Not again!

I was at it again yesterday. Calmly sitting at a meeting, not actually thinking about blogging at all, and suddenly we were off. The word came up, someone else asked what a blog was, and the resident geek (me) was called upon to lighten his darkness (It was a church meeting – hence the language) Because it was a church meeting, I managed to restrain my own language when the ignoramus in question dismissed the whole idea because it had “such a silly name” and the internet as “the biggest waste of time”. I merely pointed out that it was an even bigger waste of time to career the length and breadth of the diocese delivering information which could travel perfectly effectively via a blog. I was proud of my self-control, but despairing somewhere deep within.

It’s not that I ever did think blogging was the answer to the whole of life – simply an effective tool for teaching and discussion. Ewan has a great post over at edublogs – I’ve pinched a wee bit just to make me feel better:
"The man who doesn’t believe that blogging is a revolution or is educationally sustainable is one of many sceptics and countercultural poseurs who like to preach certainty where the only certainty is that there is none. The problem the sceptics battle with is that there is no viable accountability model, still, for much of what happens on the internet. Or so they think - and this particularly applies to traditional teaching models."
You can read the rest of it here

Thing is, I end up on these occasions feeling like a twenty-something who’s strayed into a pensioners’ party. Why should I have to answer for sexagenarians who refuse to have anything to do with email, let alone any other more advanced form of communication? As far as I’m concerned, if I can do it so can they. End of story. The willingness is all.

On a brighter note, I believe the Standard Grade Writing exam was fine for at least one of my students from Progress Report - so that’s good. Let’s hear it for yoof!