So . . . does this remind anyone of old newsgroups. I guess we call them RSS feeds now.
I’ve dabbles with RSS feeds before. My class blog even had an RSS feed, but it was never really worth it. In they end I think they are potentially very useful for being able to aggregate a lot of headlines and being able select from there. On my personal Google Reader I’m able to keep up with what is going on with various topics of interest (video games, ultimate, legos, etc.). The problem is that if we are looking at the aggregate of a large number of RSS feeds then it is easy to miss something in the quickly flowing stream of information. Kind of like missing the score of the game on the ticker.
After reading posts off of the recommended sites I have the following to say:
While the Students 2.0 post about “Where have all of the students gone,” really just points out what we already realize (that students are temporary actors in a long play with a revolving cast), it was the entry that I had the most fun reading. It did kind of sound like some Emo kid whining about how life is “tough,” but at least there was something to think about.
The post off of TechLearning was basically a recipie off of the food network. ”Here’s what’s going on with technology.” This probably makes it the best thing for aggregating since most of the posts weren’t worth looking at. With Students 2.0 the RSS just serves to let you know when something new comes out, rather than acting as a headline sifter for you to decide what is interesting.
The last one (InfiniteThinking) had a cool conference in NYC teaching people how to use Google Apps to enhance your teaching. Interesting idea. I originally wanted to have my students publish data to an existing GoogleDoc, but that requires everyone to have a gmail account. Kind of how my Digg idea fell on its face because it would require everyone to have a Digg account. Granted one account works for both (?) but it means a certain amount of overhead before implementing the idea.
Hey, it’s that emo kid whose whining you liked!
As a student, I once passionately cared about the edublogosphere and education, until I realized that the majority of the edublogs out there served only to perpetuate the redundant cycle of teacher/teacher interaction. That blog post wasn’t about “students moving on” (though that was part of it), but about letting teachers know that if they have students who are passionate about education and learning, then students 2.0 is the place for them.
It makes me think that the edublogosphere isn’t the place for students when teachers feel comfortable calling a student written blog post “emo”. It makes me even more inclined not to care.
So whatever. In the true stereotypical teenager fashion, maybe apathy really is the best bet.
Hmm . . . I’m sorry that the phrase “Emo kid whining” was offensive. I can understand where you are coming from and it was insensitive of me.
Still, I take issue with a few of your points:
First – it don’t think the teacher/teacher interaction is redundant. Whether on a blog or face to face, teachers learning from teachers is an important part of educational development (using that term makes me feel dirty).
Second – I would argue that places where “teachers feel comfortable calling a student written blog post “emo”" is a great place for students to be. Whether student written or not, people (myself included) who decide to post things online need to be prepared to have those things judged on some level. Your post reminded me of the dripping with over-analysis that I myself wrote in high school.
Again, I’m sorry you took offense to my comment. My post was part of an assignment to read and comment on three sites, yours was on the list. I’ll reiterate that your site what the one that I found the most interesting.
Sorry that I was so abrasive in my comment early. I guess the emo comment really got to me. Maybe instead of just labeling it, you could say why it sounded like whining?
1) It mostly feels redundant for me because I want to feel like there is some sort of change happening on a real level, instead of just in discussions. I also understand that real change requires lots of discussion, and in the educational system, bureaucracy rules. It takes a while for big things to change. Another reason could be because I don’t care as much as I used to, you know? Maybe it’s just because I feel like I’ve heard the same words put together a million different ways (which, I’m sure, happens in every blog circle).
2) I get that I’m putting myself out there and that people can say whatever they want (negative or positive), and often do. In my world, though, calling someone “emo” reeks of prepubescent immaturity. It’s not really an intelligent thing to say. Also, my experiences with teachers have mostly been constructive, even if what they were criticizing. So this is where the mental freak out comes from, the idea of a teacher calling a student emo is so backwards in my mind.
And for the record, yeah, my post was probably racked with hormonal angst at the transitory nature of life. It might’ve been packed with less worldy perspective than most of you adult bloggers have. But I’m trying to *learn* and *grow* from all of you as well. Maybe alienating me with petty labels that you can most likely assume will rub me the wrong way isn’t such a good idea if your goal is to keep me around. But if it isn’t, go ahead. Say whatever you want.
Thanks for finding my site interesting. I hope I didn’t chase you away from it with my angry comment.
In high school I used to write on the backs of drawings that I would make. The writings were usually about how difficult life was, or how certain people didn’t understand me. There was a lot of “hormonal angst” in my writing, and when I read that one post it reminded me of my own overly “emo”tional works.
I would like to point out that it is unfair of me to characterize your works based on reading a handful of posts, and I’m sorry for that. I just hope to explain why I used the words that I did: because reading your posts reminded me of my own overly emotional writing from way back when so I (insensitively) applied the same label I would for my own work.
You certainly didn’t chase me away from your site. If anything I think this interaction is one of the core interactions that are required to make the internet work. It is a medium where connotation and meaning can easily become lost. In order to avoid squabbles like ours it is important to teach people (myself included apparently) to not take any comment from another on its face value, and to also think about how our comments can be interpreted if context is stripped from them.
It’s funny how through comments and even blog posts, there’s little to go on *except* face value. The connotation and the meaning of the words we choose often spin to two different corners of the dictionary and sometimes bite us back. Also, posting reactionary and emotional blog posts or comments sometimes have similar biting tendencies. Through our words we’re all judged and commented on, and there’s nothing really we can do to stop that.
But all of those things can definitely lead to interesting discussions. If we hadn’t had the “squabble” that we had, we wouldn’t have been able to have this conversation. I’m happy we had this conversation, and I like the conclusion we’ve reached and the possible online friendship that’s been given the opportunity to grow.