Shooting at Bubbles

Twitter can be fun and Facebook can help wile away a few hours but when it comes to using social media tools for learning nothing comes close to what blogs, blogging, and bloggers brings to the table. As much as blogs and RSS might be getting the boring deathbed dirge the fact is they are an ever increasing rich tapestry of places to learn and be challenged.

I was reminded of this because of a post by Laura at 11D where she quotes another blogger, Tyler Cowen, who wrote

Chess players who train with computers are much stronger for it.  They test their intuitions and receive rapid feedback as to what works, simply by running their program.  People who learn economics through the blogosphere also receive feedback, especially if they sample dialogue across a number of blogs of differing perspectives.  The feedback comes from which arguments other people found convincing.  Do the points you wanted to hold firm on, or cede, correspond to the evolution of the dialogue?  This feedback is not as accurate as Rybka but it’s an ongoing test of your fluid intelligence and your ability to revise your opinion. 

Not many outsiders understand what a powerful learning mechanism the blogosphere has set in place.

Laura follows this up with her own observation

Commenters and other bloggers keep me on my toes. If I through out a quick, stupid thought, odds are that someone will tell me that I’m a moron and then explain why. This is a very good thing.

Also, I’m constantly reading other bloggers and articles in the paper looking for blog fodder. Much more than I did pre-blog. I’m writing every day, way more than I did pre-blog. I’m forcing myself to take sides on controversial issues and justifying my decisions.

This is one of the reasons I have been such a strong proponent of trying to keep as much of the conversation around blog posts. It doesn’t matter if you pull in people from other areas of social media by whatever means you can. The important part is that the conversation helps us all learn – whether we are defending our points of view, changing our points of view, or even agreeing where we might not have before.

Substance over breadcrumbs will win always.