I promise not to make all my blogs meta-blogs–but this\u00c2\u00a0story is too good to resist.<\/p>\n
This morning I checked Bloglines, where I subscribe to my own blog (reassures me I’m\u00c2\u00a0there, don’t ask), my blog’s comments (quick way to see\u00c2\u00a0all the commentary), and a\u00c2\u00a0Technorati <\/a>search on my blog’s URL that shows me incoming links. I can also see the incoming links from my blog’s dashboard, but the Bloglines subscription is more convenient for at-a-glance checking.<\/p>\n This morning’s quick check revealed an incoming link for a blog called Whole New Minds: English in the Flat World<\/a>Whole New Minds: English in the Flat World<\/a>. Intrigued as always by the fact someone’s linked to my blog (Brian Lamb calls this the “power of positive narcissism<\/a>“), I clicked on the link and went to see the site. There I found that the incoming link was from Karen Stearns’ weblog for a course she’s teaching now at SUNY-Cortland. On this particular blog post<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0Karen had linked to my blog. It’s part of the magic of blogging that any such link generates what’s called a “trackback” or “pingback,” which alerts the linked-to blogger that someone’s linked to him or her. The result is a kind of distributed cognition, or what one might call a strongly implicit conversation between blogs\/bloggers. I commented on Karen’s blog post (another kind of response, though more direct and less “distributeable”), and Karen emailed me very soon afterwards, surprised and delighted I had found her blog and wondering if a trackback had led me there. I emailed her back, briefly, with a promise to put the longer account in a blog post that would itself generate a trackback pointing to her original post. One of the very cool things about Web 2.0 stuff, and in fact about computers in general, is that explanations and demonstrations can often be accomplished in one creation. This is one reason I say that computers can be like poetry, for poetry also constitutes a uniquely blended instance of meaning and being. But I digress….<\/p>\n I remember very keenly the first time I was surprised by this kind of distributed cognition\/conversation. Jon Udell <\/a>noticed I’d linked to one of his blog posts, and began a distributed conversation with me that I noticed when he began linking to my blog. It’s a lovely symmetry that led eventually to our meeting face-to-face, and to a relationship that’s been one of my most vital sources of intellectual development over the last two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n As it happens, though I’m not sure Karen intended this lovely bit of symmetry, the blog post in which Karen linked to me concerns James Gee’s idea of “shape-shifting portfolio people,” and as you can see from the comment I left<\/a>, I quickly found my way via Google Books to an excerpt from Gee’s book <\/a>on, yes, wait for it: “Situated Language And Learning: A Critique Of Traditional Schooling,” which discusses many of the very matters exemplifed by what just happened when Karen linked to my blog.<\/p>\n Recursion, and spiralling upward. Is it any wonder I get enthusiastic about this stuff? Oh yes, and the moral of the story: link out to other bloggers early and often. Something about casting your bread upon the waters….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I promise not to make all my blogs meta-blogs–but this\u00c2\u00a0story is too good to resist. This morning I checked Bloglines, where I subscribe to my own blog (reassures me I’m\u00c2\u00a0there, don’t ask), my blog’s comments (quick way to see\u00c2\u00a0all the … Continue reading