Connective Reading

So this is a perfect example of the types of changes we’re going to have to get used to (and perhaps teach?) in terms of reading the Read/Write Web.

Alan publishes a great post on not blogging well with others:

If I were a student in Blog School, the parental note they send home from my blog teachers might bear the comment, “Alan writes a lot, but he does not blog well with others”.

James adds a “manual (“sigh”) trackback” (gotta love that) to his own take on the blogging alone idea:

Absolutely, yes, thrice yes… this is why it’s centred communication, this is why group blogs suck in education, this is why he is totally totally right in that “we should not overlook the value and power of ownership of personal spaces” and this is the whole frickin’ point of the matter: PERSONAL PRESENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the comments left at James site is a long, winding one from Paolo, who by the looks of it doesn’t have a blog of his own:

Blogging with the intention to communicate, to be heard and keeping the audience in mind could therefore never means that one blogs alone. The possibility of comments and trackbacks prove Alan wrong, for every student who wouldn´t use or reflect upon the reactions and review of his peers and teachers really does not blog well with others.

A trackback on the thread leads us to Aaron Nelson (who ironically showed up in a comment left here yesterday about new bloggers.) Aaron says:

I find myself totally agreeing here. To me, one of the best parts of blogging is that it’s my turf. Noone else can tell me what to think, how to think, where to go with my thinking etc.

It is also, as Levine mentions, is where I’ve started to find my own voice, and where I’m free to polish, redefine, and develop it.

I also enjoyed his ideas around investment. When its yours, you invest with great freedom and generosity because it “feels like home.” (Levine par. 5)

To which Graham Wegner replies:

Hey Aaron, this is the amazing thing about blogging. I work hard to put up relevant content on my blog (to me and hopefully others) and occasionally it crosses someone’s rss radar, but I see a post – the same one you saw from Alan – and it resonates with me personally so I type up a bit of a response and that is what strikes a chord immediately with someone else (in this case, you!)enough to not just provoke a response comment but to post to their own blog about it in classic Rip.Mix.Learn fashion.

Amazing, yes.

My take? Well, I’ve pretty much been a no show of late at Ed Tech Insider, because of time constraints, yes, but also because it doesn’t feel like home, somehow. I have real passion for this space for a variety of reasons. I haven’t been able to generate that for ETI. But others obviously have. Not sure what that says.

What I am sure of is that the days of linear reading of ideas in a text are long gone. I’m sure we could whip up an RSS feed to follow this thread throughout blogspace (couldn’t we?) but our brains are going to have to get used to this hypertext, connective reading thing until something better comes along. (I’m sure Stephen is working on it.)