The Changing Context of Our Inquiries

One of the most revealing experiences this week has been to discover the how blogs engaged in this exploration of technology as teaching and learning music appear in the context of the news group. I go to the newsgroup first now, and find our entries in the midst of extremely diverse and exciting observers at the intersection of technology and education. I've begun to notice that what surrounds each entry does shape the way I regard the entry and even plays a role in how I select something to pursue and explore.

The news feed has been set up to pull things in a focused randomness, but somewhat influenced by how recent the entries are and how many postings are available from a specific source. The more prolific the blogger, the more the algorithm seems to kick in to grab the ideas that are in constant state of continual disclosure. As time passes, certain items disappear from the new and new ones replace the older entries, so that the landscape gradually changes until it is again an entirely new episode.

One blogger noted that it seems important to establish a rhythm for blogging, which is probably true. At least that has been my experience. The rhythm generates ideas as the emptiness of the screen is waiting urgently for the text, for the images, for the music, for the ideas that will define our context. Our individual blogs also establish context. There we can begin to see certain themes and threads of connection with one's self and emerging ideas.

When these individual postings are "fed" to the news blog, suddenly the context provides a new meaning, making the original context even richer, while enabling one to read the work with new perspective. Not all content is equally "reusable." The image of feeding the news blog is apt, as news blogs are hungry, and news blogs feed on news blogs in a virtual feeding frenzy.