Prototype points to Stephen Downes’ “Educational Blogging” on Educause Review. It looks at the yet unspoiled attitudes of primary schoolers on blogging and the Internet. One student states:

The blogs give us a chance to communicate between us and motivate us to write more. When we publish on our blog, people from the entire world can respond by using the comments link. This way, they can ask questions or simply tell us what they like. We can then know if people like what we write and this indicate[s to] us what to do better. By reading these comments, we can know our weaknesses and our talents. Blogging is an opportunity to exchange our point of view with the rest of the world not just people in our immediate environment.

Ah, this attitude is in such stark contrast to that offered by Ted Nelson. Here, it seems, we can catch the child before traditional forms of education sap away her creativity and his imagination, like a vampire drains his victim of blood. As the article goes on to point out, these fifth graders will enter their secondary education with a new set of skills and attitudes about composition. Perhaps blogs can offer students an access to writing that revitalizes the art, rather than resigns it to the punitive measure it was for most of my education.

Now the real question is: how do we revitalize writing for the many college students who tell me “I’ve always been bad at English”?