So here’s the thing:
I’ve been meaning to write for a long time.*
Since my last post (egads– scary how long it’s been), I have written 6 drafts. Yes, 6. The most recent of those I did in May of this year, and it’s a doozy (stay tuned — it involves some post-reflection reflection — how’s that for getting meta?). But I haven’t published any of them. Why? I present to you… The Excuses:
- Because I’m not good at publishing without revision. (Should I be? is this a Web 2.0/3.0/21st c. skill I want?)
- Because I didn’t have time.
- Because I’ve been too busy.
- Because I didn’t have anything to say. (Okay, that’s a lie — I always have plenty to say. Whether it’s of substance is another story.)
- Because family was visiting.
- Because the weather was nice and it’s more fun to be outside than inside writing.
- Because I moved my blog and it was complicated.
- Because it’s easier to tweet.
- Because I write or contribute to other blogs.
- Because I have 340840198408 pages of reading to do and this grad program does not leave enough time for decompression and reflection.
I’ll let you decide which of those excuses are valid enough to be reasons.
But now this #gradschoolalliance thing is up and running and between me, Sava, and Leslie, I’m the last one who is posting. Me! ME! Me… whom many of my colleagues (former and present) know as She Who Promoteth Blogging the Mostest.
It’s true. I think blogging is da bomb. So much so that I (along with an NYU colleague who is nowhere on the interwebs for me to link to, ironically) designed an online collaborative writing platform for “learning” writers called Beyond Blog.**
But here’s the OTHER thing:
Good writing takes time.
At least for me it does. This very post that you’re reading right now (you’re still reading, right?) began as a bunch of notes on a page that grew from:
- watching a recorded webinar on Community Best Practices in the U.S. Air Force, and being awed at how spot-on it was in terms of leveraging social learning for developing a community of professional learners. (For real: why does the U.S. Air Force have well-connected, pedagogically-driven educators but the U.S. school system is so broken? What is wrong with this picture?)
- reading my notes.
- reading some Wenger, White, and Smith.
- participating last-minute in an Elluminate session with Jen, which I was unprepared for but still psyched, and from which I felt more like a lurker (ironically, which I openly criticized) than a participant.
- reading my notes again and realizing I wasn’t following my own advice.
- zeroing in on THIS:
Yeah. Don’t you hate it when you’re your own best teacher? It occurred to me that by not blogging, I was not participating fully.
And that’s when I realized the OTHER OTHER thing:
I had taken all this time developing notes for a part of my thesis…
… and I now had something to write about.
I’m back.
(not in black)
Hold me to it, please.***
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*Don’t go stealing our ideas, now. I’ve got a prototype, even. Pshaw!
**It’s not like I haven’t written anything, btw. What do you think I am, a total slacker? There’s been this thing called g-r-a-d s-c-h-o-o-l. Would you like to read my article annotations? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
***Gently. No wrestling-grip strength, please.