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Archive for October 9th, 2007

An education tumblelog?

Tuesday, October 9th, 2007

I’ve stumbled — ironically, I supposed — upon a few tumble logs before. The idea fascinated me, but given my preponderance of communication methods (what with Meranda Writes, del.icio.us, twitter, facebook, aim and gmail statuses, to name a few) I never actually created one.

Until now: stumblEDucation.

I’ve been thinking for several weeks about how I would like to create an education blog to complement my beat coverage and stories. But, as I mentioned in a previous post, it was kind of shot down for my perceived lack of time to keep it. Enter the tumble log.

Basically, a tumble log is just a quick-hit collection of entries. Could be completely random snippets of conversation or links or photos or videos or quotes you come across and want to post. Its format is both more restricting and yet more free than a traditional blog.

Here’s the rub: Because it’s not a sanctioned work blog, I’ve decided I’ll stick mostly to larger education issues and stories I come across that I want to note or think are interesting. I’ll pretty much stay out of my local beat unless it’s something I think would have mass appeal. This way, I’ll look at it more as a catalog of interesting education-related items and less an extension of my paper’s newshole, which again because it’s not part of the paper, it isn’t. This catalog idea was part of what I wanted to accomplish with the blog I pitched.

I don’t know how successful I’ll be. I have a feeling as time wears on, I’ll settle into a routine of what gets posted and what doesn’t, or I’ll find it too restricting to actually be useful to me.

But I have a feeling, this is a better method of sharing with the world the education stories I’m reading and topics I’m researching than tagging them education on my (quite disorganized) del.icio.us list. It’s also a more effective presentation for this with less work and upkeep than a real blog.

At least this will satisfy my desire to collect the cool stories I read in one location. And then, if I ever do get that blog, I’ll be able to easily port this habit. Or who knows, maybe I’ll decide the tumble log was the way to go all along.

QOTD: It does not matter how slow you go … do not stop

Tuesday, October 9th, 2007

“It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop.”
— Confucius