Another interesting blog is The Invisible Adjunct. The name refers to adjunct professors who toiled through graduate school but did not find meaningful employment at the end. The chief blogger chooses to remain anonymous and became so infuriated by criticism, I think, that he or she "pulled" the blog off the web. I have not been able to access this blog, and the last time I did the "author" was talking about shutting down the blog altogether. Which is unfortunate, since this blog was inclusive. Anyone could join and post. In fact I did post back in November, 2003 and we had a great yet heated discussion about the plight of the adjunct and the union's place in doing something about it. In my opinion some bloggers there need a lesson or two in netiquette, but this blog is not a dry academic one.  ¶ 11:23 AM

  One of the best blogs I have read so far is "Critical Mass." What is impressive about this blog is that it covers stories in detail and a lot of subjects. One of the most common subjects is academia. Yet, the view of the bloggers is usually critical of academia: the meaningless discourse, the political correcdtness, the tenure system, the graduate school horrors, etc. Yet, this blog has an inclusive feel to it. The blogger includes links to other sites and is not patronizing.

One of the recent topics has been V-Day: vagina day at various universities. O'Connor is always interested in more information and angles, from knowing what the vagina lollipops look like to when penis day will be celebrated. The most recent posting, however, turned somewhat political with info about a lecture by Arthur Schslinger about the lack of free speech in America and the university where he was speaking.  ¶ 11:10 AM

  This post appeared in Oxblog. The three official members of the blog are describing what a real blog should be. The problem is they apparently have no sense of irony: their blog is closed and not open to comments by the "public" and yet they claim the newspaper should be open to public comments. While I realize that the newspaper is not the same thing as a blog, we need to be conscious of who we are excluding and who is closed to "outsiders." But here is the post:

Posted 11:29 PM by David Adesnik
NYT BLOG DEBUTS! The first NYT blog -- referred to officially as a "Web journal" -- belongs to none other than Public Editor Daniel Okrent. The format of Okrent's journal will be familiar to all those who inhabit the wretched hive of scum and villainy known as the blogosphere. The journal consists of brief posts which contain links to those documents and articles to which Okrent refers. Each post has a permalink attached in order to give it a unique URL. And, finally, readers have the right to respond by posting comments.

(NB: "Kristof Responds" is almost a blog. If it linked to other authors' work, it would be there. Still, there's no question that Kristof deserves considerable credit for interacting with his readers.)

I say that this is a victory for openness and transparency at the New York Times. Its own in-house critic has chosen to adopt the means of communication preferred by the Times' most inveterate critics. I think we are beginning to see a transformation in the way that journalists define their responsibility to their readers.

While journalists' have long -- and deservedly -- insisted that they serve the public by publicizing information about public figures and institutions, they have always hesitated to let anyone outside of the journalistic profession define how such service ought to be performed. As a result, journalists ensured that they themselves were largely spared from the oversight to which they subjected other influential men and women. But we may now be seeing the beginning of a day and age in which journalists acknowledge their responsibility to justify their methods and decisions to the reading public.

Where's the transparency in oxblog?

  ¶ 10:01 AM

  Moving on to The Volokh Conspiracy, I noticed that most of the postings were about legal issues, free speech, gay marriage, and anti-Semiticism. I also realized 13 of the 14 bloggers were men. Yes, Sasha is a man, I think, but Michelle is not. What happened to being conscious of gender balance on the web?

While this blog values more depth than say Instapundit, it is a more traditional intellectual type blog, with only a few posts about topics like popular music. While the range of topics seems limited, so are the bloggers; they appear too 'chummy.'

But again, drawing from what Siemens says about social interaction, this blog really does not offer it. While a person can email the 14 official bloggers, one cannot contribute to the blog in an open, democratic way. This blog does not appear very conversational; it seems a little like reading a law journal. The purpose here does not seem to be a "starting point of dialogue"; it appears that the official members have their views about their issues. For me this blog is too dry to be part of the new movement of blogging as a "disruptive technology."   ¶ 9:33 AM

  One of the most popular academic blogs is "instapundit.com". See While Professor Reynolds is very regular in his posts, they usually are not very long or detailed. For February 16,2004, I counted 23 postings. I was disappointed in how quickly the topics change. And I am not sure this blog qualifies as an "academic" blog. I guess that by the categorization of "academic" blog I assumed that it would confront more educational issues rather than political ones.

Another issue is social interaction, Siemens phrase perhaps taken from the theorist Vtogosky. While he gives credit to people who send him links, there is little interaction among bloggers. It is as if Counsellor Reynolds is not really willing to interact with other bloggers.

While there did not appear to be much real interaction among bloggers, I will say that this blog was way ahead of the news of the day. For example, the blog was full of news about the Kerry "intern" while cable and print media wanted to have more "proof" before running a story about the alleged affair.  ¶ 7:47 PM

  Also as a lense, I would like to draw on some of pedagogy from blogging itself. Specifically, I want to include some theory by George Siemens. He uses the phrase blogging "as a disruptive technology"( http). What Siemens means is that content and distribution has been "decentralized." We don't go to the library or bookstore to buy an education journal; we read about new ideas on blogs and online. Also following the latest writing pedagogy, Siemens describes blogs as "conversation vs. lecture." He states: "I have a mind...I have an opinion. It counts. Just like yours." Last, according to Siemens, "the pipe is more important than the content." There are now close to one million bloggers in the world. We are creating an "ecosystem." To Siemens, "the ecosystem of blgging is more important than the content being generated." That goes for this project as well. There is no such thing as a finished product; there is no ending point; there is just "the starting point for dialogue."

So, the question is: will educators pay attention to these implications? Will their use of blogs reflect what Siemens believes about blogs? Thus, my lense has been further narrowed. First, I want to investigate whether educator blogs consider Selfe's "critical awareness," as delineated above. Second, do teacher blogs demonstrate the implications that Siemens expresses? Or to put it in other words, do educator blogs see blogs as "disruptive technology" and as an "ecosystem"?  ¶ 10:52 AM

  I have decided my project would be better suited to be posted on the web right here. My blessed prof and others could respond to my postings--or parts. I think it would be a great innovation. The only real bad part is having the pposts, one has to start at the end and read forward so to speak.

If the university wants a copy of my project, I can print out my blog. Talk about remediation.

So here it is President's Day. Well, I guess there is something good to say about the president--at least the office of the president--or the holiday i should say.

Yes, I am relaxing and ready to work on my blogproject, but the problem is the family. I have lit my Virgen of Guadalupe candies--definitely not PoMo--but the kids. My wife and daughter went off to my motherinlaws for a while; i sent my son outside to ride his skateboard, but he's back already. I gave him math to do, but he is just sitting at the table annoying me.

So back to my project. Since blogging is supposed to be a disruptive technology, why can't I put it on my blog?  ¶ 10:00 AM

  One of the most recent articles online about educators using blogs starts with "Blogs help educators share ideas, air frustrations" by Mark Toner.
  ¶ 10:01 PM

  The Importance of Paying Attention
Cynthia Selfe herself was not the first but has been the most persistent in proclaiming we educators pay attention to how we use technology in our classrooms and the assumptions we make. For example, what assumptions do we make about access to computers in our assignments and teacher narratives? Do we assume students and schools have access to computers? As far as gender, blogs have been more of a male pasttime than a female one. How does this fact effect blogging and issues discussed in blogs? So are blogs considered more male than female? And is the rhetoric more male-oriented than female? Issues of race and class are also important on Selfe's view. Are blogs used mainly by people of ample socioeconomic status? And so are those who cannot afford the Internet at home therefore disempowered because they have no easy access?

So one of my preoccupations will be rather teacher blogs demonstrate an awareness of these issues such as class, race, access, and gender.  ¶ 9:52 PM

  This is the beginning of my teacher blog, a sort of meta-blog, a blog about teacher blogs. But it is also my blog, a personal space that blogs allow and even encourage. They are of course also public spaces.

Recently, Middle Eastern blogs have brought attention to this new medium of web logs in that they have given a political voice to people who have been denied any such voice. I mean specifically the Bagdad Blogger. But I also mean blogs that surfaced after the earthquakes in Iran. These blogs criticized the government's slow response to the natural disaster. But the point is peopeople apparently felt empowered during this time of crisis and werere able to publish their concerns about their government in a somewhat public fashion--in a blog.

But turning to a different group, who has (according to my NEA research) has been denied political voice, English teachers at the k-12 level, is there anything to their blogs other than the mutterings of the burned out and academically frustrated? Do their blogs demonstrate a critical awareness of issues in education such as gender, race, class, socioeconomic issues, and issues of access to computers in schools? Or are teacher blogs mainly about venting and asking for teaching advice?

My project question, then, is whether teachers reflect on these critical issues or something else such as curricular concerns or simply want to vent on a blog. One related question will be whether blogs are as some conservatives say, hopelessly personal and are akin to those creative writing projects those un-disciplined writing teachers assign to corrupt the youth. And what are we to make of those silly links? Are they simply a distraction to the blog or do they serve some purpose?
Blogs have also been criticized as being rather breezy and inclined to changes in subject matter. Some critics have stated that blogs are pure digression.

I hope to show in my blog and the blogs I study that these criticisms are not totally true and that there are some interesting aspects to blogs.

But first, I want to explain about my 'lense' in this project. How will I be evaluating these blogs and what are my preconceived notions about what teacher blogs should accomplish? I need to explain the phrase "critical awareness" and where I got it.   ¶ 9:43 AM