Comments on: The Ed. Tech. Echo Chamber?

By: Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson : The State of the Education Blogosphere

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:15:15 +0000

[...] Becker at Educational Insanity talks about the Ed Tech echo chamber in a post inspired in part by Scott’s list. Jon also talks about the problem of a lack of cross [...]

By: Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:06:10 +0000

See the comment thread at

http://snipurl.com/2eab1

I think that answers Ian’s question…

By: Ian H.

Ian H. — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:33:55 +0000

While I think that a lot of the top bloggers on the list are interlinked, I think it’s because, as Scott has said, they’re first on the scene. I’m a classroom teacher who’s been blogging for about six years, but I only got hooked into the edublogosphere recently by attending a conference presentation by Dean Shareski who had David Warlick Skype into the session. Otherwise, I probably would not have connected.

As a teacher, the edtech network is valuable to me because they are on the leading edge of classroom technology – they’re the MetaCritic or RottenTomatoes of the edtech sphere. I don’t have time to wade through all the web 2.0 crap that’s out there, but I can quickly see which tools are taking off and which will be personally useful when one of them blogs about it because their experience spans classrooms, so they have a more stepped-back view of the situation.

That said, I would like to see a list of the most prolific/popular/useful classroom teacher blogs. Does such a thing exist?

By: Educatorblog

Educatorblog — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:45:25 +0000

You’ve inspired me to write a post on this topic (http://educatorblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/in-defense-of-the-echo-chamber/)

By: Jon Becker

Jon Becker — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:38:51 +0000

Welcome to the edublogosphere, @educatorblog! Two clarifcations…I was pointing out Tabor’s blog as part of a separate network (the ed. policy network), not the ed. tech. network. Second, I tried to make the point, maybe not well enough, that echo chambers do have their purpose (mainly learning), including, as you write, deliberation/argumentation. My concern is that the networks are separate.

By: In Defense of the ‘Echo Chamber’ « An (aspiring) Educator’s Blog

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:35:23 +0000

[...] Defense of the ‘Echo Chamber’ Jump to Comments I ran across posts on Educational Insanity and the Ed Jurist Record that characterize the edublogosphere (I’ll abbreviate it EBS for the [...]

By: Educatorblog

Educatorblog — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:37:32 +0000

I joined the edublogosphere a few days ago (educatorblog.wordpress.com). Although you say that there is an echo chamber in ed tech blogs, it seems to me that most ed tech blogs are multifaceted. For example, Tabor has a post about a teacher being fired for using anorexic as an insult. Also, we shouldn’t confuse ‘echo chambers’ with extended deliberation/argumentation. Many blog posts are reactions to edubloggers read on other blogs – this is a good thing if the posts add reasoning and evidence to the table.

By: Justin B.

Justin B. — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:09:41 +0000

I think you are right Jon. I put my critical thoughts of the ed. tech. blogosphere in a post at the Edjurist.

By: Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:11:43 +0000

We only have so much time in the day. So while it would be wonderful for all of us to spend time, energy, and effort in areas outside our own, the bottom line is that we are going to gravitate toward our own affinity groups. We did that before the Internet too; the Web just removes much of the friction and expands our circles of learning.

Let me know, Jon, when, in addition to the ed tech and ed policy bloggers circles, you personally have significant time to live in the homeschooling bloggers’ circle and the elementary classroom bloggers’ circle and the politically-conservative education bloggers’ circle and the special education bloggers’ circle and the …

[on another note: should I be concerned that my two ReCaptcha words for this comment are 'Harlem' and 'apathy?']