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!