Blogs that give assignments. Chess blogger Dennis Monokroussos often posts educational puzzles for his readers to solve -- not surprising, I suppose, given the subject matter of the site, but still unusual for a blog. I also noticed recently in a Wine for Newbies podcast that Bill Wilson also gives informal assignments that might help his listeners develop their knowledge and skill in wine-tasting.

These posts imply that the writers have a theory of learning adapted to their subject matter -- Dennis, who teaches chess, talks directly about how to learn in some posts. This is an interesting model -- blogs that intend to reach out beyond the quiet act of reading into the lives of the audience. They aim to get various practices not just into the brain but also the body, the actions, of a reader. They're out to change us, move us through space.

Maybe other kinds of bloggers should consider the technique. Food blogs would be an obvious place to try, but where else? Political bloggers assigning letters to elected officials? Librarian bloggers assigning reference questions that would help someone learn how to use a particular index? Dennis and Bill show us that there is a passivity built into the writer-reader relationship in most blog posts, and as you come to the end of the posting, as you are now, you can just slip away, hardly touched by it, after all. It vanishes as the browser window shifts to something else, or closes entirely. This wisp of human contact is gone. [0 & P]