Some criticism of K&L and a blogging idea

As I type this, my spellcheck keeps finding blog and its derivatives as misspelled words. It feels great to be ahead of the spellcheck curve and continues to validate my belief that my students should be able to spell despite the existence of such tools. Anyway, Knobel and Lankshear make a decent point about the power dynamics of blogging, but it seems relatively obvious to me. Blogging, like any other form of media, will have an unequal distribution of popularity and I don’t think anyone should be surprised. I also don’t think it should taint the medium in any way. While the blogosphere itself may not be very democratic, its existence is. That is, bloggers who have been denied access in more traditional mediums have found an audience or ways of amplifying their voices. There might be gatekeepers when it comes to success or popularity, but at least they aren’t named Rupert Murdoch. In the classroom, any student can create and develop a blog. The same cannot be said for a book or newspaper. I guess one point I’m most intrigued with in this whole technology discussion is the access students have to creating media. A student with some time, tech savvy, and resources (whether through school or a middle-class family’s income) can make his/her own CD, DVD, podcast, online radio station, etc. It’s entirely possible and likely that no one will notice or care, but the restrictions on such enterprises used to be more material things like access to a studio or studio time. Now the limits on success have much more to do with finding an audience. Of course, even if a blog has no audience, a studio is not going to shut it down

In some ways I feel like I’m back at square one and Kajder’s mantra about the right tools for the right purpose keeps echoing. I think blogs are great; there are several I read regularly (and Richardson’s excellent weblogg-ed.com has just joined that list) but haven’t figured out how to make it practical yet in the classroom. I suppose I could start a blog with links to material I find interesting and force students to read it, but that hardly seems like an effective use of the medium. K&L’s point about purpose seems like the trickiest one for me. Here’s what I have come up with:

Blogging seems well-suited to documenting a process of some sort. In the film class at my school each film crew was required to blog about their progress (http://whsfilmfestival.com/Walpole%20High%20School%20Film%20Festival/Blog%20Main%20Page.html) as they went along. It was a new idea this year and in my evaluation had only limited success. The idea is a strong one, and the potential is there for students to blog about their film influences, post short clips of their work writing, filming, and editing, write about and comment on problems, etc.

A more universally practical idea is using a blog as a companion to a long-term project like a research paper. Students could document process work, which would utilize the blog’s chronological format, try using the blog to test ideas, connections, and so on, and get feedback from other students in the comments section. Students could link to or review other resources for whatever their topic is as well. I think this idea is feasible and could pay real dividends in the students’ work. It could give students another reason to be invested in their project, force them to try out and write about some different ideas before they go into the paper, and allow them to see others’ process.

That’s the closest I can get to satisfying the two most intimidating conditions K&L have; purpose and well-defined point of view. The point of view is something I believe students could really start to develop through blogging. I’m not sure these blogs would hold much interest to people outside the school, but I’m also not convinced they need to.

That’s what I have so far. Happy blogging!

Blogging In the HS English Classroom...

...Can it be done? I am really interested in using a class blog for my 12th grade writing class next year. I knew coming into this class that I wanted to incorporate technology into my syllabus. I knew that this 12th grade class would be my guinea pig. And when I got to play with blogs, I thought I knew that this was how I would integrate technology.
Let me rewind. I tried the wiki. I hated it. I tried the blog. I liked it. I got excited and immediately decided that this would be my technological integration. Then I read Kajder Chapter 8 and Knoble and Lankshear's article. I am a little less excited and a little more apprehensice about using a weblog in my classroom.
At the beginning of Kajder's Chapter 8, she states, "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...Time and learning are too precious to force-fit a technology tool into a lesson or activity if it won't lead to that rigorous, deep experience we are looking to construct" (Kajder 98). This statement, along with the fact that she does not include weblogging in this chapter on "Creating a Community," placed a bit of fear/anxiety in my heart about using a blog in my classroom. It caused me to think about why exactly I was considering a blog. Is it because it is new and exciting and different from my usual teaching strategies? Is it just a fad that seems like a good idea now, but that will get old as soon as I encounter some difficulties? Or could I actually manage to use a blog in my classroom in an efficient and interesting manner that both engages my students and causes them to think about English class and our topics in a different way? I, unfortunately, do not have the answer for this at this time. My zeal for blog usage in the classroom reminds me of a year when I started each class with a journal - they were going to write in it every Friday and I was going to read them all (100 or so) every weekend and write thoughtful comments. This lasted around two months. The comments became less and less thoughtful, and the entries less and less frequent. I don't want this to happen with blogging - if it is blogging that I choose to incorporate.
So, a little apprehensive and questioning my motivation for blog usage, I decided to read Knobel and Lankshear's article. This did not reassure me! Most of this article is about personal blogging. I enjoyed this but questioned what it had to do with use in the classroom. Then I came to the connection...or lack thereof. "Many student posts to school-endored blogs look more like being compulsory requirements and/or linked to student grades for the course rather than artifacts born of intrinsic interest" (88). They write this like it is a bad thing...but most of what I do in my classroom, especially with low level students, i s compulsory. Even with this blog entry...would I be entering it if it were not for the grade...I hate to admit it, but probably not. It's not that I do't like blogging. It's more that this isn't exactly the "stuff" that I would be blogging about if I had the choice. So...I am my students. Is it right of me to then force them to enter blogs discussing topics they might not necessarily be interested in discussing?
I think it is. Why not? Blogging is a form of discussion, right? I disagree with Knobel and Lankshear...so what if a blog seems compulsory. I compel my students to think everyday. They resist, I compel. By the end, some of them don't even need me to compel them!
I think that blogging in the classroom can develop into a thoughtful and useful element in a student's learning. Sure, at the beginning, they may resist. They may not. I may fail with my guinea pigs...but I can try it again with a new set the next semester (although if it fails twice I may relinquish my steadfast hold to blogging). I do think that it would be a disservice to not try to incorporate blogging in my classroom, despite Kajder's lack of discussion concerning this type of web community and Knobel and Lankshear's warnings concerning the crossover into the classroom. I think weblogging can become a useful tool in the classroom...just look at all of these fantastic blogs!

Reflections on discussion boards and communities-Kajder ch. 4 & 8

6/14/07
I think that in order to teach with technology, it is essential to experience what it is like on the other end, “learning with technology.” In that sense, I think that the idea of offering this class partly on-line is valuable, because it reveals what happens to the student once the assignment has been “given” and the student is at home (or wherever) trying to complete it. Therefore, although I set out an hour ago to respond to complete assignments and respond to prompts, I have instead decided to reflect on the process that I am going through as a student “learning” with technology.
The technology introduced this week is completely foreign to me. I have never used blogs, discussion boards, or wikis. Since our introductory class on these tools, I have gotten several emails from different blogs and from a “googlegroup.” I don’t know what to do with each of these. They don’t contain any (understandable) message or instructions in the body of the email, just (multiple) links. Once I click on these, I am asked to sign in and I am shown a list of people (some of whose names I don’t recognize because they are enigmatic email addresses), or several blogs (2 of which are mine, because I accidentally set 2 up and don’t know how to delet one). I click once again and I am taken to blank spaces profiles or blogs (Are other people having as hard a time as I am, or have they just written somewhere else?). I wish I had some phone numbers—I am desperate for a human voice to bombard with questions, anxiety, and frustration.
All of this clicking back and forth takes away not only precious time, but my confidence in my ability to use this technology. Then I am left deflated, confused, and feeling like I don’t have anything productive to respond or contribute on how this technology can be used benefially. This week, as a student, I feel completely “unbenefitted.”
In contrast, the two previous weeks, I felt emboldened and encouraged to find ways to introduce computer technology into future teaching. I participated quite a bit in the discussion board on WebCT and on the UMB Lit and Writing website. After those two weeks of relative success, when reading Kajder’s Chapter 8 for our class last Tuesday, I underlined with enthusiasm, “The twist that technology provides is to amplify our resources, allowing students to dialogue and collaborate with writers, thinkers, students, and communities across the globe in real-time interactions.” (98) The benefit in this is so self-evident, that all I could do was underline it with an exclamation point on the side. Yes, of course, it is wonderful to be able to collaborate with other writers. These two weeks of on-line discussions had proved it (and that is without even introducing anyone outside our course into the conversation). Although they lacked the immediacy of face-to-face contact, the written discussions on those sites offered the opportunity for a more reflective dialogue, one in which I had time to review material, re-read the previous postings, and call on authors I recalled from outside this course.
The other excerpt which struck me was that making contributions through computer technology “allows [students] to communicate their ideas, no matter how shy they might be.” (100) To this, I would like to add that it not only allows them to do so, it FORCES them to do so. I find this important when working at the high school level, where so many students feel they can keep quiet and stay under the radar: these students often do long-term written assignments and homework, but are not willing to view the classroom as a learning community, to which all members contribute while they are there. In contrast with these silent students, there are also commonly students who believe that if they simply talk (regardless of the relevance or thought exhibited in the contribution), this counts as participating in class. In her section on discussion tools in Chapter 4, Kajder states that they “establish a low-stakes entry point for those students who might traditionally be reluctant to enter into a whole-class discussion.” (37) This reiterates the idea that students who are traditionally silent now have a forum from which to participate without the looks and immediate reaction of their peers or their teacher, either because these are inimidatin to them or because they are uninterested. On the other hand, a different angle to Kajder’s low-stakes assertion is that it creates a specific entry point with topics, and prompts or questions. Students are forced to dialogue ABOUT THE TOPIC. The fact that their comment is in writing gives them both the opportunity to reflect on what they want to say, and the obligation to make their contribution meaningful and relevant, one that continues the conversation.
So, how does this description of my previous enthusiasm for discussion boards connect to my deflatedness with blogs and googlegroup emails this week? Perhaps it has to do with discourse communities: I’ve never been on a blog or a member of one of these email groups, and this week’s tasks don’t call on any of the skills I master in one of the discourse communities I belong to. Instead, I am an outsider to this discourse community—there is too much shared knowledge I don’t possess. I find it useful to reflect on why I am feeling discouraged this week, resisting the temptation to turn off the computer, and trying to translate this experience into something I will use in my teaching. When talking about online communities, Kajder points out that “we [teachers] need to get the initial community built.” (102) I now relate this to discourse communities—these need to be established or taught as well. Thinking of the use of technology in the classroom as a task of building a discourse community will help me as I teach with technology.

6/14/07
I think that in order to teach with technology, it is essential to experience what it is like on the other end, “learning with technology.” In that sense, I think that the idea of offering this class partly on-line is valuable, because it reveals what happens to the student once the assignment has been “given” and the student is at home (or wherever) trying to complete it. Therefore, although I set out an hour ago to respond to complete assignments and respond to prompts, I have instead decided to reflect on the process that I am going through as a student “learning” with technology.
The technology introduced this week is completely foreign to me. I have never used blogs, discussion boards, or wikis. Since our introductory class on these tools, I have gotten several emails from different blogs and from a “googlegroup.” I don’t know what to do with each of these. They don’t contain any (understandable) message or instructions in the body of the email, just (multiple) links. Once I click on these, I am asked to sign in and I am shown a list of people (some of whose names I don’t recognize because they are enigmatic email addresses), or several blogs (2 of which are mine, because I accidentally set 2 up and don’t know how to delet one). I click once again and I am taken to blank spaces profiles or blogs (Are other people having as hard a time as I am, or have they just written somewhere else?). I wish I had some phone numbers—I am desperate for a human voice to bombard with questions, anxiety, and frustration.
All of this clicking back and forth takes away not only precious time, but my confidence in my ability to use this technology. Then I am left deflated, confused, and feeling like I don’t have anything productive to respond or contribute on how this technology can be used benefially. This week, as a student, I feel completely “unbenefitted.”
In contrast, the two previous weeks, I felt emboldened and encouraged to find ways to introduce computer technology into future teaching. I participated quite a bit in the discussion board on WebCT and on the UMB Lit and Writing website. After those two weeks of relative success, when reading Kajder’s Chapter 8 for our class last Tuesday, I underlined with enthusiasm, “The twist that technology provides is to amplify our resources, allowing students to dialogue and collaborate with writers, thinkers, students, and communities across the globe in real-time interactions.” (98) The benefit in this is so self-evident, that all I could do was underline it with an exclamation point on the side. Yes, of course, it is wonderful to be able to collaborate with other writers. These two weeks of on-line discussions had proved it (and that is without even introducing anyone outside our course into the conversation). Although they lacked the immediacy of face-to-face contact, the written discussions on those sites offered the opportunity for a more reflective dialogue, one in which I had time to review material, re-read the previous postings, and call on authors I recalled from outside this course.
The other excerpt which struck me was that making contributions through computer technology “allows [students] to communicate their ideas, no matter how shy they might be.” (100) To this, I would like to add that it not only allows them to do so, it FORCES them to do so. I find this important when working at the high school level, where so many students feel they can keep quiet and stay under the radar: these students often do long-term written assignments and homework, but are not willing to view the classroom as a learning community, to which all members contribute while they are there. In contrast with these silent students, there are also commonly students who believe that if they simply talk (regardless of the relevance or thought exhibited in the contribution), this counts as participating in class. In her section on discussion tools in Chapter 4, Kajder states that they “establish a low-stakes entry point for those students who might traditionally be reluctant to enter into a whole-class discussion.” (37) This reiterates the idea that students who are traditionally silent now have a forum from which to participate without the looks and immediate reaction of their peers or their teacher, either because these are inimidatin to them or because they are uninterested. On the other hand, a different angle to Kajder’s low-stakes assertion is that it creates a specific entry point with topics, and prompts or questions. Students are forced to dialogue ABOUT THE TOPIC. The fact that their comment is in writing gives them both the opportunity to reflect on what they want to say, and the obligation to make their contribution meaningful and relevant, one that continues the conversation.
So, how does this description of my previous enthusiasm for discussion boards connect to my deflatedness with blogs and googlegroup emails this week? Perhaps it has to do with discourse communities: I’ve never been on a blog or a member of one of these email groups, and this week’s tasks don’t call on any of the skills I master in one of the discourse communities I belong to. Instead, I am an outsider to this discourse community—there is too much shared knowledge I don’t possess. I find it useful to reflect on why I am feeling discouraged this week, resisting the temptation to turn off the computer, and trying to translate this experience into something I will use in my teaching. When talking about online communities, Kajder points out that “we [teachers] need to get the initial community built.” (102) I now relate this to discourse communities—these need to be established or taught as well. Thinking of the use of technology in the classroom as a task of building a discourse community will help me as I teach with technology.

Blogs, Wiki's & Kajder Ignoring Them

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).

Summary of Readings

I have to say that Krause's article was by far my favorite. Immediately, the title caught my eye, as the word "bad" jumped off the page! For some reason, when it comes to technology, I am more interested in the criticisms than the benefits. I think that there can be so many "speed bumps" and "glitches" when it comes to technology, that I'd rather face those first and then have a better feel for what I am getting into!

Overall, the only things that Krause seemed to have a hard time with were the specific expectations he had for his students while blogging. He wished he had facitlitated the student's collaborations a little more. He realized he needed to give specific details on how many times the kids commented and on exactly what they needed to comment about. This all reminds me of our first week of class!

What I am realizing through all of this internet "converstaion" is that if there aren't clear expectations, student can really miss the mark. For some reason, blogging and wikis don't seem as formal as writing. This could be my own fault though, as I feel the effects of spending too many years writing informal emails where the grammar, capitalization and punctuation would horrify you, or possibly all those years of high school and college "IMing", which couldn't get any more informal! I just associate internet talk with "quick" and "lazy" writing!

However, I supposed the informality of it could actually be a welcoming aspect to some students. Like Krause and a few other authors this week stated: the focus on writing through the internet introduces a whole new aspect of writing for a different audience, their peers. Writing seems to improve DRAMATICALLY when kids write for each other as opposed to writing for their teacher or for a grade. So, in all actuality, the "informal" criticisms I have may just be in fact what some students need to step up the quality of what they write and the ability they possess to do it!

Wait, I'm not completely a cynic, I swear.

The SITWiki Commandments at Deakin University (Augar, et al) seems to address what would be one of my major concerns about using a Wiki. At one point during the past year my students were in the library doing some research on Huck Finn and one of my students thought it would be funny to edit Wikipedia to mention that another student had not showered that morning, so that under the heading of Twain's life, it said something along the lines of, “Bob did not take a shower this morning.” These commandments would see the students facing disciplinary measures if they had inappropriate postings. It says that “Offenders will be dealt with in accordance with Deakin's Internet Usage Guidelines” (Augar, et al). In class the other night, someone (I forget who, sorry!) brought the concern of anyone being able to edit or delete content, and having this disclaimer on every page might help to prevent that. The commandments themselves are also geared to preventing poor usage of the Wiki: “The first step was the development of a set of four clear usage guidelines. Powazek (2002), advises that usage guidelines should be short, simple and written in a positive tone” (Augar, et al). This lead to the following commandments:
“1. Post frequently, Post well, Post haste
2.Be nice
3.Wiki unto others as you would unto you (When posting on the wiki treat other online group members as you would like to be treated)
4.Remember that your contribution is critical to the success of the group”

Not only are these positive reminders, but they are also somewhat humorous and one would hope that students take them seriously and at least notice them because of that. These commandments helped to foster an active and supporting online community, and that is something that I would certainly be striving for if I were to use a wiki with my classes.

It would certainly be fun to have all 120 of my students accessing the same page; we could have some fun conversations linking all the texts together (this is happening in my imagination right now). Imagine sophomores and juniors having a discussion about justice that uses The Crucible from the sophomore curriculum and Macbeth from the junior one. I'm getting chills just thinking about it.

I do have on gripe with this article: Too many simple sentences, and not enough sentence variety.

"Weblog Worlds" and the problem of engaged writing

Response to Week 3 readings on blogs

Knobel and Lankshear, in “Weblog Worlds,” raise some interesting questions for me. Working within the theoretical framework of New Literacy Studies, which sees the various literacies that people practice as being imbedded in specific social contexts, they examine instances of the current social practice of writing and reading weblogs, looking to see how “powerful writing” seems to be defined in the blogosphere. Power in the world of blogs is determined in part by having a lot of readers, but perhaps also by having a few readers (a circle of friends, or an affinity group with a common interest), who actively write back. They suggest that the writing that works in the blog world can be defined by an authentic purpose, a point of view, and the quality of presentation (including the idea that a blog should be easily accessible, and not require lengthy downloads of huge linked files), and they point to specific examples, such as the prize-winning blog, “little. yellow. different” [http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/ ] written by a gay Asian-American, that have a real voice and stance. They argue that what they’ve found “calls into question” the usual composition definition of powerful writing, suggesting that what is typically taught as writing strategies (like the ones from my own comp book, Exploring Literacy) doesn’t capture these qualities—that powerful blogs typically command attention by breaking generic conventions, by hybridizing, rather than through such strategies as revision. And when the authors turn their attention to school blogs, to see if they can find evidence of powerful writing there—they don’t! Most school blogs are used for teacher postings of work and assignments or are performances of school tasks by students that could be done in any medium.
But when I look at the example of a class blog that I showed briefly in class, the one from Christian Pulver’s 101 class, at dcsurley@blogspot.com, I find lively writing on the parts of both teacher and students, even though the blog is obviously a class assignment and the students are responding to questions the teacher poses. But I think that both teacher and students are taking their discussion seriously—that this is an opportunity to extend the engagement of the class discussions, with a sense that other students are the real audience. Here’s one example from a student:

"I believe, that media is a “mirror” of society, because I the experience which non of you have, including the author of the introduction. I was born in a country( Soviet Union) where was no crimes, or murders on TV, but there were in reality, but no one was talking about them. One single example of Chernobyl catastrophe was cost many human life’s- media said nothing about it at that time on TV. Is this how exactly the author would like to broad cast the news- just don’t say anything , don’t panic, it could be worth……"

So school blogs don’t have to be empty and formula driven.

I’d also add that the blog itself is a new genre with its own conventions, and that those conventions can be explored openly by teacher and students through reading blogs and discussion them, and seeing why they might have arisen, and how one might gain attention of readers by altering them.

Blogs----are they useful for discussions?

Week Three Discussion-- On Krause’s “When Blogging Goes Bad..”

The name of the article caught my eye because I’m having a hard time keeping up with technology so when I saw the “bad” in the title, I felt vindicated for all my feelings of inadequacy with computers. But the truth is, the more I read what Krause had to say about blogs, the more I understood their benefits and usefulness. Krause just had a problem using them with a particular classroom.
Krause gives multiple examples where blogs can play a major role in a writing classroom. One of the most important features a blog has is the ability to change the whole dynamic of a classroom. (p8) Krause explains how blogs encourage and transform student writing. Instead of having to write the same old, unexciting ,academic assignment for class, students create and write blogs knowing their work will be read by many instead of just the teacher. The expanded reader audience makes a huge difference in their writing, according to Krause. He uses words like authentic and unique to describe his students‘ writing.(p12)
Krause also quotes two educators, Delores Schriner and William Rice who also noticed a huge difference in students when they posted online, saying, “ they knew they had an audience beyond the teacher, and as a result their writing emerged as ’real, volunteered’ and even urgent.”(p8)
These writers all reinforce the argument for blogs citing more commitment, participation, purpose and effort in their student writers. I personally agree with their assessment because I definitely think twice and reread what I am writing before I post knowing everyone is going to be reading what I wrote. Whether it makes us more conscientious or more paranoid, using blogs and writing online makes writers more aware of what they are writing.
I can’t end this discussion without bringing up the “bad” that Krause touches upon. Although Krause reiterates how valuable and useful blogs can be, he also restates his belief that blogs are not “interactive and collaborative” (p.2) writing tools. He gives the example of having to “invite” users in order to write on blogs. I personally can attest to this downside. I wanted to get a jump start on the discussion and post it earlier than Thursday but was unable to use the Engltech697 blog, because I hadn't been invited yet. This is no reflection on Professor Kutz. I am just agreeing with Krause that there are limitations to interacting with blogs.
Krause argues blogs are not an effective discussion form and compares them to printed books and texts, saying “blogs have the distinct advantage of allowing individuals to easily publish texts that can be responded to by others to be sure, but those texts are not more ’collaborative’ than texts published in conventional print.” (p11)
So, keeping Krause in mind and his discontent with blogs being used effectively for discussion, I think this weeks posting will be a good test to see if we all can “interact” and “collaborate” using blogs.