Living the blogging life

A colleague recently posted an entry to her blog noting various cliches about "living life" and posing the question, seeking perspectives, on what it means to live the blogging life.  As one who has made various forays into blogging, only to let them fade away, I'd have to say it's about passion, which is not too far removed from the writing classics of audience and purpose.  As long as we have something we truly want to say to readers we care about we'll be willing to invest the time it takes to blog as well as the courage to hit the publish button even when we haven't sweated over multiple drafts of something we want to say.

For another take on this question, I recommend the post Would a blog by any other name--be as confusing? at the blog Everyday Adventures.

Living "in bardo"

A colleague's blog, In Bardo, makes an interesting connection to Buddhist philosophy and the concept of bardo to introduce the relationship between cognitive dissonance and learning new technologies.  Elsewhere, she connects this concept to the teacher-research process: "...that place of being in the unknown, the uncertainty that is needed for the creative solution to emerge."  This reminded me of this model of teacher-research by Carol Kuhlthau.

Blogs at Education Week - Teacher

A recent blog post by a colleague at Brenda's Digital Learning Blog led me to The Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller's blog at the Education Week - Teacher website.  This reminded me that Ed Week is a good place to find a variety of blogs by distinguished educators.  One I try to follow is Bridging Differences maintained by Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier.

What about laptops?

The Tech Buyer's Dilemma: Timing the Plunge is an opinion piece on the NPR blog All Tech Considered blog that raises a question we all face: "buy now or wait a bit longer for a better, perhaps cheaper, and shinier gadget to come along."  Recently, I finished digitizing my vinyl record collection with the intention of buying an iPod and carrying the collection all with me.  Talking with a Best Buy geek, he happened to speculate on whether Apple would be coming out with a solid state (i.e., flash drive) iPod and that froze me--buy or wait?  Of course, there's also the move to put all this stuff "in the cloud," so waiting may mean no more iPods at all (unlikely, I know).  So here I sit, frozen by indecision.

Part of me has to ask, "What's wrong with a good old laptop, anyway."  Yes, I'd love to have an iPod, especially for travel, and on a recent week-long vacation all I took was my Kindle (classic).  I love that e-Reader, although on trips I'd appreciate just a bit more robust web application.  So, Kindle Fire?  But for the most part, my laptop is easy to carry and the best for productivity.  Do I really need more?

So what about teachers?

The article "Teachers' digital media use on the rise" in the eSchool News reports on Digitally Inclined, a recent survey by PBS which reports that teachers are making significant progress in adopting digital media and using the Internet.

Let's start with our kids' media use

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released the third in its series of surveys on Media in the lives of 8-18-year-olds (1999, 2004, 2009). The report generally concludes that a big increase in mobile media like cellphones and iPods has driven an average increase in total time spent using media each day from 6:21 to 7:38 (hr:min).

I was particularly struck by the time reported watching television. According to the report, time spent watching regularly-scheduled television decreased as watching time-shifted to outlets like online and iPods. That shift doesn't surprise, but I am surprised by the total of four hours, twenty-nine minutes (4:29) spent watching TV. As a high school teacher, I found that my students reported almost no television watching at all!

I was directed to the Kaiser report through a blog post by Will Richardson entitled No Choice. In this post, Will emphasizes how the findings in the Kaiser report make it clear that our kids today simply have to be users of technology, and their schools and teachers have to immerse them in technology in their education. I would add that I have looked at the methodology of the Kaiser report and I don't find any attention to socio-economic demographics generally or geography in particular. As an educator in rural Maine, I am acutely aware that access to technology can vary greatly. If anything, this further emphasizes the important role of schools in insuring equity of access. We need to be sure that information like the Kaiser report doesn't foster an assumption of progress but helps us to monitor our work to progress.