March 28
My maternal grandmother (the one I was closest to and who died 31 years ago), was born 100 years ago today. One century has passed since her birth. This occurred to me as I drove to work this morning. After spending the day working in a middle school library, where students worked at computers completing the final touches to an inquiry project I find myself reflecting on how incredibly the world has changed in that century, and especially how communication and learning has evolved. Now we expect instant information at our fingertips. We process our words at computers instead of typewriters. There is more information available a few keystrokes away than we can possibly absorb. No wonder our brains are changing and attention spans are supposedly shortening!
I also spent much of today exploring digital resources, mostly one available through the Coquitlam school district as well as links I followed from those resources. Truly, the vastness of the internet universe is mind-boggling! I spent quite a bit of time reading a blog by the IT go-to person for the district. His blog purports to connect technology and teaching. I also found a list of blogs in a district email from one of the secondary school librarians – yikes, even more blogs to check out.!. I suppose I could list mine there as well, but I don’t think I’m quite ready for the big screen….
Reading other blogs reinforces the importance of clarity and purposefulness in one’s writing, as I’ve seen how self-indulgent blogs can become without judicious editing. Just like web pages, blogs lose their appeal and authority if the author gets too long-winded and spinning madly in all directions with information irrelevant to their topic. (Can you say, “too much information?!”) Sure, a blog is a great tool for reflection, but if that’s the purpose, why foist it on the public? A piece of writing published in print form at least has an editor to give it a decent pruning. However a blogger is usually writer, editor and publisher all rolled into one, and that is not necessarily a good thing. So I must be mindful to avoid the wordiness trap.
It’s also important to edit the information that flows my way.Editing the ever-multiplying virtual pages of digital and online resources is essential for time management. Since it will be impossible to remember all the great resources that have come my way via this course, I will create my own personal and professional database to organize and manage the information so that it is retrievable when I need/want it. Otherwise I could get sucked into the vortex of the digital universe and miss out on the concreteness and beauty of everyday life and interactions with real people. My grandmother never had to worry about that. Hers was the library of card catalogs in wooden drawers and real books in a lovely old building. There is something to be said for simplicity!
You have the instincts of a writer and editor, Connie and the wisdom to know when to step back. I respond in much the same way to the self indulgence of the blogosphere. I write a column for two publications – a weekly newspaper in Saskatoon and a monthly magazine in southern AB. This gig came about because of a fanned out e-mail newsletter I sent home from Europe for five years. I CHOSE not to blog but the monthly effort made its own path as people forwarded it on and these two publications asked to use it on a regular basis. If I had blogged my universe, then it would likely have lost its intimacy (you are laughing now!) –but if you think about it, I wouldn’t have been approached if the idea of scarcity/novelty hadn’t been invoked. As you’ve noted there are few bloggers that are worthy of a return visit.