I already am!). I think for many of us our ultimate goal IS to get off the Technorati list because then our efforts would have been successful. Not totally off the list, mind you, because we do live in a technological world now, but lower would probably be alright.

How long does change in K-12 schools take? A lot longer than 3 to 7 years. And in academia? Even longer than K-12. That's the problem. The tech changes faster than our current institutions. It's a disruptive innovation. Which is why many people (both bloggers and respected academics) think the current systems are going to break apart under the weight of irrelevance (e.g., do we honestly think that 20-30 years from now kids will be sitting in desks in rows, listening to teachers lecture, doing worksheets, with little to no technology?).

1. What would you like ed tech bloggers to be doing that they're not?

2. What can YOU do personally to help achieve the situation you desire?

3. In a digital, global world, don't we eventually want everyone to become an ed tech person?

4. In a digital, global world, why shouldn't the responsibility rest on the backs of the tech refusers rather than the tech advocates?

5. What are your specific 'suggestions for speeding [the diffusion process] further?'

6. I don't see as incompatible the notions that a) I want lots of readers, and b) I want other good writers to have lots of readers too. At some point we'll hit saturation (e.g., how many school law blogs do there need to be? more than a couple; less than a million), but we're not anywhere close to that point yet. There's lots of space for creative, innovative, interesting, valuable writing. I can work to increase my readership while simultaneously helping you increase yours, both of us recognizing along the way that we're competing with every other blogger / TV station / web site / podcast channel / print media outlet / family / friends / hobbies / etc. for people's limited attention.

Comment on The Ed. Tech Dominance of the Edublogosphere

Justin B. — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:21:35 GMT

Should it be the ed. tech. folks fault that non ed. tech. people are largely not blogging? Serious question which I really don't have an answer to either way. I know personally that when teachers tape kids to chairs, I feel that is partially my fault - so I write blog posts begging them not to do it. I am even considering making a funny You Tube video to highlight this issue so that I can try to stop it as much as I can. As a school law instructor to teachers, I feel responsible for illegal teacher behavior in the classrooms, even if those teachers are on the other side of the country from me.

Blogging has been around what, 6-7 years now and prevalent for 4 or 5? At what point to we begin to get concerned that your list is still dominated by ed. tech. folks?

Clearly, Ed. tech folks should use these tools first. I have no disagreements with the diffusion of innovation theory whatsoever. I totally agree with you that's is what is happening. But how long does the diffusion take and at what point do we begin to get concerned about it not happening fast enough? Do we have a baselike like the time of diffusion of e-mail?

Does anyone have a responsibility for speeding up the diffusion of innovation? Is this just a natural process that cannot be affected by humans?

My feeling is that it should be a goal of the ed. tech. community (and me too) to speed the diffusion up as fast as possible. And your second paragraph leads me to believe that you sort of see that as the goal as well. And I think you and the community are doing a great job of it, actually. I mean, I am blogging, and without Dangerously Irrelevant and Did You Know 2.0 and other stuff ... I might not be. So, in my mind, you are speeding the diffusion of innovation process already and my post was only meant as suggestions for speeding it further from an outsider's perspective. Truly, I didn't mean any harm.

So, anyway, if that is the goal (to speed the diffusion, to bring new people on board, to encourage new blog-based social learning networks) doesn't that mean that at some point your top 50 list needs to look quite a bit different?

For ed. tech. bloggers to win ... don't they need to lose in some ways (not all, but some like being a top ranked Technorati blog). Don't we want a lot more eduwonkette's to take up those spots? But, how does that square with the attention economy and the marketplace of ideas? How does that square with Seth Godin's Brutal Fact #1: http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2008/04/dear-jon-letter.html

There is an incompatibility in those 2 things that I cannot get over. I am sorry that I am having a difficult time articulating that incompatibility. I remember this time when I was a boy I saw an interview with a local humane shelter director who said on TV that her ultimate goal is to not have a job. It seems like that is what is happening here. The ultimate goal of ed. tech. bloggers should be to get their names off your Technorati list.

Comment on The Ed. Tech Dominance of the Edublogosphere

Scott McLeod — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:24:54 GMT

Why is it the ed tech bloggers' fault that non-ed tech people aren't using these tools (particularly when the former is working hard to get the latter to do so)? Why isn't this just Roger's diffusion of innovation theory at work? Again, to repeat my questions from earlier (which you never really answered), why wouldn't you expect educational technologists to be the first group of educators to dive into the use of social media and other digital technologies? Why wouldn't you expect early adopters to be early adopters and later adopters to be, well, later adopters? You seem to be complaining about what appears to me to be the natural order of things...

And why aren't ed tech bloggers allowed to blog about ed tech? You blog about school law. No one's complaining that you're not blogging about homeschooling or early childhood education or dyslexia. If you want more non-ed-tech people participating in these kinds of discussion, do what many of us are doing which is working our rears off to help them learn how and why to do so.