Summer holidays have officially begun, thank goodness and I’m spending some time figuring out what exactly I might do this summer and what I would like to accomplish in the realm of my own development. My last week of school was less than inspiring with a number of things happening that reaffirmed my thoughts about people enjoying watching those above them suffer but that’s a different post. Today I began with looking at my Google Reader and was amazed that, really, given the lack of attention that I’ve given it, there weren’t as many posts there to read through as I would have guessed. This might have several causes, one being that it is the end of the year and a busy time so people don’t write as much. Still, I wonder if we’re seeing the amount of blog writing dropping because other social networking, like Twitter and Plurk, are replacing that mode for some.

If you’re like me, I found the last few months tough to write. I was busy and just not feeling like sitting down and writing. I was, however, keeping up with my social networks, exchanging thoughts and interactions with a my connections through various social networks. I found that, although I didn’t have time to write too many posts for my blog, I did have time to check in and see how people were doing on Plurk and Twitter. I was able to keep up with what people were doing and how things were going.

In doing this, I was kept up on what was happening and the different things that were going on in the world of technology and learning. I read a few blog posts but spent more time communicating via different tools than I did reading blogs. Now that it is summer, I know that I’ll be able to spend some time getting caught up with some of my blogroll reading – I did take time to star a number of items to read. People will be busy doing summer things (like going to conferences which I don’t get to attend!) and just doing R&R things and then getting ready for school. However, once the new school year begins, will it again happen that the micro-blogging tools will once again become the primary tools while blogs will be again be left behind? If that is the case, do we need to begin examining how we can use the micro-blogging tools in our classrooms, adding them to our tools for teaching? Do we need to bring some of the popular learning methods that we do, like the online-conferences and the unlearning conferences to our classrooms?

Blogging still has its place, even in my schedule and life but it isn’t nearly as important as it once was because of the other social networks that I use to exchange ideas and thoughts with others. I like process of the writing that I am able to go through but, during a hectic schedule, there isn’t always time. Eventually, will the blogs go the way of the dodo and be replaced with micro-blogging aggregators that bring together the thoughts of many on a subject? Or do will blogs continue to exist having a crucial place in exchanging ideas and thoughts?