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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment