Blogospheric

Educational Blogging by Downes was a much more concrete article than the Pew laundry list of blogger demographic statistics...though what I did glean from the Pew article was the evidence that with blogging, there are more people writing! (At least that is my impression.) Not only are people writing but they are connecting. In a world that seems jam-packed with stimuli and impersonal, people have the opportunity to connect with others and share meaning and experience. In this way, it differs greatly from personal journals that collect on the shelf. Blogging is a public act and begins the possibility of creating community.

In the Downes article, this sense of community is manifested in the grammar school educational environment. What some of the students learn is that points of view can be shared with an enormous network beyond their immediate world.

For me the most important use of blogging is that it gives students the opportunity to reflect upon their learning in an informal manner. Sitting in front of a screen and keyboard writing a blog can be less threatening than writing a formal paper to turn in. While it possesses these qualities. it does remain a public act, therefore most people will perform in a way that does not cast them in a bad light. I other words, while it may informal, we will still make sure our ideas are clear and our grammar properly expressed.

The points made in relation to the power of blogs in the aftermath of 9/11 were profound. Blogs allow for personal accounts of an historic events--the true reality of history is reflected in the impact upon the individual, not just the exchange of wealth or political boundaries. For this, blogs act to democratize information, so that we respond to the voice, the opinion, the idea or experience of an individual because we feel it has integrity, not only because it is CNN, slyFOX or whatever.