Blog Culture: March 2004 Archives

I've just returned from a conference in San Antonio for writing teachers. The River Walk is a good tourist spot. Lots of places to eat. Fairly good Mexican food. Great margaritas at the Original Mexican Restuarant. The shrine of Texas independence, The Alamo, was a sad sight, however. Hotels engulf it, and the grounds were covered with garish tents for 1600 guests who were there to celebrate the movie release of The Alamo. I simply don't think there's much to bring a visitor back.

The conference also had it's ups and downs. I went to a couple of sessions where the presenters had been depending upon technology but for one reason or another there were technological breakdowns. Rather than falling back on Plan B they expected the audience to understand shit at times happens even with technology. Sure it does; that's why you have a Plan B. Another let down was that I arrived late for the Friday night poetry reading. I got there and the room was empty.

Throughout the conference I went to several sessions on blogging. I'm not convinced, however, the presenters who claimed to be blogging are actually blogging. They're using blogging software, their students use blogging software, but I'm not convinced that using the software is the same as blogging. For example, does posting writing prompts for students constitute blogging? Are students blogging when they use blogging software to write to those prompts?

Friday night I went to a special interest group meeting, Academic Blogging, where I met someone who actually knew of 2River. That was exciting.