Internet as academic dialogue.

I have been engaged recently in a debate on one of my good friend's livejournals, Fork.... I have talked about it and linked it here before.

We've been talking about one of his posts that included his views on the relationship between his friends from his high school days with his college friends, especially when it concerned academic dialogues. One of the key examples was racism.

I sent him an e-mail of a post I had written that I couldn't publish because it was too many characters and started a correspondence with him. It felt good to be talking to other people in my community about real issues we both care about. Even more than that, I felt like the forum of a blog or livejournal does provide a class-like atmosphere. The moderator is the owner of the blog; they teach us something, even if only how to start thinking about the issue.

I have considered most of the people whose livejournals I read religiously (Fork..., pragueislife, XCKD, subtled) to be my teachers. I have learned about male sexuality, poetry, gay life, teaching English overseas, physics math and humor all in the same package and the military, but not just from anyone--from my friends.

I love that this is a community I am participating in more actively. I think it is one of the most important learning and educational tools we have ever created. Now, with a stable cable or phone connection, the world is at one's fingertips even with very few other resources available. Bloggers have been looked at as maybe an unnecessary trend, but maybe that's because we're reading the wrong types of blogs. I think if there were a site to connect all of these really important conversations together in a moderated way that it would be really incredible. A way to provide a space for certain topics of common interest. Maybe this is one of the things that could eventually develop into an opportunity. I already know girlfriends that I would hire to help with the operation and people I would ask to contribute.

I realize that I have so much information right now on my hands with regards to my independent study and I have been having all of these very tangible conversations about my subject matter but I sometimes forget I might not have actually published a post on these things. I need to find the right balance between these non-visible experiences and ones that result in academic dialogue.