Blog Blog Blog

The repetition of words can suggest redundancy, an "etc," but I can tell you a sentence where the word "and" appears five times in a row and it still makes sense! If my students are creating a blog about blogs, a "blog blog," then it is only fitting that I should write a blog about blogs that are about blogging, obviously, a "blog blog blog."

So let me link to the blog I have just been reading, Will Richard's blog, which is really a blog about blogging, a blog blog. The most recent post from January 27 is interesting because Richardson is trying to get educational bloggers to band together and make public political statements about the importance and value of educational blogging. I suspect he is thinking about this because of the need to counteract the actions of schools to block student access to blogs -- as my graduate students, current highschool teachers, Kevin Huff and Lindsey Steenbergen have experienced. I put this on the same plane as the idea that there are some books students shouldn't read -- so we should not let students read books. Or, there is writing that is inappropriate for young people -- so we shouldn't let young people write. I guess a component of politics is simply to interject commonsense into the public discussion.

In another post, dated Jan 20, Will talks about how blogging has changed the way he reads. He says something interesting,

I now read with an intent to write, and my writing (or blogging) is an attempt to synthesize and connect ideas, not simply summarize or paraphrase what I’ve been reading (if I even get to that.)

As a research scholar working on my fifth book, this position is familiar to me. I also often read with an intention to write. In my research I am more focused on how to push or extend the thinking of others, or how to utilize their thinking to support what I am working on, than I am focused on synthesizing or connecting ideas. My purposes are argumentative; Richards' seem to be to develop community understanding. Is that too bold a distinction?

I like the idea of students reading not just to answer teacher questions, but because they enjoy reading and because they want to write, to connect ideas, to express themselves, to think critically, to develop communities of understanding, and to blog, blog, blog.