New Social Media

After teaching the New Media Technology course at Cal Poly SLO for the last two quarters, I have become acutely aware of how much social media you or I can join. For example, you can "tweet" anywhere. I'm now LinkedIn, have an Epsilon portfolio, two blogs, a wiki, and am working on my web page. I don't use Facebook, and I rarely chat. But, I am constantly looking at new apps for web 3.0. That last sentence seems like jargon to me, and I'm sure most of you understood exactly what I meant.

We have entered another new Internet arena where it helps to be "caught" in a big web of peers as my 63 year old mother describes her time on Facebook. She now knows when her ex-husband has his brandy and goes to bed. Yikes. That might just be too much information for me.

I spend so much time just joining the social Internet groups that I "should" because someone told me they would help me network that I do not have time to read the stuff I need to for work. I'm now writing random thoughts because I need another post on my blog...who will read it. Most everyone is probably busy signing up on the next big social Internet site.

I'm finishing this entry while listening to my 10 year old talk to his Nintendog Shadow on his DS. He too has found the joy of Gmail, cheat-sites for the DS, and the best Wi-Fi area in the house. Of course the closer you are to the wireless modem the faster it all works. Oh, gata go I see a chat bubble......

Education and The Blog

I was just involved in a panel discussion at Cal Poly regarding using a WIKI for teaching purposes. While we were discussing the idea of the WIKI, many of the instructors were curious about blogs. How to use them and create them for the students to post journal entries.

However, if you use a blog program like Blogger then your students are not anonymous bloggers, and when you use the comment feature for your instructor comments on the student blog then anyone can read your comments to the student. You both have entered the public Internet arena for all to read.

Hmm, what to make of the blog idea and education. On one hand it seems like an extension of a writing assignment (journal). On the other hand, it seems like one more assignment created to keep the students writing with the idea that thinking occurs simultaneously, with the hope that maybe even brilliant thinking and writing will take place.

I only ask the students enrolled in the new media course I teach to blog because blogging falls under the new media category. All my students have created wonderful blogs designed for a specific audience with a topic that interests them and not necessarily me. That is fine for my new media course. But, should I ask students to blog because I want to see their writing all the time or anytime? Should I ask them to blog in a public format where their writing then becomes part of their Internet persona? Questions to ponder as I blog on.

Expert Blogging

Lately, I have been asking students if they think blogging is publishing and if writing a blog makes the author an expert in the blog subject. The response has been varied. For the most part, they do not think that blogging counts as “real” publishing. Most of them are also in agreement that the blogger is not an expert; it is merely an opinion spun into the web open space to be viewed by many or none.

People could argue blogging is publicity, and in the hands of the uneducated blogging could seem like expert testimony. And, you can make money blogging. To make real money blogging you need to meet all the criteria of good writing, or you need a good interesting idea ripe for publication as witnessed by the article I have as a link on my blog. You also need a “following.” I barely have time to write this blog, and contemplate blogging, let alone “follow” someone.

However you view blogging, it ain’t goin away.

First Posting: English 210: Blog the Assignment

This is just an example of what your blog will look like. You, the student, can choose many options/styles for your first blog. Please write on something you are interested. You can add music, pictures, and other links on your blog. Remember, you want to keep in mind your audience (primary and secondary--or more). If you already have a blog then add a new feature to the blog entry. You can add something that you have been thinking about but haven't had time to incorporate.