We are on the road somewhere in southern North Dakota making the long car trip to Iowa to visit my mom. I have a new tech toy to play with on the trip. The rest of my family are power cell phone users and they purchased a multiple-purpose cell phone for me in the hopes I would participate. After a year on months in which my minutes accumulated to less than an hour, I have been cut off. I now have a simple cell phone (no Internet), but I received a “wifi stick” for my laptop in trade. I prefer email and I have Internet access I can use from nearly anywhere. This was a good investment.I just read Will Richardson’s recent post lamenting the lack of group focus among educational bloggers. It is a valid observation and I would agree. Blogs are such flexible tools and the variety of purposes blogs serve is one source of the difficulty. My analysis of my own behavior is that I use this blog to store bits and pieces of info I pick up (hence the title of this blog). I do this for myself, but share if anyone else is interested. I read a few blogs written by others, but I don’t see myself participating in a group enterprise.Consider how blogs differ from other “tools”. Perhaps there are too many access points. With a wiki or a listserv, everything cycles through a common point even when different topics are addressed. With blogs there is no leader, no one to initiate or integrate for others, and an independence that encourages self absorption. You can use a blog like a listserv, but different tools afford different opportunities. Blogs are personalized publishing tools. Other tools are probably better if a group focus in desired.
