Thing #7 Confessions of a Lurker

I guess I am just a lurker to my very core. But then I have company; I read somewhere that only 1 in 100 people that read a blog will post a comment. That's me somewhere in the middle of those 99 folks not making a peep. And that's not necessarily bad; I think it has more to do with a person's temperament. I have plenty to say in my classes or around my family. Just ask my students or my wife and daughters, they will confirm that I often keep talking and talking going to great lengths to clearly and completely express myself. I just do not feel the need to stand on a big stage expressing myself to all sundry. I do feel strongly about communicating my thoughts, feelings, values and opinions to those I care about and for me those are the people closest to me; the people around my table or under my dome at the planetarium.

But then being a lifelong learner is all about stretching and groaning, I mean growing, so I'll make an effort to continue posting comments. I do admit that I become much more involved in a thought or idea if I am forced to make a written comment.

Thing #6

I am checking my Google Reader on a daily basis and I see how a person could get pretty compulsive about wanting to check their Reader throughout the day. My Google Reader seems like the ultimate newspaper to me, with all its content tailored to my interests and constantly updated 24 hours a day. But there is a real irony; the technology that makes Google Reader possible may well lead to the bankruptcy of traditional newspapers and the death of journalism as a profession. And then where will all the hardcore news come from? And who will do the reporting? I understand that it is traffic, or the number of hits that a site gets that makes for profitability on the web, and sites get the highest volume in large part by being the first to report a story. The need for speed works against careful reporting.

And as more and more of our culture moves online, as more of the news we get, and the way we communicate and socialize moves online; the more important it is that all layers of society have access to Internet technology. According to the Knight Commission report,the free flow of information is vital to communities and is a necessary condition for individuals to be socially, economically and politically first class citizens. So I wonder how these issues are playing out in our classrooms.