I'm going to Blogsville!

Blogsville is a conference taking place at the end of October outside of Providence where several prominent bloggers will help explain "What it takes to design, develop, and manage any blog." This is a bit of a departure for me since my brand is so focused on educational technology.

However, we in Ed Tech ignore Web 2.0 tools, especially those as utterly easy to use (both for distributing and receiving information) as blogs, at our peril. So I'm going to Blogsville to talk more about blogging than Ed Tech. For me, I'll be talking about the personal and professional impacts of the relatively public life that goes with blogging. In terms of Ed Tech, though, what does it mean to parents, students, and administrators for a teacher to have a blog? Does it matter if it's personal or designed as a communication tool with students?

What if an administrator uses a blog to communicate with his community? Or to simply write in a public forum?

These aren't questions that many employers, whether in education or the private sector, have had to explore frequently. For us, it probably means guidelines and good judgment, training and professional development. I want the teachers with whom I work to blog! What better way to keep students, parents, and administrators informed and engaged in their classes' activities? However, I have a responsibility to make sure that it happens in a way that is responsible, smart, and relevant.

For those of us who have blogs that don't directly relate to dissemination of district information, well, that's why I'm going to Blogsville. Because that is a whole different conversation that employers will be having more frequently with their employees, whether those employees are teachers, lawyers, doctors, or technology directors. Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, wikis, and the countless other tools that we use to project ourselves on the Web aren't going anywhere. How will we embrace them in a Web 2.0 world?

Blogsville is intended to be a small conference that creates an intimate learning and networking environment for everyone. However, there are still tickets available. If you're going to be somewhere in the greater Providence area on October 26th and 27th, check out Blogsville. Feel free to mention the code "chrisd" for a $50 discount off tickets (they're $225 a piece without the coupon).