I enjoyed reading the blogs posted. These blogs were primarily positive, unlike many blogs on the internet.
When I read the news online, for example, I occasionally open up the blogs that online media create to facilitate conversation about the news. Many of them are extremely one dimensional, inhabited by people who are of a similar opinion, and who therefore feel free to speak negatively of those who think differently. On other blogs, you will find intense controversy, name calling and flaming. You encounter people who are clearly "trolling," deliberately make inflamatory comments to stir up controversy. While public blogs and similar forms of media increase the amount of communication, they do not always, unfortunately, increase the quality of that communication.
The advantage of using blogs in the classroom, as well as other forms of technology, is that it provides a forum for discussing the ethical issues created by our use of technology, and to encourage the kind of civil discourse in online communication that we demand of our students in face to face communication.
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These are excellent points about blogging. I love our Moodle forums because we can closely control who comments...only those in the Moodle. But with this comes a sheltering of ideas. Our blogs for 23 Things have attracted comments from individuals outside of our community and it has greatly impacted my sense of awe for all things Web 2.0. Are we doing our students a disfavor by limiting our online discussions to gated forums? I think yes.
ReplyDeleteYour points about the hype in public blogs are good ones. As an educator I have sometimes taken the opposing view in classroom discussions to try to engage students. I think one of the big differences in what I do, compared to the online media, is I always try to frame my comments with the Goals and Criteria in mind.
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