One of the things on my list this weekend is to revise a web-based article I have out there, “When Blogging Goes Bad: A Cautionary Tale About Blogs, Emailing Lists, Discussion, and Collaboration.” I think it’s pretty much a “done deal” that this web site/essay will be published in a journal I will name in the very near future– I don’t think it’d be appropriate to name it right now, though many of my readers will probably be able to make an educated guess.
I’ve already received some excellent and useful advice on this piece from some readers, but I thought (in the spirit of “blog community”), I’d give the millions of readers out there a chance to offer me some advice before I sit down and revise this in earnest.
A couple of things to keep in mind, if you’re interested in playing along:
* I’m not real crazy about the “arrangement” of the piece, and I don’t think most of the readers are either. So that will probably change.
* I think the definition of “collaboration” is something I have to spell out in a bit more detail here, and I am of course interested in ideas.
* I’m not trying to say in this essay that using blogs in classrooms is a bad idea. All I’m trying to say is that they aren’t very good at creating a “discussion” among a group of students, they aren’t very good at fostering a “dynamic” or a “collaborative” writing atmosphere, and they aren’t a replacement for using an email list discussion set-up.
Any suggestions are more than welcome– post them in the comments, or send me an email.