Status of blogs

Reminiscent of Monty Python, now for something totally different... What is the status of blogs within academy? There have been a number of posts about the status of blogs in general. David Miller writes about the Academic Status of Blog Posts. Heather Tillberg has also raised the issue (see Writing, Blogging, Publishing…If we fail to do that, do the ideas perish?). So has Johannes Strobel (see Writing and Blogging).

One of the proposals that has been tossed around is the use of blogs as a way to enhance the discussion that occurs at the conferences that we attend (see Blow up the conference paradigm!, cogdogblog: I’m Bored As Hell And I;m Not Gonna ……. zzzzz, The Overlay). While this would be a good use of blogs, I wonder how much some of the bigger names in the field would use them? I mean one of the nice things about AECT is the fact that all the big names in our field are there and you can simply walk up to them, introduce yourself and strike up a short conversation. I wonder how many of these people that I would want to seek out would actually blog at a conference and get involved in the types of discussions that I have been able to engage in with many of the people who's blogs are listed above.

So I ask again, what is the status of blogs in the academy? How are they seen? How should they be seen?

Tags: aect, blog, blogging, blogs, higher education, education