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Understanding the educational blogs and bloggers.  A while ago I wrote about my process of uncovering the people behind the blogs I was reading.  This was really useful.  Since then I have been more concerned with the management of those people.

Non-linear Reading & Writing

As I began to read various educational blogs I noticed a few things:

• Sometimes I was reading really similar stuff over and over
• Sometimes it was from different angles but mostly it was from one of two poles
• I try really hard to comment lots but sometimes when you’re moving fast it’s hard.  The balance between reading/writing and commenting is hard to find.
• Copyright doesn’t only apply to a book or even to your blog post.  It applies to your comments as well. (link)
• Sometimes when I read something very different I found it easier to get inspired to do something or write something.
• My favourite people to read are those who provide insights into teaching practice as well as web2.0 tools like Larry Ferlazzo’s blog.  It also has links to student work and I find that really useful
• Outside of that I read lots of different blogs from Pyschology Blogs to Pop Culture to Research.

I have tried to find a good process for blogging on a regular basis.  Chris Brogan has a great example of a blogging workflow.  He basically helps you define what you are trying accomplish with your blog and then work from their to identify what you need to write and how to get inspiration.  One of the most interesting questions for me was ‘What’s the point of having a blog if you can’t get a conversation started?’ This is definately something I’m always thinking about.

I think it’s possible that the processes of really realising the benefits of blogging is moving in slowly constricting circles until you are reading blogs and writing your own in a community where their is mutual benefit.

Reading and Writing on The Same Page

One thing that has really helped me understand the close, close link between reading and writing is Zemanta.  Usually how this works for me is that I start off with a few ideas from blogs that I have been reading or something I’m trying to do.  Then Zemanta suggests a few other articles which I might check out for example this one.  As I write more it suggests more.  So I’m literally reading and writing at the same time.  This is something I do without Zemanta but Zemanta makes it much easier and I read much more than I would without it.  Additionally it will suggest Creative Commons pictures from Flickr that might be useful.  The picture above is a Zemanta suggestion.

Zemanta is also a tool that does a number of things to supercharge your blogging.  It can automatically suggest tags and add reference links.

What I’m Still Struggling With In My Writing

• Lack of consistent feedback
• Deciding where I write and for what purpose.  I think I write mostly to remember the context of links and explore my own thinking but… (link)
• I’d like to Focus more on reading and writing in a way that encourages both polarisation, homogeny and diversity (link)
• I’d like to think more seriously about if I’m improving the quality of my writing.  (Chris Brogan again)
• I’d like to find new ways to reuse other peoples content rather than just link to it, for example the Ed Techie’s Eduwomble concept..  I wish I could find the time to make a video or audio file sometimes instead.

• Overwhelming sense of not seeing the connections in my RSS and getting fed up with too many similar types of posts or posts that don’t mean alot to me
• Twitter rejection – I tried to follow someone who I thought would have most of the answers but they didn’t want me

So to clarify what I was learning from all these people I’ve reorganised my RSS and in the process revisited a lot of blogs, gone back into the history, checked resources and found out their names.  The names thing was especially important for me as you read a lot of comments and it can be difficult to put the comments in perspective.  I think after doing this exercise I have a much better understanding of who the people are in my network and where to go for different types of information.  Not only does this make me feel more connected to my community as a reader and watcher it helps me understand when I can most usefully participate in the conversation (or something like that).

In the process I created this mind map to help me understand.  It’s a work in progress. You’re welcome to join me.  MindMeister is collaborative so I can share my mind map with you if your interested.  Also I’d be really interested if other people have people they trust and go back to time after time

Other resources for understanding your network:

• Google Touch

Other writings about networks

• Musings about social and g/local cultures
• Rhizomes and blogging – public/private groupwork and the establishment of trusted nodes
• The Techne-mentor
• Forrester’s New Social Technolographics report
• 6 Degrees of Professional Development