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This may be the first large technological shift in history that's being driven by children.

The new literacy means being able to function in and leverage the potential of easy-to-create, collaborative, transparent online groups and networks, which represent a "tectonic shift" in the way we need to think about the world and our place in it (Shirky, 2008). This shift requires us to create engaged learners, not simply knowers, and to reconsider the roles of schools and educators.

Publishing content online not only begins the process of becoming "Googleable," it also makes us findable by others who share our passions or interests.

Although many students are used to sharing content online, they need to learn how to share within the context of network building. They need to know that publishing has a nobler goal than just readership—and that's engagement.

These new realities demand that we prepare students to be educated, sophisticated owners of online spaces.

More than ever before, students have the potential to own their own learning—and we have to help them seize that potential. We must help them learn how to identify their passions; build connections to others who share those passions; and communicate, collaborate, and work collectively with these networks.

Get Started! Here are five ideas that will help you begin building your own personal learning network. Read blogs related to your passion. Search out topics of interest at http://blogsearch.google.com and see who shares those interests. Participate. If you find bloggers out there who are writing interesting and relevant posts, share your reflections and experiences by commenting on their posts. Use your real name. It's a requisite step to be Googled well. Be prudent, of course, about divulging any personal information that puts you at risk, and guide students in how they can do the same. Start a Facebook page. Educators need to understand the potential of social networking for themselves. Explore Twitter (http://twitter.com), a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to exchange short updates of 140 characters or fewer. It may not look like much at first glance, but with Twitter, the network can be at your fingertips.

Third, debt teaches a worldview. Following up on the way that advertising indoctrinates children into the market, as Juliet Schor shows in Born to Buy, student loans directly conscript college students. Debt teaches that the primary ordering principle of the world is the capitalist market, and that the market is natural, inevitable, and implacable. There is no realm of human life anterior to the market; ideas, knowledge, and even sex (which is a significant part of the social education of college students) simply form sub-markets. Debt teaches that democracy is a market; freedom is the ability to make choices from all the shelves. And the market is a good: it promotes better products through competition rather than aimless leisure; and it is fair because, like a casino, the rules are clear, and anyone—black, green, or white—can lay down chips.

Fifth, debt teaches the worth of a person. Worth is measured not according to a humanistic conception of character, cultivation of intellect and taste, or knowledge of the liberal arts, but according to one’s financial potential. Education provides value-added to the individual so serviced, in a simple equation: you are how much you can make, minus how much you owe. Debt teaches that the disparities of wealth are an issue of the individual, rather than society; debt is your free choice.

Last, debt teaches a specific sensibility. It inculcates what Barbara Ehrenreich calls “the fear of falling,” which she defines as the quintessential attitude of members of the professional middle class who attain their standing through educational credentials rather than wealth. It inducts students into the realm of stress, worry, and pressure, reinforced with each monthly payment for the next fifteen years.

As far as the ego thing goes who cares. Your blog's this mine is that. Whoopdy do! If you're learning and growing your PLN that is what counts.

Charlie A. Roy said.

I feel similar frustration. If the point is about learning than reading and commenting is a great way to add to our own creative potential.

Tennessee

Great response to a burning question/statement that most of us (well probably all of us)feel at one time or another.

Many of the people that I have learned the most from are not the ones involved in the "cocktail party" but rather those in the trenches doing what I love to do each and every day, just like you!

agree that developing a readership takes time.

Carolyn Foote

Scott McLeod

Re: the depressing aspects of 'comment intensity,' I actually meant it to be an affirming post rather than a depressing one

I think that the comment intensity idea is important in this respect: I often see laments from bloggers that they don't get many comments on their posts. What the table above shows is that even those of us who are fortunate enough to have large readerships often don't get many comments. My personal median over the past 20 posts, even WITH the big spike of 89, is still only 2.5. Ewan, your blog and Vicki Davis' are similar. The point is that many, many posts don't get a lot of comments, even those by the more widely read bloggers.

tom said...

Thanks for bringing this up. This has been an issue for me personally as well. OK, so nobody's IN, but the (pseudo?) community nature of blogging makes it feel that way.

But, like other artists, we have to work a little every day whether we feel like it or not, and whether we get validation that day or not.

I think many of us are working at blogging because there's an element of self improvement, which implies self evaluation. Without feedback from others it's easy to be hard on ourselves.

Christopher D. Sessums

For me, the conversation is hardly closed; it is simply a matter of having something to say, something to share.The emotional commitment is another aspect of the conversation that is easily glossed over.

MIke Sansone

I've found (both with myself and those educators I've worked with in their blogging starts) that the edublogosphere is open and welcoming -- but as we engage in any cultural group (even offline), patience really is a key.Still, we sometimes measure our success by the interaction from those we look up to (esp. teachers - many of whom were probably the best students in their class, yes?)

Sometimes we don't see the comments -- because the talk happens offline.

Britt

I get very few comments on my blog but see through the clustermaps that I have readers each and every day, so continue to feel that the blog is benefiting me through reflection and may even be benefiting others as well.

atruger

I NEVER get to share tools I discover because someone ALWAYS beats me to the punch...but I am ok with that.

I truly connect with what you write even though I am one of "those" people who reads but rarely comments. YOU do make a difference and so do I!

Bego said...

the whole cocktail party analogy is just a grown up version of the kickball line-up in elementary school.

In the blog world, change is effected by good content, and while good content isn't always noticed at first, it does eventually get a respectable position--sometimes because the cocktail group points them out.

How could I think to be in the same boat as John Scalzi who started in 1998 if I've only been blogging since 2007?

I found your blog, Vicki, because a project you do for Atomic Learning mentioned you, and your name is on the movies they use.

jeanette tranberg

2005 - you were the only ones out there to follow

Oh yes, I have felt the cocktail chill at times. I'm a norwegian edublogger, that have been following your brunks (blogdrunks) for a while. To start with - in

Wes told me once I twittered, that nobody should twitter alone and I could not agree more - so I don't.

So, from the outer side looking in: Anybody stopping by in Second Life tonight (which is today for you) for a virtual edu cocktail?I'm aka Kita Coage at Eduisland II, waiting to cocktail connect with you c",)

Paul Hamilton

For most of us, blogging is very much a personal venture.

I suspect that we all have a deep desire to be heard and to be accepted. The longer I'm involved in the edublogosphere, however, the more impressed and encouraged I am by the level of acceptance that there is here. It is a good thing that we don't always agree with each other. Disagreement is often at the heart of constructive conversation

At the same time, we are no different than the kids in our classrooms. We educators need to know that we will be accepted, no matter what we have to say and no matter how well we are able to express it. I think we help to make the edublogosphere a "safe place" for each other as we try to keep it positive and as we take advantage of the numerous opportunities to be affirming.

Jim Dornberg said.

I don't at all feel excluded from the blog "cocktail party", because just like a real cocktail party, I am drawn to the people who have something important, and engaging to say and I am content to listen and learn from them. I have seen a few of the "big names" at conferences, and even met a few of them in person. I have emailed several of them and others, or left an occasional comment, and I have been very pleasantly surprised at the thoughtful responses I have received.

I read many blogs, but comment rarely, and I suspect that those who read my blog do the same. So I don't feel at all excluded. I'm just happy to occasionally be part of the conversation.

Alfred Thompson

When I was at EduBloggerCon last spring I felt quite the outsider. There were famous people there and I was unknown. I still feel that way in the broad edublogsphere. But honestly the broad sphere is not who I am blogging for. I blog for a niche - computer science teachers. The event for that niche is SIGCSE and there I (blush) feel a bit like a star. Few of the people there know the edubloggers with much larger readership or Technorati ranks. And really reaching the CS teachers is my goal not reaching everyone who teaches general subjects.

There is, I believe, room for more at the top if only because the number of teachers reading blogs is still very small but we all hope it is growing. We are still at the ground floor. That makes edublogging different from tech blogging I think.

Jason Bengs

I think we need to all remember our focus for blogging. Mine is for reflection. I use my blog as a tool to improve my teaching. If others start to read and can learn from it, great. To my knowledge I am the only one seeing my blog right now. Which is fine with me. I don't think blogging should be a popularity contest and having a large number of readers is great, it must mean that you, and others, have something to offer that others want to emulate.

prof v said

I think you could have added three additional points. First, a suggestion on how to increase readership. I think new bloggers (myself included) are still trying to figure out how to make the connections that allow for conversations within blogs. I go back to your list of 10 tips for successful blogging, and still find things I never noticed before

would love to see an updated list that perhaps would include how to make sure your blog is part of an RSS feed and how to set up subscriptions for potential readers to make it easy for them to subscribe to your blog.

I think even you have realized that it is more difficult to break into the edublogger field as there is now so many new bloggers (just in the last two years).

Finally, I am surprised that you did not point out how you have helped new bloggers by both asking for new voices and then publishing them in your own blog. I think this is an indication that you are trying to open up the "party".

Dean Shareski

Isn't the whole point of web 2.0 is that it exudes democracy and equality? Those that get all concerned about rankings and ratings are, as you've suggested missing the point.

We often quickly want to find ways of ranking. Reminds me of the evils of current assessment practices. We tell kids to do their best and work on improving performance and yet continue to use ranking systems that is clearly a mixed message.

Anonymous said.

I'm new to this world as of Monday...yes, 4 days of immersing myself in as much ed. tech, web 2.0, online collaboration "stuff" that I can. (thanks to Lisa Thumman at Rutgers U.) Cocktail party or not, your blog and the comments people have left have increased my list of people to follow. Even a discussion about "being on the outside" has led me to the "inside". I'm thrilled to be in the company of such great minds and promise to start contributing once I wrap my brain around it all! Thanks to everyone for sharing! cmtvarok

Mrs. V.

thanks for coaxing me out of my blogger drought!

Vicki A. Davis

I believe that this "post" has been made stronger by the comments, which have added to the post greater depth of meaning.

All over this conversation I see the change in society. We are all going through the emotions of becoming accustomed to something new... kind of like I first experienced when the Internet first came out.

And while, when I began blogging, I didn't really set my sights or aim for a large readership... now that it is here, I will seriously consider and appreciate each individual reader and take my job seriously

@tennessee -- Those in the trenches are my most important reads... I just wish there were more of us. It seems as if many teachers view blogging as a way out of the classroom when they should see it as a way to improve the classroom!

@scottmcleod - I believe the comment intensity is highly correlated to controversiality AND immediacy. If a lot of people SAW someone recently, they want to interact and comment (immediacy.) If someone says something very emotional or controversial, people want to comment and interact (controversiality.) While I guess looking at these stats are fine, I've found in my very short time blogging that looking too much at numbers of any kind removes my focus from what is important. When I focus intently on conversation, my blog traffic and numbers just grow. I always say "whatever is watered, grows." If I water my investigation of stats, I become a good statistician... if I water my blog but also commenting and participating in the blogosphere as a WHOLE, I become a good blogger. I'd rather be the latter. And while the post was meant to be encouraging... I have to admit I'm a competitive perfectionist and always have to reign in that aspect of my nature.

@christophersessums - I think the emotional nature of something is like the proverbial elephant in the Net -- it is there. It always stuns me the number of people who discuss their feelings on this when it comes up... it means that many of us are experiencing the same thing.

He couldn’t foresee the many ways that writing and reading would serve to spread information, spur fresh ideas, and expand human knowledge (if not wisdom).

And because they would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” they would “be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.”

They would be “filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.”

emotionlessness that characterizes the human figures in the film, who go about their business with an almost robotic efficiency. Their thoughts and actions feel scripted, as if they’re following the steps of an algorithm.

I was going to present 20 minutes on Del.icio.us, but I may show Diigo instead - or both - or 20 minutes is not enough....

This new version "appears" to have fixed that issue, plus I've been impressed with the new features.

Caroline Obannon I'm second guessing teaching only del.icio.us myself, too.

Liz Davis I'm wondering if Diigo is too much for the newbie. Delicious is so simple and obviously useful. I'm afraid Diigo would scare some people away. I'm still inclined to start with delicious and save Diigo for my more advanced users (of which I have very few).

Maybe overwhelming would describe my feelings.

However, I can defely think of quite a few people who would balk at it, too and favor the simplicity of Del.icio.us.

but most likely wouldn't participate in the social/sharing aspects they offer.

The nice thing about the Diigo toolbar is that you can select which buttons to see, so for those who might find the extra choices of tools overwhelming, it can at least be customized.

I'm feeling a Diigo obsession building. As soon as Explorer comes up I check to see if there are any messages in Diigo. How nice of them to put that number right on my toolbar!

I created my very first List last night,

Kristin Hokanson Liz I think it may be too much ially for the newbie and I will continue to send to delicious.

There is one feature that I REALLY like and that is that you can EMAIL something you are tagging so for folks who LIKE to get those sites emailed, you can still meet their needs without an extra step yourself

I second that. I like Diigo, but del.icio.us simplicity is so inviting.

The value of Diigo is that it brings a number of tools together allowing for multiple entry points. The old training model is show them a tool from start to finish that goes over every single detail. With Diigo, why show everything to those new to all this? It is rather easy to click into your bookmarks. From there, teachers have a space they can grow. It also provides a wonderful opportunity to differentiate with your teachers -- the whole multiple points of entry.

still I will have fun, exploring it and making effective use of it.

it is the ease of integration with blogging and twitter -- I annotated a page yesterday and pulled it directly into my blog. I can twitter bookmark that is important quickly -- AND I can use the tagging standards for the horizon project without having to remember the darn tags -- tag dictionaries are the most useful things to have been invented in a LONG time -- we need to set them up within one of our educational groups!

I don' t think I would not teach delicious. But perhaps starting with delicious and saving Diigo for later is a good idea.

I do find this site to be much more powerful and useful than delicious. I never really used delicious to its full potential. The fact that I am here just chatting with folks makes me want to stay and contribute to the collective knowledge.

We are conversing about the usefulness of diigo and I thought you might like to be included.

Maggie Tsai has invited Wade Ren to this conversation

Are you guys planning a Sunday get-together? If so, please advise the time - I'd love to join you and help answering any question.

Howdy! Wow, what can I say? Diigo is a lot more than delicious. If CoolCat Vicki hadn't written about Diigo again, I probably would have stuck with Delicious...and,if I hadn't been using Twitter, blogs, played around with Facebook, the social networking side of Diigo would have been just so much MORE to learn.

my concern would be to NOT limit learners in workshop sessions to the path I followed in learning these tools. Simply, folks, here is a tool that will grow as you grow and learn more about living and contributing in an interconnected world. The ability to have conversations like this, to annotate web pages, to share relevant quotes and tweet as needed...makes me wonder at the need for blogs at all.

A few folks are considering exploring Diigo on Sunday morning and having a conversation about it now...join in and learn with us!