CUIN 6397 - Practicum in IT, Summer 2006
As part of the development of the Dawn Installation Project, our class has been posting messages about our work and sharing ideas about some of the content that will be used in the project as well as some of the technology tools we're using--like this blog.
Recently, I recieved an email message from a university student in China who is using blogging as a method of online educational communication in courses at Tianjin Foreign Studies University--which I visited in 2002.
Although the student sees the educational value of blogs, as evidenced by the statement:
"I believe the wide application of weblogs on online learning in China will be more and more popular and will attach great value to the development of Internet-based education;" I was asked to comment on the following:
"What methods can we use to guarantee that the topics students discuss are only concerning the academic knowledge? I found in many academic weblogs, the result of the students' discussion has nothing to do with the initial academic topics."
Since one of the reasons we started this blog was to see how students and teachers can use these kinds of online comunication tools as part of our course, I thought it might be helpful if each of us in could try to answer the student's question from our own perspective.
Please post a reply to this message in which you discuss your ideas and then we can send the student our comments--and also perhaps get her (or him) to contribute to our blog!
posted by Bernard Robin @ 8:03 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
I think one aspect of an academic blog that is sorely missed is the "live" discussion element. Discussion to me means there is instantaneous interaction back and forth between people. With a blog, there is back and forth sending of postings, but there may be long time delays between when this occurs. I think the time delay is harmful to academic discussion, or any discussion for that matter, because many times the thoughts or ideas may change waiting for a response from a fellow blogger. So, by the time you do receive the response, you, as the blogger are on to something else.
One caveat to my opinion on the blog..is that people from all over the world can participate. "Live" discussions would likely not allow participation on a global level due to time zone issues and typically "live" discussions one must be invited to participate. The public aspect of the blog as it is would not be available, which I think does add an interesting perspective.
There are "live" chats or discussions- I have not participated in one of these which I think they would lend to a different experience. The "live" element is especially crucial to keeping the individual bloggers focused on the topic at hand or at least on the academics.
Although I have very little personal experience in bloging, I have learned through my classmates’ experiences that learning can be promoted when using it appropriately. As an example, one of my classmates used bloging with his middle school students. For that purpose, he would post a summary of the content just taught in classroom and a couple of related questions or assignments, and he would also encourage students to post comments and questions regarding the specific content. Since, he wanted to make sure that the tool were used for academic purposes, he selected an option (when creating the blog) that allowed him to filter comments.
The extent to which interaction among students is promoted depends on how educational tools are used. In my opinion, since blogging targets the students’ interest in technology tools, it may engage students more than other educational tools. However, students’ motivation and interest will be only kept, as with any other tool, if tools are creatively used and student centered. The teacher mentioned above was not only able to manage the interaction between students, but he was also successful in targeting students’ motivation and interest as he created a fun and interesting blog.
Technology tools as well as other educational tools do not replace instruction, but are capable of synergizing it. This teacher improved learning by reinforcing content that was taught in the classroom. Moreover, writing was encouraged as students interacted through blogging. Different learning needs were also addressed through blogging as pictures and text could be imported into the blog. Comments were a great aid for the teacher on understanding the thinking process of his students, and further learning was promoted by the links included in the blog. In addition, the opportunity of interacting around a specific topic also promoted a community learning environment among the students. In conclusion, this experience proves that success in using blogs depends on its appropriate use.
I think that this student has posed a good question and one that will bring varied responses. After reading Dr. Robin’s initial post, I decided to reflect on the question as well as do a little investigation. I found it interesting that there is quite a bit of information regarding the advantages and disadvantages of blogs as they relate to business. I was also able to find information related to the use of blogs in education, but the majority pointed to definitions and provided examples. The comments also related to and supported solid instructional practices.
Therefore, I think that it is very important for the creators and managers of blogs to lead out and “encourage” students to post on topic by creating deep and meaningful questions that will allow students the opportunity to think and reflect rather than simply recall information. I think that blogs allow individuals a public forum to express their thoughts and ideas related to a topic, but if I am the creator I should maintain "control" and be able to remove any comments that are not appropriate. This can be quite challenging to manage as it can possibly require quite a bit of time simply to monitor.
Not only can blogs be a huge undertaking to manage they can also present challenges for the participants as well. Some individuals are not able to accurately communicate their thoughts and ideas through written word and sometimes leave out key elements as a result. On the other hand, because this is sort of an “open forum,” some individuals get on soap boxes and have a hard time stepping down.
Honestly, I enjoy reading blogs. However, there are times when they are cumbersome to follow once a variety of original entries have been made. They are fairly straight forward and easy to use when replying and they’re not too difficult to set up either.
I have considered using a blog with a group of colleagues, but have yet to embark on the journey especially because it would mean that we would have to update to our district’s acceptable use guidelines.
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All of the deletions are my errors, folks. Sorry.
To the question, "what methods can we use to guarantee that the topics students discuss are only concerning the academic knowledge? I found in many academic weblogs, the result of the students' discussion has nothing to do with the initial academic topics," I say, why do responses have to only be related to the initial academic topic? If this is the desire of the instructor then it seems to me that they already had in mind the feedback they wanted. Education is supposed to have relevance outside of its delivery context so to evaluate responses as relevant or not would to me, be a violation of free thinking and an individual's right to make their own meaning and relevance. So, the point of the blog becomes meeting the technology requirements set forth in the syllabus?
Sara - One advantage I do see to the blog design is it allows students that might be shy or intimidated, in person, to have a voice. Of course we have found that it also allows individuals the chance to be disingenuous but this can also be true of students in face-to-face settings.
Monica - I wonder why we find it important, almost necessary, to censor online discussions in a way we would be unable to do in a face-to-facce setting? Let's imagine that a student in a face-to-face class makes an inappropriate comment. As the teacher, you have to deal with this "teachable moment" and help students see what is and is not acceptable. You cannot prevent the comment from being voiced. But when it come to online application, it seems that we are quick to intercede and I think this editing is an injustice to the learning process.
MVaughn - So will we have what we can call politically correct and incorrect blog usage? As you can tell, I am so against any fiddling with blog entries because I think it defeats the purpose of the exercise. Kind of like, "please enter your thoughts but they better not be what I think is out of line." Let's allow students to get out of line, online and face-to-face!
It seems as though blogging does not have any methods. Even though blogging presents a positive impact on education, it’s not like writing an essay where you have to think about the topic and the structure of the discussion. My impression of a blog response is that you think about what you want to say, say it and forget about it. But it also seems like the purpose of staying with a topic concerning an academic knowledge has no restraints in a blog, that’s why some of the responses might be off the subject or trivia in nature. Furthermore, students draw from their knowledge of the topic and may not know anything about the topic or have any interest in responding to it.
However, if students can reflect on the topic by reading the other responses before writing about it then the conversation might sustain an academic consistency. Also if the topic is of interest to the majority, it may engage their knowledge and thinking in a more elaborate way. Also, I think if students are asked specifically to stay away from given too much of their opinion of an assigned topic, maybe they may reflect on the topic more.
One of the most important things about blogging on an academic topic is merging quality of different knowledge within a subject. But the content knowledge might not be meaningful to many students given the differences in culture, reading abilities, ideas etc. So you basically just have to encourage students to blog about their interest and interpretation of learning and reading the topic.
I still don't get where we are supposed to be posting our replies. This was the link for responses to Assignment #6 but this is not the topic. Anyway, the two issues I see regarding intellectual rpoperty and copyright are, 1) does the university/college have a policy on ownership regading these as well as fair use, and 2) what kind of guidance can you now get from the Office of Copyrights? In the past, they could not tell you what was allowable, only what wasn't and when you had violated the law.
I have to add that I still do not see the usefulness of blogs. When posting a response on a blog it is not easy to figure out which comment is being responded to, the right side for leaving the comment makes you have to do a lot more scrolling to read comments and the flexibility of HTML tags is automatically built into discussion forums.
Maybe I'm just too old for getting hip on blogs, but I think discussion forums would serve PRH better than a blog, especially if it gets heavy use.
Brian
Hi,everyone. I am the Chinese student who wrote to Professor Robin. My name is sensen. I appreciate his elaborative dealing with my question and your diversified comments on this issue. I learn a lot and get some novel insight from your discussion, and this matter may be a good evidence of blog-using in distance learning. Thank you all very much.
Blog can continuously and systematically express the features and personalities of teachers, the writers of the Internet terminals. Compared with the traditional network platform, such as BBS, the personalities hide behind each ID, because ID can be changed at the cost of 'ZERO', so the network personalities are uncertain and broken. Just like the famous description" Nobody knows I am a dog on net". Yet blog shows differently. Bloggers always keep record of their lives, their own perspectives, attitudes, moods, which form an organic whole to show a relatively complete individual or a complete form of one aspect. In other words, If one day there were a dog writing its blog, it is more likely that readers may find it is a dog when it wrote a lot. So blog is a more serious and more responsible tool for web survival.
In the traditional class, students can judge teachers' personalities by teachers' body language, tones, eyes' contact and so on. But some web material, such as the class video and notes on blackboard,lacks details as well as rhythms. So the learning process becomes a passively accepting one. However blog can solve this questions to some extent. The personalizing writing of blog by teachers shows their process of solving problems. Maybe the answers that teachers offer are not mature enough. Yet it is the immaturity of teachers that exhibit a naked and true thinking process to students which left students more spaces to think, and students can communicate and discuss with teachers as well as their peers. And the knowledge students gain from communication is more meaningful. What is more, a teacher with somewhat immature and erroneous feature is a true teacher with humanity. Students may find teachers are human beings, not idols. Therefore, students may find more equality when communicating and feel easier to express themselves.
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sensen,
Ni hao! Hen gao xing ren shr ni!
To everyone,
I just participated in the weekend long digital storytelling workshop and I have to say it was fabulous! It was very interesting to meet Joe and Gayle and to work with such a great group of people and see the end results of digital stories that only took 3 days to make. I'm looking forward to showing everyone my Thelma Scott Bryant story.
Brian
to Brian,
How cool you are! I am so surprised that you can use Chinese Pinyin to say hello to me! I guess I am the only person who can understand you!! And what you write is absolutely correct! What an amazing thing!
Thank you all so much for your help. A yearly beer carnival will be held next month in my hometown Qingdao, China. Welcome here!
Very pretty site! Keep working. thnx!
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