On The Outside Looking In

A murder of crows. An army of ants. A chain of bobolink. A sedge of crane. A pod of dolphin. A flight of dove. A seige of heron. A band of Jay. A bask of crocodiles. A wisdom of owl. And my favorite-a bloat of hippopotamus.

These are all groups.

In the natural world, organisms have a tendency to group together for a variety of reasons. By grouping, organisms reduce the likelihood that any single individual will fall to predation. Grouping can streamline movements (think a flight of Canada geese, a school of fishes), and yes, improve communication. Grouping is natural and pervasive. It’s the way things work.

And there are groups all over the blogosphere.

The TechLearning.com blog is one, so is the group over at the Infinite Thinking Machine.

Those of you that have read blogs for a while will recognize these names. Stephen. Will. Miguel. Wes. David, Clarence, Dean, Darren, Vicky, George, Bud. You know who they are without even me adding last names, don’t you? Would you consider these people a group? I would-this group is composed of very influential and knowledgeable people who have much to say, good things to say.

Groups can be formal, or informal, recognized by all or by a few...

Would you say any of these groupings limit anything? Any conversation-anything? The answer is no.

So here comes poor Christopher Craft with his notion of Next Generation Teachers. As you might expect, the notion of a group of educators 30 and under forming to discuss issues and providing leadership is met with some questions (read the rich dialogue in the comments section of this post), and even some pushback from Miguel, who offers this:

In the blogosphere, those who isolate themselves from the communion of bloggers ARE in hell.

Whatever.

Chris asks:

If this is going to work, why can’t it work easily? Is it really necessary to have all the discussion and back and forth we’ve had? Can’t we just put out a call for young teachers to come together and talk about what we’re doing in the hopes of connecting people?

Welcome to the blogosphere, Chris.

Why can’t this happen easily? Why can’t this happen without the discussion?

Welcome to the blogosphere, Chris where NOTHING happens unless it is discussed ad nauseum first.

Can’t you just ask the young teachers to get together and talk?

YES. Yes, you can, and you don’t need anyone’s permission. So do it, and don’t worry about what anyone says. Stop watching YouTube videos of preaching from on-high, and just think for yourself. It’s obvious from your posts that you’re capable. There are really no rules in all of this in spite what everyone wants to jam down your throat, so no blogospheric police will arrive to arrest you and put you in the blogospheric jail.

So, get started and have your say. Good luck to you and your group.

Technorati tags: nextgenteachers