The current stat of edublogging

I don't know what to think of edublogs. I sure seem to have a love/hate relationship with them, though.

My online personality has many facets. I'm one person to the Digital Comic Preservation group--generally a very thankful and amazed supporter of their goals. On the Ubuntu forums I'm a source of information on what I know about Ubuntu and open source applications--especially as to how they can be used in an educational setting. The Ubuntu code of conduct pretty much assures that we all get along, even when arguing. On the Python in Education special interest group I'm also very polite and thankful for the expertise that is so freely shared. It's on the edublogger front, though, where I've pissed people off in the past.

Part of the problem is the rate of change in different spheres. Most facets of my internet personality hang out in areas where change happens quickly. If a problem comes up, it's dealt with and all are welcome to jump in and help solve it. This is true of the DCP and just about any gathering of programmers.

As some have noted, however, change in education takes a lot of time, and the edublogger community deals with this all the time.

Bud the Teacher is a busy man. My job puts me in contact with him personally at times, but I know him more from his online persona than I know him personally. Still, what I'm always amazed at is how downright polite he is online (and also in person).

Me? Well, I've posted comments here and there that have done more harm than good, and that wasn't my intention. I'm still trying to figure this whole edublogger thing out. My positions in other online communities of programmers and Linux users really didn't prepare me well for the edubloggersphere. I'm still trying to determine what the purpose is. I guess I'm a bit too task-oriented and want to tackle a problem. In the edublogosphere I'm not really sure what the current task is.

Theres always a lot of talking about the importance of collaborating and sharing (which reminds me a lot of open source development priciples)--and yet there has to be more than that. I also read a lot of posts about a certain web application or product that teachers are really happy with. I've noticed that more and more these are open source applications, although the edublogger often will make no mention of that in their post. That's where I usually jump in and say something like, "...and the nice thing is that this is an open source application, made possible by a lot of hard work and collaboration among programmers with a common philosophy..." But then I blow it and say something like, "...and it sure beats the proprietary crapwhere Dreamweaver that too many teachers still use only because their district chose to waste a ton of money..." See? I write those things all the time.

My solution? I guess I'll just pretend the Ubuntu Code of Conduct also applies in the edublogosphere--whatever that is.