Tales from the Web 2.0 Zone: So What’s All the Blah(g) About Anyway?
Blogs. You can’t go online these days without being bombarded by a host of sites that deliver information using a Blog platform.Coupled with the latest technology for information delivery (RSS—Really Simple Syndication), we can barely get through our email or feed readers in a day.What are these proliferating web creatures that threaten to devour all our time, and what can we and our students gain from either reading or producing them?Tough questions both, worthy of some serious academic attention.
A “blog” (an abbreviated form of “web log”) is most generally defined as a frequently updated, online journal presented in reverse chronological order that provides links to other websites or blogs and allows (usually) readers to submit feedback in the form of comments.(For those interested in the history of blogs, Wikipedia has an excellent entry on the topic.)
When blogs first became popular (and popularized), I was at a loss to explain their proliferation; that is, my sense was that they were not much different from the already established venues—e-mail lists and threaded discussion boards—for communication and information exchange.As far as I can tell, the differences lie primarily in access, availability, and, for want of a more descriptive term, aesthetics far more than content.Don’t get me wrong—these areas can have a tremendous impact on student engagement, but it’s a difference of degree rather than kind.And for students and school systems unable to purchase course management software such as Blackboard™ or WebCT™, blogs can perform many of the same functions at no cost.So what are the advantages of incorporating blogging into/out of the classroom?First and foremost, blogs encourage and facilitate student writing.Without knowing a snippet of html or the difference between a web site, discussion board, or text message, students can write and publish their ideas to an audience that extends far beyond their teachers, classmates, family, and Facebook™ friends.Moreover, blogs can help students make a stronger connection between the things they do with writing for “fun” and the things they do with writing for “work.”While a majority of first- and second-year students proudly <sigh> proclaim that they don’t read or write outside the classroom unless forced to, these same students will admit to spending hours instant messaging or surfing the web.
What follows is a kind of “top 10” reasons to use blogs as part of our teaching strategies, aggregated in a “Why Weblogs” post on weblogg-ed.
A “blog” (an abbreviated form of “web log”) is most generally defined as a frequently updated, online journal presented in reverse chronological order that provides links to other websites or blogs and allows (usually) readers to submit feedback in the form of comments.(For those interested in the history of blogs, Wikipedia has an excellent entry on the topic.)
When blogs first became popular (and popularized), I was at a loss to explain their proliferation; that is, my sense was that they were not much different from the already established venues—e-mail lists and threaded discussion boards—for communication and information exchange.As far as I can tell, the differences lie primarily in access, availability, and, for want of a more descriptive term, aesthetics far more than content.Don’t get me wrong—these areas can have a tremendous impact on student engagement, but it’s a difference of degree rather than kind.And for students and school systems unable to purchase course management software such as Blackboard™ or WebCT™, blogs can perform many of the same functions at no cost.So what are the advantages of incorporating blogging into/out of the classroom?First and foremost, blogs encourage and facilitate student writing.Without knowing a snippet of html or the difference between a web site, discussion board, or text message, students can write and publish their ideas to an audience that extends far beyond their teachers, classmates, family, and Facebook™ friends.Moreover, blogs can help students make a stronger connection between the things they do with writing for “fun” and the things they do with writing for “work.”While a majority of first- and second-year students proudly <sigh> proclaim that they don’t read or write outside the classroom unless forced to, these same students will admit to spending hours instant messaging or surfing the web.
What follows is a kind of “top 10” reasons to use blogs as part of our teaching strategies, aggregated in a “Why Weblogs” post on weblogg-ed.
- [Blogs] create what Pat Delaney calls a blank piece of digital paper for writing upon (and throwing away if need arises)
- Blogs are an easy way to create a web site quickly
- Blogs are a place to collaborate
- [Blogs] prepare pupils to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing technology
- [Blogs allow for] an increase in shared meaning and understandings
- Ideas are presented as the starting point for dialogue, rather than an ending point
- Weblogs offer a way to initially cloister, organize, assess and criticize, and then re-distribute knowledge and information for the purpose of convening a community that will then function to amass knowledge, each member sharing, collaborating, redistributing and redefining themselves in the act of knowledge production
- Weblogs can become digital portfolios of students’ assignments and achievements
posted by Jane Lasarenko at 12:05 PM
5 Comments:
I think you hit the nail on the head with your comment about ease and aesthetics in terms of value. I think blogs make for great journals, also -- I can imagine a student teacher in Ireland or a geology student in Montana creating a record of their experience. And in 2.0 land, that reflective record has a public aspect and allows others to comment and interact. As a librarian, I appreciate the "sharing information" aspect of them. A little concern I have about blogs is their preservation. Blogs are the primary documents, the diaries of the day, and I wonder how they are being preserved and archived. For example, many people chronicled their experiences during Katrina on blogs. Researchers of the future might be hard pressed to find those records. Blogs are often dismissed as a sort of teenaged angsty wasteland, but serious people are finding this a way to engage in scholarly debate also. Obviously, I've got a bad case of blog love and do much more public writing than I ever did before. I've come out of the blog closet!
I think your concerns about preservation are quite valid. For example, our entries here on Rock Tech Talk are not archived or retrievable through a Google search. If anything happens to the Google servers, we have lost a valuable archive of useful information! I was just thinking about this issue in terms of the MLA's recent statements about tenure and promotion. If blogging and other online forms of publication are to be accorded some recognition as scholarship, there needs to be a mechanism for preservation and storage. Do you think the university will start to produce printed blog books?
Well, no offense to anyone, but probably not this university. There are companies that do it -- I am planning on giving myself a retirement gift by having the library blog made into a book. Our posts should come up in a blog search, like Technorati.
Jane & Melba...I recently attended a conference & had the pleasure of hearing Will Richardson speak. As you probably know, he is a big name in the blogging community & associated with webblogg-ed. He shared some really interesting information about the educational applications of blogging. Here's a link to his presentation materials (via a wiki) though they might not make sense without being at the presentation. http://weblogged.wikispaces.com/A+Web+of+Connections...Why+the+Read+Write+Web+Changes+Everything
One of the things he was advocating was to have each student create a blog. In doing so the students become "clickable" and reachable by teachers outside of the classroom experience and extends their own learning. He took time to look at popular services like MySpace & Facebook and point out the educational uses. Although I didn't get to speak with him directly, I thought he'd be pleased with our use of the blog & Mark Chase's use of Facebook. I definitely think blogging is going to be an important tool for future educators.
Hi Leigh,
Yes, I agree that educators are going to increasingly use web 2.0 technologies for outside-of-class activities. I've been using Facebook for a bit, as well as some other 2.0 sites. My problem with student blogs, however, is that they are not easily "managed." Essentially, I use Facebook for their "blog" activities; they've recently added RSS capability, so I needn't go searching for their updates. The biggest problem I foresee is overcoming students' dislike of having to go to a variety of places to do different things. They like Blackboard because everything is in one place. The same principle holds true for Facebook, I think. Now if I only had the funds/support to build my own CMS....
Post a Comment
<< Home