Hello everyone! I’m currently taking a course that required
me to start my first blog site and post.
Its actually kind of funny that I’m doing this because if I were not
taking this course, I would have never done it. So here’s to new things…
For our first blogging exercise we were posed the question: Is blogging the same as
discussion board activity? Based on the week’s readings, discuss the difference
between blogging and discussion board activity and the pros and cons blogging
brings to adult learners.
Just
as in last week’s assignments on discussion boards in adult education, there
are pros and cons to blogging. Below are
some of the pros and cons of blogging:
Cons:
Initially
for me, as King and Cox state in Chapter 6, learning how to blog and setting up
the site was “techno-hell” for me.
Throughout my Adult education classes, I have used the same discussion
board for over a year now and feel really comfortable with it. Learning a new system and actually going
“live” where everyone can see and respond is new territory for me. I know that most views will be from
classmates, but what about the rest? Am I ready to hear from anyone with a
computer? While I’m apprehensive, I welcome the new experience.
You
are not sheltered by an academic firewall setting and the information you post
could compromise you anonymity and your personal life.
You
might be push things to the extreme as you are not in an academic environment.
Pros:
The
most notable pro for me is that you are outside the walls of an educational
setting and get a more diverse perspective that may be more beneficial from
that in an educational setting with those reading and droning through the same
course work. I guess it would be a fresh
perspective free of yours as well as your classmate’s previous educational
bias.
Writing a blog beats the mundane assignments of writing in journals in
an academic setting and is more acceptable by younger generations. This
question was posed in Wittle’s article “What was it about posting personal
writing on an online blog that was so different from the writing in my class-
room?”
You
might be push things to the extreme as you are not in an academic environment.
King, K. P., & Cox, T. D.
(2011). The professor's guide to taming technology: Leveraging digital
media, Web 2.0, and more
for learning. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub.
Wittle, S. (2007).
That's online writing, not boring school writing: Writing with blogs and the
Talkback Project. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(2), 92-96.
Talkback Project. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(2), 92-96.
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI really like that your comment “You might be push things to the extreme as you are not in an academic environment” falls under both the pros and cons about blogging versus using a message board. Students have a tendency to respond on a message board and not really engage…I say this from eight years of teaching at KSU in both the online and the face-to-face environments. My courses, despite their format, have always utilized the message board feature of KSOL and I am generally not as satisfied with the level of student engagement as I envision I will be at the beginning of each semester. It seems that no matter how hard I try or how I restructure the message board assignments, students tend to “play it safe” and not push themselves; I find this disappointing because I want my students to be passionate learners who are unafraid to critically examine the information they are given.
Now don’t get me wrong, some students do “push things to the extreme” but I think the medium’s (message board) connection to the “hallowed halls of the university” cause many of them to hold back since they are afraid of offending their peers or their instructors. The shame in this comes from the fact that they are missing out on many opportunities to create a dynamic learning environment that pushes them outside of the proverbial educational box.
Blogs, at least at first glance, appear to have the ability to push students into thinking outside of the norm. Since I have never used one in my courses, I would be hard-pressed to speak from a place of experience in this regard. However, Richardson (2010) commented that blogs serve as a “promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking;…[and] combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction” (20); all of which are noble goals to strive for in the classroom.
I would like to see my students “push things to the extreme” and not be afraid of what others in the class might think. However, I want them to keep in mind that while pushing they must be respectful. As a teacher, I must guide them down the path to strive for that balance and show them it is okay to step outside of their comfort zone.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms. Thousand
Oaks, Calif: Corwin.
I feel your pain! If it wasn’t for this class, I would not be doing blogging activities. I had a previous class where I had to download and use twitter for classroom discussions. That was an interesting course considering I had never used twitter and trying to convey thoughts at 149 characters was fun but interesting at the same point.
ReplyDeleteIf we look at the assignment of blogging for reflection, “Blogging can be effective for articulating ideas…students forget blog entries over a short period of time” (Xie & Sharma, 2011). To me, blogging must be done for a purpose. If not, students will lose grasp of the ideas needed and they will just put incomplete thoughts on the blog and call it good.
Xie, Y., & Sharma, P. (2011). Exploring evidence of reflective thinking in student artifacts of blogging-mapping tool: A design-based research approach. Instructional Science, 39(5), 695-719. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11251-010-9149-y
Hi Dusty,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post this week, your “techno – hell” comment made me smile; I too went through some difficult times creating and formatting my blog. Your comment regarding being comfortable with the discussion board platform for learner interaction resonated with me. Having completed almost all my post secondary education via online degree programs, I too am very comfortable with the traditional discussion board, maybe even too comfortable.
While the discussion board is supposed to be an engaging learning tool which supports interaction, critical thinking, and learning from our peers, I find that I forfeit many of the learning benefits of the discussion board because it is so routine for me. For the majority of the last four years, I have been participating in educational discussion boards that now I fear I am just (forgive my language) spewing out posts and responses. Although the unfamiliarity of blogging did bring about some anxiety and frustration for me, I am enjoying interacting with my peers through a new platform.
For me, discussion boards have become somewhat mundane. As alluded to in Witte’s article, there is just something different about writing in a blog, at least for me anyway.
Great post Dusty!
Shandi