aureliom's Blog: effective online communication

Just posted on my other blog. http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/2008/10/twitterers-that-blurt-plop.html
Political conversations are dangerous for me because I'll type blindly and hit the send key faster than my spellcheck function is running and worse, before I filter out irrational emotional outbursts.
Of different consequence is simply using the blog as a pulpit or soap-box. I forget how much I dislike being proselytized. If asked about my purposes for blogging I will state my criteria really about futhering dialogue and critical thinking I would like to believe that what I post is for a broad audience and I am reaching out to others who think differently but can be appealed to through logic and careful word-smithing.
I'm not so sure my writings meet those standards. As Henry Beard would say in Latin "Manifesto nescio quis lapsus stultus factus est"
(There's obviously been some sort of silly mistake.)

My latest post in blogspot,
http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/2008/11/equal-air-time-but-you-have-to-be.html begins, "I'm blogging at a very interesting site socialvoice.liveworld.com.
Another blogger, much more experienced, is Judith's blog: Through the virtual looking glass - online focus groups"
I'm hoping to get readers of my other blog to explore this blog site. I'm very interested in reading other blogs and sharing what I find interesting through my own blogs.
I'm also trying to bridge the social groups and networks that I am part of that don't participate in computer communication networks with this 'social media' world of online networks. I want to keep a strong connection with both worlds without idealizing or damning either.

For several years I've been following Study Circles http://www.everyday-democracy.org/en/Index.aspx a very interesting process because it is congruent with my & my orgs view of family participation in public education. http://www.idra.org/Podcasts/Resources/Effective_Parent_Outreach/
http://www.idra.org/IDRA_Newsletter/June_-_July_2008_Parent_and_Community_Engagement/Authentic_Consultation/
The idea of 'deliberative democracy' is in the spotlight with the Obama network expecting input and dialogue, which is more possible with all the available social media tools.
What can't be replaced is authentic conversation. I recall Bryan Person's questioning of community existing simply or primarily through online networks & I agree totally. Bryan's blog quoted " Defining community. Tim said his Disaboom community "empowers people to be who they are and connect with people like them;" it provides a place for members to build "genuine and meaningful relationships."
Tiffany noted that her members can meet and communicate can meet with people they know -- or don't know. "
To consider large numbers of Facebook or LinkedIn contacts as a real community is illusory and naive.
But if you do have a strong, on the ground process such as Everyday Democracy, then you can accelerate, augment and extend the power of that real community through blogs, and all the fabulous social media tools that exist.
http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/2008/12/ncpie-artists-formerly-known-as-study.html

Welcome to the home of the Edublogs Awards - the annual event where the best
education blogs of the year are decided by, well, you! Voting is now open for
the 2008 awards
http://edublogawards.com/

Visit site to vote and also to check out blogs to subscribe to if you are interested in education

MIght as well give it a plug here. Below is part of quote from another blog for the Colorado event. Get my POV in my other blog. http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/

What is Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation?Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation is a one day conference/meetup for teachers, administrators, students, school board members, parents and anyone who is interested in education. It will be held on Saturday, February 21st, 2009, from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm at Heritage High School in Littleton, Colorado, USA
This is their site http://colearning.wikispaces.com/Home+2009

The challenge is to dive into this 2.0 world that I've only been participating in online. Beside my colleague Christie, and Bryan Person, I've not participated face-to-face with the best and brightest in conferences such as the one announced above.

But will do.

No Computerless Learning Blues, the new NCLB song for bridging the digital divide.
From my other blog: Just heard the NPR report on the success of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) in the boondocks of Peru. Laptop Deal Links Rural Peru To Opportunity, Risk ... OLPC has been controversial ever since first proposed by Nicholas Negroponte, the computer science professor who started the One Laptop Per Child Foundation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Negroponte defines it "an education project; it's not a laptop project." Launched in 2005, the nonprofit OLPC aims to equip poor schoolchildren in developing countries with durable, inexpensive, networked laptops. The comments on the NPR story website attest to the problems with the project. Ranging from problems with batteries that require electrical rather than solar power to revive, to the objection made by officials of some 3rd world countries: Cheap, toylike laptops are digital crumbs that reinforce the traditional, racist view of western industrialized nations. True, OLPC hasn't accelerated and caught-on with the speed and acceptance originally envisioned, but it is already showing impact. It's also becoming an opportunity for charitable contribution. Amazon has a video clip ad Learn About OLPC's XO Laptop in a buy-one-give-one campaign.
Links in the blog http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/

I really hope that under the new administration, we get closer in this country to at least one laptop per family, with children having equal time online with adults. Our current economic crisis might need an upgrade of 'a chicken in every pot'. How about 'An internet-connected laptop in every home'. It's not a silver bullet to solve the many complex problems in educational equity but it is a greatly enabling condition. I raise my mouse and toast I'LL BLOG TO THAT. I'LL BLOG TO THAT.

I was sent a stop spamming note, so I posted a particularly pouty & self-serving entry, http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/ and quit that particular group. I even noted how glad I was to have a burning issue to write about. I expected it would trigger responses from the social media world -- good, bad or indifferent. Well, nothing. nada.
It's really hard to predict what will cause readers to respond to a posting. I'm curious about what readers think, and there have been readers...google analytics tells me so.
For the last 30 days there was only one posting that brought over 50 in one day. The regular visitor's see-saw is from a low of 5 to a high of 12. I'm told that for a new blogger focusing on a somewhat narrow topic that's not bad.
I'll just keep thinking of ways to attract readers with an affinity to my themes/topics and also ways to attract readers, period.