3. Strengths
In a typical classroom discussion, the shy students sit in the back, the bolder ones sit nearer the front where they can tend to dominate the discussion. In the sometimes free-for-all exchange of ideas it is easy for some students to get side-tracked or distracted from their chain of thought. A blog allows for careful reflection upon an answer to a question. Shy students are freer to “speak” in a blog. Class discussions can be continued remotely. If a student feels strongly about a topic but he or she is not comfortable sharing in class, or as a class, we need to move on to the next topic, that student has a place to be heard.
There are unique features to blogs that ordinary online discussion tools do not have. We use the free blogs at www.blogger.com. That blog has a “BlogThis!” button you can put into your web browser. This is important for my classes because I have the students share research. The “BlogThis!” button allows you to select a paragraph on the webpage and when you click on “BlogThis!” in the menu bar of your browser, it opens a window that is a mini-posting window; it contains the title of the page, the URL, and the text that you selected. The student can also write a note (why the information is useful) and then click on “post” to publish the information to his or her blog.
Because students sign up for the account themselves, and the blog is completely customizable, there is a sense of ownership to the page, and the knowledge, that can’t be found in a discussion board. A blog is not just putting up a webpage, but it is the fulfillment of the original idea of the internet -- that it would be a truly read/write environment, as Lowe and Williams (2004) observe,
"Student hypertext projects expand the concept of the public audience to include the entire web. Yet, weblogs as a social, public genre can have equal if not more appeal to a generation who enjoys seeing the private made public on Survivor and MTV’s Real World, while also fulfilling the pedagogical goal of expanding audience outside of the classroom."
The students know that others will read this writing, that others will comment on their writing, and that they in turn, will respond to their comments.
posted by Geoff Cain @ 12:19 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Geoffrey,
I am listening to the recording of your presentation on learning times right now. I am an English Teacher Trainer in Japan and used blogs in a English Teaching Methodologies Class for aspiring English teachers last semester. My advisees are also writing "Research Blogs". In my experience using blogs, I found similar strengths:
1) A lot of students felt proud that they had their own blogs; there was a sense of ownership.
2) They could share their learning with people outside the class (family members etc.)
3) Most of the thoughts written in a journal stay between the instructor and student. Using blogs introverted and extroverted students alike can share their thoughts with their classmates.
4) Students could write opinions they would be too shy to say in class.
5) Students were able to talk to current English teachers about issues in English education on the class group blog.
Other blogs like Live Journal are a lot more sophisticated in how they allow the users to control who has access to the materials. The great thing about this medium over bulletin boards is that the student has the final control.
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