The classroom in which that masterful educator taught us had individual desks, not a table. That was a different class.

Thanks for the comment. I agree – this is a good issue to talk about. We’ve got to analyze the state of things if we’re going to define further this budding project we call blogging and make the most of it.

Scott,

I wish that journals were free and accessible but I understand the economics behind why they aren’t. There are plenty of benefits as well as serious problems with opening up research findings for mass, popular review. I’m going to think about this for a while – it’s very intriguing.

Robert,

Asking for hard evidence? The only sound you’re likely to hear is crickets chirping.

In all seriousness, I’ll work some of that into Part III tomorrow.

Matt, or David Warlick if you’re still following the thread, or anybody else — Could you say something about the statistical validity of that hypothesis? Is this assumption true in any sort of measurable, scientific sense (not just anecdotally)?

Because if it’s not, then not only is the scenario in Warlick’s article a non-issue, a lot of Web 2.0/School 2.0 projects are on very thin ice.

I also wish that much of this peer-reviewed scholarship was more accessible. I think educational researchers, and the general public, would be better served if scholarly research were more transparent and more available to the general public. Several initiatives are under way to bring research out in the open, to maybe enable commentary on such research (much like blog comments), and to even enable review by the world at large rather than just other academics (think Digg for physics articles, for example!). The next few decades will be interesting and exciting as this shakes out. As CASTLE director, I’m glad to be at the forefront of all of this.

One final thought: in the world of scholarly research, there’s also “too much noise and too much waste!”

But this too is the value, because that weakness is part of what generates conversations like this where fuller understanding and even new and valuable ideas can be grown.

In my first year of college, I took a class which was essentially about going to college, and one of the things that I learned was strategies for getting to know your professor on the first day of class. One of the questions that you ask is, “What journals do you read?”

My assumption in my blog entry was that someone has asked that question. My assumption is that any college professor is reading journals of their field. My assumption is that at least some of those journals are referenced in the syllabus.

Again, I think that the value of blogs is the conversation. Hands-down, journals are essential to developing, preserving, and evolving the profession. But…
in a time when the world is changing at an accelerating pace,
when we find ourselves with children in our classrooms whose information experiences at home far exceed the depth and richness of their classrooms, and
where our information environment has shifted in ways that alter our notions of what it means to be literate;
I think that conversation is a critical element of any and every part of the education profession.

So I appreciate the opportunity to continue this conversation and look forward to any additions to this argument you would like to add.