I found it strange that Kajder never mentioned blogs or wikis in her chapter Creating Community. I even went to the index to see if these words were mentioned and they weren’t. How weird. Maybe her early disclaimer in the chapter refers to blogs and wikis:
“It’s simple. We ask whether a tool enables students to do something they couldn’t do before, or could do before but now do it better. Only if the answer is yes do we reinvent. If the answer is no, we move on. Time and learning are too precious to force-fit a technology tool into a lesson or activity if it wont lead to that rigorous, deep experience we are looking to construct” (98).
Since Kajder doesn’t mention blogs or wikis in this chapter I have to presume that she sees blogs and wikis as a “forced-fitted” technology tool. She spends much more time talking about discussion boards, email lists, chartrooms and listservs.
Janet you mentioned the fact that the need to be invited to contribute to a blog is one of its disadvantages but I see this as an advantage. Daniel mentioned a student of his making a humorous and silly amendment to a wiki about Mark Twain. Following the wiki commandments seems to be a recurring fear for teachers who are thinking about how to incorporate wikis into their classrooms. This is why blogs have a distinct advantage as you can’t change someone else’s blog entry unless you’re the administrator who can delete unsuitable entries that consist of expletives etc.
Ellie I like you comment regarding Knobel and Lanlshear’s take on blogs
“… powerful blogs typically command attention by breaking generic conventions, by hybridizing, rather than through such strategies as revision”. I was also very impressed by that blog http://www.littleyellowdiffrent.com that you mentioned.
Here is one of my local favorite’s Boston blogs that I check out regularly. It talks about the gentrification of the South End in a humorous fashion http://thesouthendisover.blogspot.com/
Finally Krause’s article was a breath of fresh air as someone finally said what a good deal of people think about the pedagogical possibilities, or more importantly the lack of them that blogs possess. It seems towards the end of Krause’s article he is doing a little “fencesitting” when after he slams blogs for 11 pages, he finally says some good things about them to reclaim his objectivity, but its too late because he’s ending quote shows he is no the biggest cheerleader for blogs
“But it’s clear to me that blogs are not as useful as the relatively old-fashioned technology of electronic mailing lists for writing that is interactive and dynamic. How does the saying go? If it ain’t broke…” (12).
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Jason, I never knew anything about wikis and how they are used and created until this class, so I guess I'd agree with you on the advantage of being "invited" into blogs. My only gripe was I wanted to post and couldn't until I was allowed-that's all, but I agreed with Krause because it did limit my ability to communicate in a discussion.
Jason,
Thanks for sharing the southenddisover blog. I read a little and liked it a lot. And I think it points to what blogs are particularly good for--representing the thinking and voice of the author in a semi-interactive way, where other can comment. I agree with Krause that blogs aren't as interactive as other forms of online communication (particularly discussion boards and wikis), but I've never found any compelling writing to come from electronic mailing lists, even though I think they're useful for the exchange of information. I do like the effect of having multiple authors on this blog--so that we get sustained commentary but in multiple voices, with the physical sense of one larger conversation that we wouldn't have jumping between separate blogs.
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