- The genre of blog writing is different in that there does not have to be a prescribed structure to it. Also, when people consider it a "genre," they do it a great disservice, in my opinion. At the very least, blogging has just as many sub-genres as all of literature, because the beauty of blogging is that it can be anything that you make it.
- Reading a blog can be much more personal than other types of reading, or it can be more removed. It depends on the type of blog. A news blog may create the traditional journalism distance, while an opinionated editorial blog may actually incite ire more readily than a full text that disagrees with your personal opinion.
- It's accessible. That's where the difference in blog writing stems from, in most cases. We teach students a formulaic, academic writing style for most of their lives, which may enhance or suppress their natural talent. On a blog, the person has complete ownership and control. They can write anyway they like, disobey any grammar conventions that they hate, and generally just use it to express themselves. In the end, we come out with a much more casual, yet more personal style of writing.
- Ah, comments. I'll be honest, comments don't actually hold any more power or influence than the author of a blog post gives them. Comments have the potential to allow readers (and the author) to consider another side or to explore a small facet of the post that others may not have caught on to. The best comments, of course, are the ones that add to the ongoing discussion by inserting new information into the mix. However, comments can also take over a blog and dishearten the author, when it starts to sound like the halls of a public school, you know it's time to shut it down.
As this "thing" is mostly about finding educational ways to use blogging, I suppose that final reflection question will get its own section.
Educators can use blogging to enhance their classes in many ways. One way is to simply use it as a sounding board for their ideas. That's what Mr. Meyer did in his post Why I Don't Assign Homework. Mind you, this is a very controversial subject, even for a person who may agree with the policy, but not agree with the overall rationale for said policy.
However, the most useful way to utilize blogging is to bring it into the classroom. Most of my kiddos don't completely understand what blogging is because of how quickly technology trends change. Facebook and MySpace pretty much dominate their tech-related brain cells (at least in my class) because of the social networking aspect. However, I remember a time when having a Xanga was hot - in fact, I still have the login from my high school Xanga memorized.
I was pleasantly surprised to see such deep thought on teaching from a 14-year-old when reading the Brevity entry. This is, in fact, a challenge that many teachers face, and the piece was so well-written, that I found myself composing an answer to it as I read. I was even more encouraged as I read the post on Education Blogging. The rationale in its defense had very few weak spots, and I discovered more new arguments for its use. I still believe that the accessibility and the ownership it inspires are its two greatest strengths as an educational tool, but I see the merit in all the arguments they provided. Finally, I also loved the idea of students reading blogs for SSR time. It's a technique that I'm excited to experiment with in my class, though I don't anticipate using it THAT often. Still, it will be an excellent way to get my students most lacking in computer skills to start becoming comfortable with that technology.
I will admit that I'm not so sold on the idea of 2nd graders using a blog. I'm sure that it would be wonderful to have their first understanding of a blog be for academic use, certainly. However, when you're introducing children that young to a service that can connect them to anyone and open up their minds to anything, there's a concern about their safety, simply because 7 year olds can be so trusting and innocent.
No comments:
Post a Comment