The nice thing about blogging is that it’s okay to take a hiatus from posting to read other people’s posts. The people that I have been reading have provided me with insights into a plethora of topics that I might not have otherwise stumbled upon. I thank the blogosphere for that opportunity and I hope to contribute back in some small way. It is so exciting to be involved in learning during this time of incredible change and shift and I am doing everything that I can to keep up.
Something dawned on me over the Thanksgiving feast with my family and I have been thinking about it for the last few days. The power of connectivity that Web 2.0 provides is contained somewhat to those in education. This is just my opinion so correct me if I’m wrong, but aside from knowing the terminology (blog, twitter, wiki, etc…) not many people in my family understand the potential nor do they get as excited about the possibilities. I have many different occupations represented in my family and I found myself trying to justify the uses of these tools. It made me wonder if my massage therapist brother understands the impact that connecting with potential clients using WEB 2.0 tools would have on his business.
I guess I am wondering if these epiphanies that I have had over the last 2 years could be shared with a different demographic. For instance, having a parent workshop at school to introduce social networking, social bookmarks and blogging. It might give them an advantage when helping their kids with schoolwork.
My mom has gotten on twitter lately, but for her it’s just a way of keeping in touch with me, she enjoys reading the family blog that I keep and viewing the pictures I put on Flickr, but it is a big step for her to branch out and use those tools in other ways like sharing her own pictures with her friends.
I do know that there are many, many blogs out there on any topic you can think of, but I still wonder if most people still use them as static, informational sites. For me, and other like- minded people I speak to, its the communication and the connectivity that is important.
Just thinking out loud.
2 Comments
January 6, 2008 at 2:00 am
I, like you, have tried to explain the potential to my family and close friends. I am mostly met with blank stares or a quick comment like, “Oh, that’s nice.” I, unlike you, am from a family of educators. My brother teaches middle school math, my sister is a middle school special education teacher, my sister-in-law is a 2nd grade teacher, my step-mom is a 2nd grade teacher, and I have several cousins in education. They all live 1,000 miles away from me. I’ve sent them the links, explained the network, and gave a demonstration of my blog, my school’s blogs, and my six year old son’s blog while I was home over the holiday. No one was excited! My only relief is that I work with passionate educators who do get it! Do you know what I think will happen? Those of us who get it will soon be unreachable by those who don’t. We will learn exponentially more and they will be doing the same thing they’ve always done. Very sad.
January 6, 2008 at 5:39 pm
It is very sad- do you think that we have an obligation to spend time on people who don’t get it ? (at the risk of sounding like we are peddling some new religion) Or do we just go on with what we are doing and let people try to catch up?
I talk about social networking and the like whenever I have the opportunity, but sometimes I even think that I shouldn’t expect people to get as excited about it as I do-
thanks for the comment-