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Publish or Perish: A Blogging Ethic?

In traditional academia there is an understanding, sometimes unspoken, that faculty will publish or perish. They need to conduct original research which is deemed worthy for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, or as a book. This is of course time consuming and can overshadow their work as educators. This is not my point here, though.

As you could probably tell from my posts in Bloomington, I was coming face to face with the same sort feeling regarding this blog. There seems to be a similar sort of publish or perish ethic to blogs. This is certainly not a formal thing, but many bloggers will suggest posting at least once a week to build and keep an audience, and many aim for daily contributions. That is certainly the ideal I strive for, though I find my posts often come in bursts when I have the time.

I don't seem to have lost any of the readers (that I can track through bloglines or feedburner) during the last few weeks, but I've enjoyed watching those small numbers creep upwards and hope I can continue to be relevant.

So, coming up...

• Reflections on Raw Materials for the Mind: A Teacher's Guide To Digital Literacy
  
• Reflections on Rocketboom
  

Because I am no longer posting discussion topics for coursework, I am finding that my email may be the writings best suited for repurposing here... so you may see some of that soon.

Also, I hope to get my feet wet with the academic sort of publishing. It will be some time yet before my original research is ready for peer-reviewed journals, but other publications can go on the c.v. I include with my dissertation as well... so I am considering answering this call...

----- Original Message -----
From: Sage Advice [sage@edutopia.org]
Sent: 07/22/2005 02:37 PM
To: MWAGNER@OCDE.US
Subject: From Edutopia: Sage Advice

Dear Colleague,

Edutopia, The George Lucas Educational Foundation's new magazine, invites reader voices and comments for our next issue. They'll be featured in an ongoing department called Sage Advice, in which our audience suggests solutions to problems we bring up. (Think of a reverse Dear Abby.)

You can see a few of the many notes we received in response to our last topic, "How do you get the most out of substitute teachers?" at http://www.edutopia.org/sageadvice.

The question for the next issue is:

What technology is most effective in the classroom? Give an example.

Send your 25- to 100-word replies, or even suggestions for future questions, to sage@edutopia.org.

(The fine print: The deadline is August 8, 2005. Be sure to include your name, title and affiliation, and location. Responses may be edited for length and style.)

We're looking forward to your response.

Best,

Edutopia staff

I will certainly post my write up here if I do it.

Oh, and thanks for reading.

-Mark