Negativity doesn’t put me off – it’s a necessary element of honest debate. If an argument is entirely positive or entirely negative, something is missing. However, your particular brand of negativity is unacceptable – I’ll answer your question before I explain why.

I do not currently teach in a K-12 classroom, nor am I a certified teacher in New York State or any other state. I can say with a fair degree of certainty that it probably won’t change in the near future [though it might, who knows?].

Intellectually honest debate focuses on the merits of the argument. Though common sense would dictate that one with direct, everyday experience generally provides an argument with greater merit than one disassociated from the topic, in no way is that absolute.

It would be ridiculous to suggest that Theo Epstein, current GM and EVP of the Boston Red Sox, lacks the ability to evaluate elements of a baseball team accurately because he himself was never a player, coach or manager. His formal education was in American Studies and eventually Law – he does not have formal credentials in business, management or, really, any field related to his job, let alone experience playing the game itself. If I owned a baseball team, there is no one I’d rather have running my organization. He’s the best.

Such a comparison is as fruitless as if I were to discount your thoughts on the blogosphere because you yourself don’t have a blog [I assume you don't, since you didn't link to one when you submitted the post]. I don’t care whether you have a blog or not; I’ll evaluate your statements based on their validity.

There are several excellent education blogs whose authors aren’t everyday educators. D-ed Reckoning is one, though I don’t know Ken’s profession; Whitney Tilson’s School Reform Blog is also very good, and he hangs his shingle for finance; Joanne Jacobs’ site is one of the most popular education blogs and she, by trade, is a journalist. One would do well not to choose their education blogs based on credentialism – they’ll simply miss too much great material.

I agree that the blogosphere is, as a whole, an echo chamber. The key is to find the blogs that provide the original screams and to stay away from those that contribute to the echo.

I’m not familiar with a clear meaning for the phrase “authentic inquiry” – I’m hesitant to respond to that question without knowing exactly what you mean. I read currently ~230 education blogs; I can’t think of one who consistently points fingers and passes the buck [but if they did, I wouldn't have them in my RSS reader]. I personally believe that every type stakeholder in the education process could be doing more [or doing things more effectively] than they do now. If one were to engage in proper finger-pointing, they’d probably have to rely on their toes as well.

There are quite a few who doubt what I publish on this blog – there’s no problem with responsible intellectual diversity. The blogosphere would be far less useful if we didn’t have that. I do hope, however, that the discomfort and doubt come directly from the arguments presented.

My greatest difficulty with some bloggers who write about education, critique education, and debate education is the disconnect some have with the day to day reality of the classroom, from the teachers point of view. In no way am I saying that I think they should not be sharing their insights (because there certainly is value in the debate). I merely am expressing my own discomfort with the validity and authentic experience some edubloggers have with the happenings within the classroom (Not the classrooms they read about in some newspaper, blog, or educational journal).

The blogosphere is an echo chamber and what I see spouted in one edublog (D-ed Reckoning) I see in others. As you can see I am not a big fan of D-ed Reckoning. Maybe because Ken discomforts me, challenges me, or maybe because I am not out there creating a blog criticizing patent lawyers or college admissions consultants.

Where does the question of engagement and authentic inquiry manifest itself when we consider the social and emotional development of a child? When do we stop passing the blame off on someone else? First blame the parents, then blame the kids, then blame the teachers, then blame the college teacher programs, and then blame the government.

I hope I did not put you off with my negativity. I thank you for being a voice different than my own, but I must share with you my discomfort and doubts in what you say. Thank you.

http://castingoutnines.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/a-proposal-about-digital-natives/

and

http://castingoutnines.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/squirm-ing-at-bad-research-methods/

Seriously, we need to find out once and for all if the notion of Digital Natives is actually real, whether the Web 2.0 is more than just a technological phase, and whether these massive projects in ed tech are based on nothing more than assumptions made in order to enrich some kind of “conversation”. And we need to do with science, not anecdotes.