From the “Throw it Up and See if it Sticks Deptartment” I just put together a Digg-type site over at CrispyNews specifically for those of us who are focused on the Read/Write Web and the implications for education. Here’s how I think you could use it if you bought into it.
First, go over to the EdBloggerNews page and register for an account (left hand column.) Then, grab the bookmarklet (at the top of the left hand column) and drag it to your toolbar so when you find something of interest you can easily post it. Then, most importantly, subscribe to the RSS feed for the site so you collect all of the Web goodness we provide (with any luck).
I know this plays off the del.icio.us idea that I threw up yesterday, and it still might be better if we just collectively used the edblogreading tag that “ratcatcher” created. Suggestions welcomed.
And to be honest, this is all stemming from a bigger burr in my brain of late that has to do with the seeming randomness of all of the really great work that people in this community are starting to create. It’s just feeling like it’s all over the place, and that if we could in some way get our collective act together, we could start creating an incredibly valuable resource. I know it’s all about small pieces loosely joined, but wouldn’t it be great to point the newcomers to one spot that was a clearinghouse for all of this work? Not to mention the value it would have to us old timers in terms of bringing people in. I mean all of a sudden, it seems like everyone has a wiki, and most all of them have great intent and good content. But there’s also a lot of duplication of effort, and more importantly, dis-connection, at least that what it feels like to me.
Am I wrong?
And more importantly, what to do about it?
technorati tags:edblogging, tagging, read_write_web
Since I am a doer… here is what I suggest–
What we need is a master Index where we can all link to all things wonderful and good that we are doing in our own education 2.0 spaces.
The easiest way I see to do that is through a wiki. So please join me over on EduWikipedia- The place for us all to get our collective act together!
http://eduwikipedia.pbwiki.com
Password = connected
Share it wide and far in all your networks.
Together we can create a Table of Contents for a collective repository of Educational Web 2.0 related tools, resources, experts and so on.
After we create the sections in the Index– we still continue to create in our own spaces, we just link what we create in EduWikipedia– so we can all benefit from the awesome things we are all doing to improve education.
Join me… help create this incredible resource!
Thanks, Sheryl! Great idea. Maybe if we all do some marketing we can pull it together. I really think it could be a great clearninghouse for information if we all buy into the idea…
I think this is a fine idea. I’ve created an account (now I just need to figure out how to get Flock to let me post stuff..) My only concern is that this stays focused on topic. Education as a topic is far too huge. I am not interested in a resource that lists hundreds of stories about administration, new policies, etc. if they are not focused on the read / write web. I agree with you that we are getting spread far too thin with too much duplication. There is getting to be no way “in” with stuff scattered far and wide.
In closing, I think this is a great idea, but I would personally like to see it focused closely on topics like change, educational technology, and read / write implications for education. If it gets any larger, it will be too diaphonous to use or hang on to.
Clarence,
Great point… I created a Comments, Concerns, Discussions page in the wiki (http://eduwikipedia.pbwiki.com
Password = connected )for discussion related to issues such as what you raise here.
I have copied your comment there– I hope that is ok. I just feel you are so right– we need to focus — and change, educational technology, and read / write implications for education seems like a perfect focal point to me.
Maybe we could do something like this.
Actually, I think the real problem is that link blogging has fallen out of favor. We’ve lost sight of the value of quick “go read this cool idea” posts. That’s what really holds a blogging community together, imho. And it leverages Google properly.
OK… despite my snark, I actually like the Digg-style idea here. I’ll give it a shot.
Sorry to be the naysayer here, but I think the CrispyNews idea and the wiki are just going to end up in unnecessary duplication of resources.
Wikipedia works because it covers everything. The minute you try to narrow down a field you get problems – someone sets up a resource about Education 2.0, someone sets one up about Educational Technology, someone sets one up about Elearning, someone sets one up about Edublogging and before long you have mutliple projects with each garnering a bit of support for a while then sputtering out.
This goes against what I thought Web 2.0 is about – decentralisation of resources, rather than centralised repositories.
I think you were heading in a better direction when you were talking about creating a common del.ici.us tag – but even this approach suffers from the definition problem – what’s edublogreading-rated and what’s not?.
I think we are better off finding ways to aggregate existing resources, rather than build more resources (which only point to other resources anyway). And it should be up to us a individuals to decide how we aggregate existing resources, not use a tag someone has nominated.
This is great! I have blogged about your efforts here and am joining in the discussion. I believe it will take the agreement of several “old timer” educational leaders such as yourself to agree on the forum to use. After such agreement and endorsement, others will follow. I don’t know that the medium needs to be as important than the fact that a medium has been chosen and is being used.
I also think that everyone wants to be the one who invented the ___. There is no limit to what we can accomplish if we do not care who gets the credit. I have participated on wikis and worked to help things along. I’ve always been one of those that believes that if I work and contribute in a meaningful way with my best that God handles the rest and He always has.
Although others may not agree with this viewpoint, none of us got into teaching for the money, so I hope we can see people who are willing to bow their “Pet project” to the greater good as the best tool emerges for edublogger collaboration.
I really like the evironment that you have set up! Thank you for not just ranting but doing something about it!
Actually, I’m with Sean on this one. If you take the long tail approach to the blogosphere, then much that is of immense value to a smaller pockets of educators will get ignored in the “most widely read gets pushed up higher in the rankings” type of reading that a Digg style site would promote. This could be a very echo chambery place to use another cliche, and one of the beauties of blogging is finding the nuggets of thought that can only be discovered through “connective writing.”