Bud the Teacher

But I’ve never in my life written the way I write in this Weblog. And frankly, I don’t know that I’ve learned as much from any other type of activity as I have from this type. And I learn when I’m doing just what I’m doing now (sweat on brow.) I’m not journaling. I’m not just linking. I’m attempting to synthesize a lot of disparate ideas from a varitey of sources into a few coherent sentences that I can publish for an audience and wait (hope?) for its response to push my thinking further. That’s the essence of blogging to me, and I can’t do it without a Weblog. That’s the distinction. That’s what tells me this is different. And that’s what makes me think so hard about the effects that blogging, not just using a blog, might have in a classroom. If we’ve been blogging without Weblogs in schools all along, then just put me out of my misery now. But I don’t think we have.

     Will argues that "blogging" is a specific set of skills that are really best utilized in the form or genre of a blog (you can’t be a blogger in a notebook, for example) — and that much of what he sees in schools is journaling, not blogging:

Xanga is not a blog site. It’s an online journal site. There is nothing inherently wrong with journaling online (provided it’s done with the proper precautions.) But there is something wrong with calling that blogging. And that’s what’s happening more and more. And the problem comes when parents and principals equate Xanga and other such sites with blogging, which in turn predisposes them negatively toward efforts to use blogs the way we know they can be used.

    For better or worse, I agree with him. Blogging is a unique set of skills and much of what my students are doing on their personal blogs (journaling and ranting, mostly, according to one student) isn’t really what I’d like to see in the classroom. But I wonder how many students are actually participating in this conversation. Are adults once again making decisions for students without their input?  Wouldn’t it be terrible if the decisions about blog use in classrooms were all made for students, instead of with them?

   I was curious, so I shared some of the debate with my students, and asked them their opinions on the matter — what uses do blogs have in schools?  Are your current uses of blogs something that would be useful for schools now?  What would be a way that your personal and public uses of blogs might intersect?  Their class discussion was fascinating — and is important enough that, when their posts are complete, I will share that information with you. 

I am currently awaiting their answers on their student blogs.  I am eager to see the "second draft" versions of our class conversation.