What's the story with SpedTalk?

A little background

SpedTalk represents the return of a medium that I developed in the 1990s as an e-mail discussion list. I closed that mailing list in the year 2000, because too many messages were not furthering the purpose of disseminating useful content, but I kept harboring hopes that I could revive it

Initially, I created SpedTalk as a way for students in the classes I was teaching to communicate with students in a colleague's classes at a different university. We wanted the students to have opportunities to discuss with each other what they were learning. As I gradually added others (e.g., some professors and parents) to the list of subscribers, the discussions became quite interesting.

That version of SpedTalk was somewhat like sitting at a lunch table with many well-known people who were very interested in the topics being discussed. The discussions were lively and friendly. Some readers of this post may even have been subscribers to that original version of SpedTalk (if so, howdy!).

However, the Internet exploded in popularity. AOL happened! Suddenly, SpedTalk had lots of subscribers! There were people who wrote angry notes; others seemed to have an ax to grind. The discussion devolved into name calling and vitriol that was only tenuously connected to facts and reason. So, as mentioned, I ended it.

Here, however, is SpedTalk in a new guise. In the years since the original SpedTalk, I have spent many hours creating and managing list serves, Web sites, blogs, and such. I've learned a bit. (Check the About page for more on my background.)

I'll be the primary source for the materials posted to SpedTalk, although I may feature guest posts from time to time. I'll work diligently to ensure that the content has a solid basis in scientifically solid evidence. I hope to write the content in a way that it is accessible to lots of people, not just those who have an advanced degree—or a secret decoder ring.

I hope SpedTalk proves valuable to readers. So that you will not miss the latest, please subscribe and tell friends and acquaintances, those who share an interest in these topics, that you've been reading SpedTalk.