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February 05, 2005
Going inside the network
Jon Udell makes a good point when he says, "The dictionary definition of “blog” is correct, but it says nothing about the network in which the blog participates. The bloggers I read and especially those whose posts I value define my social network, but it doesn't say much about my network literacy until I do something inside the network.
Liz Lawley's post on Many to Many, it's the social network, stupid! illustrates a necessary component of network literacy when she talks about folksonomies, "I don’t want to know what the average eight-year-old calls an image. I want to know what my friends and colleagues call an image. Or a link. Or a photo". Network literacy includes knowing a common language.
Critical blogging approaches network literacy because critical blogging requires succinct writing of critical thoughts as an outcome of research expertise. But network literacy is more than that. It's what Jill Walker says in her talk at brown post: "it's learning to think and write with the network" (para. 1). That is what I'm trying to do with this class when I try to think critically, write something intelligent, and link to things I think the rest of the participants might find useful or informative.
But one thing Lawley and Walker don't specifically mention is rhythm. I think 'learning to think and write with the network' requires and should emphasize rhythm, for it's not just knowing what your social network thinks, the right language to use, as well as thinking critically, linking, and writing intelligently. For example, if Will Richardson is answering the question Why Weblogs?, but I am still having to answer, Why Teach Writing in a Computer Classroom?, then it's as if we're talking about apples and oranges even though both posts happen to be be about computers and writing. It's in the rhythm.
Maybe I'm just stating the obvious. But now I get it even more. Snowballs anyone?
Posted by mhansen at February 5, 2005 03:13 PM