Edubloggers go every which way during the summer. A few posts ago, I declared I was easing back on posting while I tried to get a grip an all my edu-chores that lie in other domains, my wife's trackbacks on the household chore pings notwithstanding (I'm still faithful about doing the dishes and vacuuming). ;-)But I've been climbing the digital literacy learning curve as quickly as I can, and have been unable not to share a few of the epiphanic insights that are coming about because of it. To keep the pings from my darling wife from turning to flames, I shared with her some new learning and she said that's relevant to what she has been doing in ed tech with at-risk kids in summer school. (Turns out we both agree that the students are ahead of the teachers, like Mr. Warlick says! See "Comments" on today's Science Goddess post for details, if you're curious. )
In addition to upgrading my digital literacy, I've been concerned about doing digital publishing right as well. I start a post in WORD, check it for grammar and spelling, then paste it into Notepad to strip out the formatting, and finally paste it into the WYSIWYG window on my Blogger dashboard. I press the "publish" button and off it goes. Then, for a couple of days afterward, I pick at it aiming for conciseness and better diction. I know that sounds a bit compulsive, but remember, I take the publishing aspect seriously.
Today, David Warlick posted an important piece on 2 Cents Worth about the importance of school librarians (aka media specialists) as purveyors of digital literacy. But that's not all that struck me. He also added a piece about blogging, specifically making errors in blogging. It was a great relief to read and I've printed this short section out and put it into my copy of Classroom Blogging as an addendum.
"This brings me to another point. Now this is my opinion, but I do not believe that blog postings are meant to be scholarly dissertations, perfectly considering every point, every example, every definition, every eventuality. They should be better considered than IM postings and better crafted than most e-mail messages, but they (mine) are typically written in one or two sittings and rarely with more than an hour of writing. I leave things out. I leave terms undefined. Sometimes I get it wrong, and I’m happy that I do. Because everything that is not included, that is important, gets added through comments from thoughtful readers and through continuing conversations. If it’s an important addition, such as including librarians in a conversation about video games in schools, I will usually elevate it to a new blog posting to make it available to more readers.Thanks, David. I needed that!As I’ve said many times before, I write this blog to learn…
I only wish that I had the time to address every question and correction!"
