JDMcDsblog

Out of interest, I’ve started to make up a Google map of where in Scotland the education bloggers I read come from-details and a link is on the Geography page of this blog. It’s not (yet) a representative sample, but the distribution pattern is already looking quite interesting, with an epicentre in Haddington and Musselburgh-the 1st blog I read was Ollie Bray’s from which I then got a large number of subsequent links, notably through Exc-el. I follow many other blogs, but I am only locating the ones that originate in Scotland. What interests me is who is doing the blogging, and where. Is there a core and periphery model of blog locations? What does the map pattern tell us about the take up in Scotland? Each blog is located according to the place of work, as far as I can establish, of of its author (eg school, Council HQ, etc) and I have colour coded the map pins by key job types, eg teacher, lecturer, directorate, etc. My initial sample shows two main clusters, one focused in East Lothian, which has been at the forefront of developing blogging, through Exc-el,and a second in the Glasgow area. There’s a significant minority from rural areas like Galashiels, Islay, and Huntly, but I am sure I am underrepresenting certain areas..and types of educator. It’s an ongoing project and it will be interesting to see how the map fills out over time. It will be fascinating to record position students who are blogging, too-does their pattern correlate to teacher blog locations? In economics and geography we talk about diffusion models, by which ideas transmit outwards from a central place. Of course, I am not sure we can apply standard spatial analysis to entities which have no physical locus other than a computer screen, but I am working on the assumption that there is a clear geographical dimension to the blogosphere as represented by the “home base” of each blogger.