Thanks

I wish to thank Nate and Rovy for the conversation that they have been having about the digital divide and the participation or lack thereof in the blogosphere of many distingushed educators. I have been following this conversation from Rovy’s side, but I finally did what I should have been doing the entire time and went out to find Nate’s blog for his full thoughts – what a treat. The conversation, which I already appreciated, was even better and more crucial than I had realized. I have been having a very similar conversation with Andy Gibbons, who is one of those distinguished non-participants. One of the reasons for this digital divide, I believe, is that the conversation within the blogosphere thus far has been two dimentional – it has been more focused on the technological aspects of improving education and has not had much depth as far as broader theories of learning and instruction are concerned. This is not conducive to bringing in those who are not interested in the technology for technology’s sake. What we need is not just a critical mass, but a crtical mass of variety in the ideas being discussed though the medium in question. That is where it will begin to gain the validity and prestige that will bring a wider range of people in. So far there is no vision among the non-bloggers about how fundamentally different the world is as a result of these new communication tools. I believe that the critical mass of topical variety is the lack of critical mass that we must address. Thanks again to Nate and Rovy for this conversation, but even more thanks to both of them for having a broader range of substance on their own sites than I generally find among educational bloggers.