When you watch children play on a playground for a while, you soon can tell those who are at the center of the play groups 
and those who are on the outside. Those on the outside would really like to play and take part but they know that no matter how much they try to get into the main group of play, they won’t be able to unless someone from the “group” invites them. Now, once in the play group, they are not really part of the group. As soon as they do or say something that upsets one of the “group” they again join the outsiders looking in and usually someone else takes their place. This continues over time as the main group remains pretty much intact, unless someone moves in and can meet the criteria. Those children on the outside desperately want to play and be part of the group. So much so that, at times, they’ll turn on other children on the outside just to prove they can be like the main “group”.
Now this type of thing doesn’t stop as the children get older, it just morphs into other types of “playground” settings like the hallway, the rink, the park or any place that children gather and then places where adults gather. As an administrator, I’ve been involved in a number of scenarios similar to the above that have created hard feelings and problems. It is very difficult when a parent comes to you to discuss their child knowing that the child isn’t one of the “in” group but just wants others to leave them alone and treat them with respect. As a parent, I’ve had to watch as one of my own children has played on the outside and not been included. Thank God she has an incredible sense of something because this has not altered her love of school, feelings for other people and her genuine love for others. She seems oblivious, most of the time, to what the others are doing as she and one of her playmates play together. We hope that as she grows older, she’s now 10, she’ll not lose that gift of genuine caring.
Making a leap to the adult world, we seem to kind of experience this phenomenon in the blogosphere. It’s not exactly the same. People are not “excluded” on purpose. No one goes around telling people they can ”blog today.” There are a few major names that come to mind whenever the conversation begins about education and web2.0 this is not wrong or any different than any group of which I have been a part. A reference by them or a link will send others your way. Of course, you have to have the writing and the content to keep them.
When I first began blogging, I was hoping to see my contacts and conversation grow by leaps and bounds but that didn’t happen. In fact, it has taken a long time to build relationships with a few bloggers and share in the mutual blog reading and commenting. I still try to visit the blogs of people who comment because, well, there aren’t 100’s of them and so I figure I should give them the courtesy. Of course, I wanted to be one of those who was at the forefront but, somewhere along the line, it didn’t happen. I didn’t become one of those “name droppers” that were mentioned and joined. In hindsight, that’s probably good.
Through the summer I’ve come to realize that I don’t need to post every day. I have a big job ahead of me as I try to introduce the staff and students to the usefullness of these tools and try to enhance the functionality of administrators through these tools. I can write for myself despite the fact that it will sometimes rub others the wrong way. I can always comment back to anyone commenting - there aren’t that many!
I will continue to post as a teacher and administrator who doesn’t just find the tools fascinating but as someone who uses them daily in order to save time, delineate information in an expeditious manner, ensure contact with parents and students, communicate with staff, students and parents and improve my teaching and administration capabilities. I will continue to work with my teachers, I’m the IT person for the school, in developing and enhancing their use of these tools to help organize themselves and enhance the learning of students. I will assist the teachers to build their programs using new tools in order to help our students develop 21st century skills. I will continue to look for teachers who are interested in making connections using these tools and try to bring students together in unique and educational ways.
It’s not that I won’t join in the great conversations that take place but I won’t be tied to my reader or worry about “the one that got away” because there will always be another one. Right now, I’m working on renovating our house. I’ve spent 4 days repairing and repainting and have a few days left. I enjoy this as it is something totally different from my usual work. After nearly 2 weeks of no technology, I’ve realized that, like tv, which I don’t watch, I can still do my job and completely function without being locked into the various “tools” that are being used. I’ve been able to spend time doing other things, knowing that life is full of choices and it’s not the talents or gifts we are given but the choices we make in using them.
To those who visit regularly, thanks for your comments and input. I hope to continue sharing comments and ideas through the year. For those who visit, thanks for visiting. Maybe sometime soon, you’ll leave a comment and we can begin a new conversation. As for “playing” with the others, maybe some of us will be invited but, if not, we can’t lose the gifts we have and we can share them with the few who visit.
Image 1 - www.dexh-es.eu.dodea.edu Image 2 - http://kaslovisitorguide.com/pics/winter1.jpg Image 3 - http://www.olegnovikov.com/gallery/whatsnew/summer.jpg
10 responses so far ↓
I agree about having to not fuss about missing something. I need to work more on balance. This summer has not been a very restful one in many ways.
Continue to remember your value in your circle of influence. As a principal your perspective is critical to my learning.
My outside observations and watching your evolve as a contributor to learning is interesting to watch and I’d say your are finding your way.
Once the school year is underway I’m confident you’ll provide your readers with quality reflections.
How To Be Heard
[...] that is a very big plus. Thinking about this lately and reading a recent posting on the Educational Discourse blog I find that there are others in the blogosphere who don’t consider their blog “in the [...]
Dean, it has been a rather strange summer. I had thought to do a lot more work on various school projects but ended up renovating the house and working at house building. Who knew? Once I get back in school mode, things will probably start to fall into place a bit better.
Dan, thanks for the link. I’ll be looking through it.
We all have a role and a unique perspective to offer. Please keep sharing with a wider audience but hopefully many in your school district will benefit from all that you have learned through global collaboration.
Howdy! I enjoyed your post. I agree that the edublogosphere resembles a playground in how folks associate with each other.
If you want to be a big name, you essentially have to innovate on the posts of “big name” bloggers. You have to take what they’ve written and push the envelope a bit…and you have to do it in your own particular way, time and again.
And, make your posts shorter.
There is an alternative to being a big name blogger…you can choose to blog for yourself, a place to reflect on what you do. It’s the kind of blogging that benefits you, even if no one reads it.
Hoping this is worthwhile,
Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://mguhlin.net
Dean,
I began blogging at the end of June. Like many educational bloggers, I harbored the secret desire to become a “voice”.
My expectations were fulfilled, but not quite as I expected.
I met, and had conversations with, many dynamic and creative people. I took part in the Four Slides competition. I made connections with teachers in other countries and hope to collaborate on projects with them once our school year begins.
My voice is a small one, but sufficient for my needs. I’ve found a congenial community of learners and have an outlet for reflection and a venue for interaction.
I’m not producing significant, culture-changing content, but I am helping to expand and implement the ideas of those who are - a satisfying and necessary job. It’s quite enough.
Sorry, this comment has been stripped of its links due to the edublogs spam filter - but I rescued it from cocomment. I think it’s fine without the links but they do help with clarifying my comment!
Recently, Stephen Downes featured Scott McCloud’s critique of the edublogosphere but disagreed with his description of its structure. Scott was of the opinion that it revolved around “The hubs and superhubs are the essential connectors, the glue that holds the network together.” So if you remove a big name (Richardson, Warlick, Davis) from the edublogosphere, you’ll take a lot of the influence of bloggers linked to them. But Stephen describes a web that is more of a mesh with the end result being that because we all link to totally different parts of the blogosphere, across countries, across sectors the influence of the “big names” isn’t all that important. I tend to agree with Stephen’s analysis as it rings true for my experiences. After all, I reside quite a distance away from the North American numerical dominance of edublogging and the people who teach me, who let me “look over the shoulder” are less and less the big names (although it’s good to read themoccasionally to see what they’re up to) and more grassroots people like yourself, Mark Ahlness and Miss Profe or Chris Harbeck or yes, Dan Meyer. I find voices out of the mainstream to be also particularly inspiring - if you read my blog you will know of my admiration for bloggers like Artichoke, Doug Noon - who aren’t interested in the latest tool or School 2.0 buzzword, but want to push the boundaries out in their own unique way. What am I saying here? Not much, but the longer you blog, the more you find your place in the edublogosphere and the people you trust, who give you the time of day and push back on your ideas. Who wants to be comment no.42 on a major blogger’s post and be overlooked when you can comment on someone who means something to you and have real interaction and feedback. You don’t even have to blog very often either - a blogger like Konrad Glogowski is very infrequent but his readers know that when he does post, it’ll be worth the wait. The last thing I’m interested in is an edublogosphere that resembles the playground pecking order - I’m not in this to relive my school day failings. I want to build my learning for the future so I can be the best I can be at my job making connections for students to their futures.
Great post, Kelly.
[...] commented that Kelly wishes his blog had a larger readership but doesn’t want to deal with Miguel’s criticism that his posts (which [...]
[...] commented that Kelly wishes his blog had a larger readership but doesn’t want to deal with Miguel’s criticism that his posts (which [...]
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