A little learning - redux

In yesterday's post, I admitted having grave doubts about the value of blogging as both a reader and a writer. Will Richardson asked why. Here are a few reasons (none, which for now, will stop me from blogging):

1. Might time spend reading others' blogs be better spent reading longer, edited, researched, whatever, materials such as a book or professional magazine? A few months ago, I asked the same question and concluded the answer was "no." I was finding information reading blogs that seemed more valuable than that I found reading books.Now that the bloom is off the blog rose , I am less sure.  I am deleting blogs more rapidly than I add them and skim most of those still in my aggregator. I share David Jakes’ “One Big Taffy Pull" observation that all this talk doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere. (But then I've been reading pretty much the same editorial content in the Kappan for the past 20 years and don't know how much that august publication has actually changed education either. I DO know my book reading seems to have fallen from about three titles a month to one since I started reading blogs.
2. Might my time spent writing in a blog be better spend writing more thoughtful articles, crafting intriging columns, or revising one of my very dated books? While this is really fun (writing without an editor is like dating without a chaperone sorta), is there much value to anyone in slapping up one's every random thought? Or worse, am I writing even when I have nothing to say, but simply for the joy of the process? I have every right, I guess, to waste my own time, but should I be wasting the time of those who might be reading? This simply does not feel like hard enough work for this Scandihoovian not to feel a little guilty.
   
3. As Laura suggested in a reply to yesterday's blog entry, might my time be better spent building F2F relationships? Getting to get know the neighbors, volunteering at the soup kitchen, or, for heaven forbid, talking to the LWW? Am I even neglecting other virtual relationships with friends and relatives?
   
4. Will blogs really replace the good old newsletter? Blogging, despite RSS feeds, is not truly a push technology like e-mail (or a delivered newpaper). One still has to go somewhere (an RSS aggregator) to see if there is new content. It took a very long time for our district to build a critical mass of e-mail readers. How long will it be before enough teachers have feed aggregators that they check on a daily basis before I can stop sending the e-mails that say "hey, I updated the tech dept blog!"? A blog that complements, rather than replaces, a school library or technology newsletter seems more prudent at this point - increasing one's work load to what real benefit?
   

I must admit that I share many, if not most of the same concerns from librarians that Debbie listed in her KQ editorial. Does this mean you can take the boy out of the library but you can't take the librarian out of the boy?

Off to read a book. Right after I check my e-mail and Bloglines... 

Comments

[Laura]

Doug, I'm all for the F2F relationships. One thing that really went down well at MPOW: sitting down with the Head of the English Dept. for 3 hours to rework the US Summer Reading List (suggested and required reading). No blog, no wiki and no e-mail could possibly take the place of that contact, that exchange of ideas and the appreciation it earned because *I* took the time.

To me, blogs like yours are the crucible in which ideas are born -- sans editor, but with some thought. A book, or an article, with editorial intervention (if only to say "WTF does THAT mean???") is far more valuable because that extra set of eyes, and knowing that there's an audience, forces you to think really clearly and outside your own situation. Just my $.02.

[Deborah Stafford]

My main question - does EVERY librarian need to blog? Certainly blogs are useful, I read several most every day. But of what use is if for everyone to have one?

Can't some people just reap the benefits of those bloggers who have something to say, say it well and are willing to share?

Just because we can do something, doesn't mean we all need to do it.

Just thinking out loud.

[Doug Johnson]

Great question, Debbie.

I sense every librarian could have a blog aimed at a very specific target audience - their own library patrons or school staff. Or perhaps a narrow range of interest - The Getting Bar Codes on Really Straight blog or something.

All the best,

Doug

[Marco Polo]

Good thinking, Skunkman. I see you have already (slightly) revised your pessimistic opinion about blogging (yer still bloggin', aincha!), but you raise excellent points. At the risk of sounding trite, it's not a black-or-white isse: would we be better off doing other things than blogging, reading things other than blogs? This is a new medium and there's a pattern of behaviour that some researchers have probably already written about (actually, I think I'm repeating Hall's stages of culture-shock): the "wow!" stage; the going-overboard stage (blogging 24/7); the nostalgia/repentance stage ("the OLD ways weren't so bad", "egad! this blogging takes up too much valuable time"), followed by a more balanced stage. #1 Reading blogs is not the same as reading long, researched, edited books. And I don't think they should be read for the same purposes. Blog writing and reading is much more spontaneous and quick. It's more like talking and listening than reading and writing I would say. #2 Writing a blog is more like writing drafts for a book or magazine piece or academic paper: it's thinking aloud. Plus you get the comments and stimulation from reading others' (related) blogs. The 2 are not equivalents, it's not either/or. You don't write the article or novel without going thru several drafts and scratchings out and false starts etc, etc. #3 F2F is best, but again, I think blogging is like a side-dish to F2F. What if the people you meet every day are not interested in the kinds of things you are interested in? Reading and writing blogs is a good way to get in touch with like-minded people. It can be a godsend to an isolated person. As for #4, here's a relevant comment: "At my university, the proliferation of SPAM has greatly corrupted the value of email to use it any more for good communication on a campus. It consumes too much time going through 50 and 100 emails a day to get to five that require attention or have value, so email is neither a cost effective or an efficient
modality to use to bring people together that it used to be. We get the best responses with the "primitive" one-page paper."

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Marco Polo,

Enjoyed this thoroughly.

So you say the stages of blogging are sort of like Kubler-Ross's Stages of Grief?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Stages_of_Grief

1. Denial and isolation: "This is not happening to me."
2. Anger: "How dare God do this to me."
3. Bargaining: "Just let me live to see my son graduate."
4. Depression: "I can't bear to face going through this, putting my family through this."
5. Acceptance: "I'm ready, I don't want to struggle anymore."

(I had actually once outlined a parody of this talking about technology use by teachers!)

On another note, why does your school not employ a spam filter? We use Postini and it has really helped save email as a viable communication form.

Thanks again for the comment and all the very best!

Doug