First of all, I read the following post: http://www.walkingpaper.org/2917 and thought, WOW, what a great idea. As I continued to read the comments however, I started rethinking my initial reaction, as others brought up good counter points.
This is something that happens often when I'm ready any number of blogs. I've heard some people argue lately that there is a reason people go to journalism school and that not everyone should be able to write whatever they want, but I disagree. I think this is the perfect example of the greater conversations that happen through blogs that aren't really possible by reading a newspaper. Sure you can write to the editor, but it's not the same as having that instant feedback and conversation connected to the original writing. Letting only the journalists write, even if it's on a blog, limits the number of conversation that can go on. Sure there are some bad writers out there, so we all just need to learn to ignore them, OR even better create conversation about the piece whether it's to improve the writing or the ideas in the post.
So for this blog post I'm suppose to be writing about something I learned via a blog. What I'm saying here is that yes I've learned from this particular blog. I've gotten an idea that I could potential use but more importantly I'm learning from more than one person. I'm getting more than one side of the story and then I can decide for myself what I think in regards to this particular topic. I will continue to learn from many blogs and the many conversations that happen in relation to them also.
Part of that earlier conversation about who should be able to write and who shouldn't was around our kids and whether they know what is good and what is not. I see the point here but I guess I think it's important that we adapt to changing times and spend a bit more time teaching kids about reliability. Yes, that may take away time because it's an extra thing we didn't necessarily have to teach before, but the problem isn't going away, so we have to face it head on.