Opening the Conversation I had an interesting thing happen today. The ETC blog was picked up by a Bryn Mawr student's blog and she commented on how behind the curve BMC seemed to be technologically. It was, I thought, a thoughtful observation about the tension between what students want and see in their everyday lives in terms of technology vs. what they get from their educational institution. What I liked about the whole exchange was that it proved my theory about social software. Social software, like this blog, opens up the conversation. It allows those connections to be made. Because of this connection, I'm now thinking about ways for students' opinions about technology to be heard.

I'm also thinking about how to create a community for such discussions. Should we use a blog? A discussion board?

My hope is that people will use the new blog site (when it's up). But if my experience with the blog world is any indication, this community will emerge from many places. It will be partly in the blog site, but it will be connected to other sites. It will include current students, alums, staff, maybe faculty. That is my hope. ¶ 9:20 PM, posted by Laura