For a little while now I’ve been thinking about this whole notion of communities. Over the last week or so my thoughts have started to crystalise into something that I can work with. I wish that I could say that I’ve managed to come to this by myself, but in reality it’s been some really interesting posts from other people that have helped me sort out my position.
David Warlick’s (in)famous “I don’t get it” post about social networking for ‘education 2.0 issues’ (Oh how I need to write up my 2.0 agonies. But I’ll save that for later.). David made the point that he just wasn’t into ‘clubhouses’ and said that
I don’t need someplace else to go to on the Internet. I need it to come to me, to my aggregator, or my mail box. I need it to be organic, infinitely shapable, and to be a valuable conversation.
And I agreed, although I kept that to myself.
Then a couple of days ago, Artichoke posted “Could do better”: A checklist for participatory communication for development . Arti looks at her (all of our) role as ‘edu_tech missionaries’ and looks at the implied assumptions of our roles. I think we’ve had a religious discussion before haven’t we?
While I was digesting Arti’s piece (I wasn’t stalking you Arti, just needed to think about it again… and again …), Konrad Glogowski wrote a great post entitled Autobiographical Practices . And it kind of started to come together.
Konrad writes,
I contemplated adding my name to one or more of these communities but it seems to me that they are nothing but containers, systems where the name threatens to define or even pre-define the discussions within. I thought the whole point of what we are experiencing now, educationally speaking, was to get away from boxes, systems, and containers. Now, it seems, we are building more. It is interesting that, instead of building our own networks using rss, for example, instead of charting our own paths as professionals and educators, we prefer to confine ourselves to pre-defined boxes.
And this is me! I struggle with the concept of an educational blog because it’s limiting and it encourages conformity. I want to see opposing points of view and I want to see world views. If I’m doing it my way (my blog, my RSS feeds, etc) I can be in charge.
Konrad next says,
However, according to Steve Hargadon, who created Classroom 2.0, professional development today can greatly benefit from social networking. He is right when he says that it is much easier for a novice to join a social community than start his or her own blog.
And this makes sense too. Except that this is all based on the assumption that everyone must be part of the blogosphere because this is where all the best conversations are happening. Try making that point in the nearest school staffroom.
I am regularly invited to participate in wikis, blogs and communities that have been set up apparentlyfor my benefit. In some cases I do participate, but I’m actually really a lurker. I’ve been that way for years so I’m quite good at it now. My aggregator gets a daily skim through and I also subscribe to the odd old fashioned email list. I’m quite happy to join a conversation, but I also want to be able to get out when I want. It’s all about having my own space really.
And I’ll come to the two point oh business soon.
Other useful brain food
Christopher D. Sessums:
How Do Educators Learn Successful Practices using Social Media/Social Software?
Stephen Downes: