Questioning competition and self-promotion
Voting for the 2007 EduBlog Awards Competition is on! Among many other outstanding blogs, the TechLearning Blog has been named a finalist in the "Best group edublog" category. Take some time to visit many or all of the blogs named as finalists in 14 different categories, and cast your votes! Before voting, however, you might take some time to consider some different perspectives about the contest and the dynamic of competition in education more generally.
Clay Burell questions if there should be "winners" in each category or just finalists over on Darren Draper's blog... the issue of identifying/highlighting certain blogs has invited some criticism previously from Stephen Downes as well as others. I agree with the idea that a voting process based on IP addresses is far from perfect-- it is both good and sad to read that the EduBlog Awards administrators have had to limit votes from single IP addresses because of voting abuses. Such manipulation is to be expected when contests and competitions are involved, I suppose, but it's too bad that's the case.
I think events which provide opportunities to learn about and highlight different educational bloggers like this are a good thing. I've found several new blogs to read by reviewing the finalists in the different categories this evening, which I might not have discovered otherwise. I suspect those who are less enthused about the competitive aspect (winners/losers) of the EduBlog Awards are generally not supportive of competition in education and learning contexts. Is that a fair hypothesis?
I take a less extreme view when it comes to competition in and around schools. I think in moderation, some competition can be healthy and further constructive dynamics. Competition can be carried too far, however, and we certainly see many examples of that on the fields of friendly strife as well as other contexts connected to education. An egalitarian ethic can be taken too far as well, however. Several years ago I read the late William Henry's book "In Defense of Elitism," which explored the issue of egalitarianism taken too far in detail. Parents shutting down school honor rolls because it hurt the self-esteem of their own children when they didn't make the list is an example of this. The emergence of "stars" and "fans" in an attention economy characterized by a glut of information was predicted by Michael Goldhaber back in 1987 in his article "The Attention Economy and the Net." I think we DO see a healthy level of egalitarian participation, conversation, and access in the edublogosphere currently, and I fervently hope that continues. True, we see wide diversity in the readership statistics of different blogs as reported by Feedburner, as well as the "authority" rankings reported by sites like Technorati. Are these types of statistical gathering and reporting tools, as well as "ranking" services a good thing? In many respects I think the answer is "yes," they are.
There are many reasons different people blog, of course, but I think one of the most important reasons should be to engage in conversations and dialog with others about topics of mutual interest. Recognition is nice and appreciated, of course, but shouldn't be a primary "driver" for educational blogging activities. In his latest post and on Twitter, Graham Wegner is questioning "lobbying for edublog award votes." I'm glad Graham, Clay and others are asking those questions-- certainly I would agree there is a "line" of self-promotion (perhaps nebulous and not clearly defined, but a line none-the-less) which should not be crossed when it comes to "contests" like this one. Does putting the finalist nomination badge on one's blog constitute crossing that line? I don't think so. But I'm sure that line does exist, so you won't read more posts than this one from me soliciting your vote. :-)
Competition is all around us, certainly we see it on television constantly. It is good to question assumptions we may hold and rarely reflect on when it comes to competition. Alfie Kohn does in his book "The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards," and I'm sure he does even more in "Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes." (Which I have not read yet.)
What do you think? What is the "self-promotion line" that should not be crossed in the case of the 2007 EduBlog Awards competition?
Technorati Tags:
edublog, awards, education, school, competition
Comments
Wesley,
I think a blog post about being nominated and displaying the badge are quite appropriate.
A blatant "vote for me" plea, on the other hand, is a definite turn off for me.
I think I'm reasonably intelligent and more than capable of deciding for whom to vote. Wish there were a "long" list somewhere so I could troll at my leisure for more hidden treasures.
Good luck!
Posted by: diane | November 30, 2007 1:50 PM
Diane: Support blogging has a good, long list of educational bloggers and is open for anyone to add their own blog or someone else's blog. These are categorized as Blogs on Educational Blogging, Classroom Blogs, Individual Student Bloggers, Teacher Blogs, Professor Blogs, Principal Blogs, Administrator Blogs, Library / Librarian Blogs, and Professional Development Blogs. Steven Downes has a pretty extensive list of educational blogs he follows, as do many other folks who share their blogrolls. I think the support blogging wiki list is the most extensive one currently available, though. Anyone know of a more extensive or inclusive list of edublogs than the one on support blogging?
Posted by: Wesley Fryer | November 30, 2007 1:59 PM
The html links I embedded in my above comment were stripped out. They are:
Support blogging blog list:
http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers
Stephen Downes' list:
http://www.downes.ca/edurss/feeds.htm
Posted by: Wesley Fryer | November 30, 2007 2:01 PM
Wes,
You may be right that it comes down to what we believe is motivational and rewarding across the board.
Kozal makes a subtle point about this - gold stars and good grades are rewards, yes. But they provide excessively simplistic feedback, starving out the very kind of personal feedback needed by the child. That's what's wrong with them. That's very similar to what's wrong with these awards.
It's very different when people talk about what specifically is great about a blog (or a student) and share that with others.
Real praise about merits is vastly superior as a motivator to badges (or gold stars). As recent research suggests, praise without basis is actually demotivating for kids and makes them wary about trying their best. Those who don't get them end up accepting their role as also-rans and may give up.
I'm not advocating for "everyone wins" - that's just as silly and meaningless.
But how many unknown bloggers are shrugging their shoulders and giving up because now they "know" that their work is not "worthy"? Is this worth a few badges to already popular bloggers or those who can marshall some friends to vote?
Posted by: sylvia martinez | November 30, 2007 4:58 PM
Correction - of course I meant Kohn, not Kozol.
Posted by: sylvia martinez | November 30, 2007 7:47 PM
Wes, a good post and it reflects the thoughts published by Bud Hunt and Dean Shareski recently on why one blogs, maintaining balance, the "edublogosphere" and the motivating forces.
I commented that at times there seems to be a race or competition between edubloggers to be the first, most or coolest. Then, rather cynically I felt, I wondered if some of the more ethusiastic bloggers would settle after the edublog awards had been distributed.
I feel that yourself, Dean and Sylvia are correct... balance is needed. Achieving that balance is not easy and I have no solutions at hand.
Occasionally we should ask ourselves why are we publishing? What are the actual motivating forces?
John
Posted by: John Larkin | December 1, 2007 11:31 AM
There will always be awards and there will always be people that want to win them. As a result, there will always be liberties taken in the pursuit of winning that award.
I continually go back to the advice Christian Long offers about blogging:
Write often. Write passionately. Link often. Link passionately. And don't worry who shows up.
I think having that perspective about blogging is right on target.
Awards then take care of themselves.
Posted by: David Jakes | December 1, 2007 11:44 AM
I am in the same boat with David Jakes. When i first began my blog, it was targeted to my teachers, but soon became more of a reflective point for me. It became a place where I could process what others were saying too. I remember when Christiam Long made that comment "write often, write passionately. Link often, link passionately." That is when I just began puring my heart out in my blog, and I think that is when I began to have readers responding to me. I am still awash in shock and awe and getting a nomination myself (libraries) and am hesitant to promote it myself. I did put my badge out, but after reading grumblings about self promotion, thought long and hard about what to post next to get my nomination offf the top. I wanted it to be true to me and the rest of my blog, so I bragged on another fellow LMS who deserves the nomination more than me, Carolyn Foote. I am honored to get a nomination. Thanks David Jakes for reminding me why I blog.
Posted by: Cathy Nelson | December 1, 2007 5:36 PM
Vote rigging should come as no surprise in a popularity contest. Anyone can announce any "competition," but without careful criteria for evaluating excellence, the poll is just a beauty contest. The number of nominees is evidence of the desire to benefit as many bloggers as possible.
How can any blog awards overlook the brilliant work of Diane Ravitsch and Deborah Meier at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/ or the stunning contributions by leading education thinkers at http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse ? Alfie Kohn, the very author cited in this blog writes for The Pulse.
Is it really improper for students in a school to vote for their favorite blog? Why deny them the vote by virtue of IP address? Doesn't that advantage the more tech savvy among us?
This dilemma seems especially symptomatic of the blogosphere. When a medium is written in the first person, praise or criticism of that blog inextricably becomes a critique of the blogger.
Posted by: Gary Stager | December 2, 2007 10:11 PM