The
use of web logs (“blogs”) has become a popular
addition to many college courses as faculty try to
find new ways to integrate this popular technology
into the classroom. (Beeson, 2005; Quible, 2005;
Ducate, 2005, Glogoff, 2005). By the end of 2004,
32 million Americans said they had read a blog,
eight million Americans had created blogs, and
almost half were created by people under age 30 (Reine,
2005). In fact, Huffaker (2005) cites several
studies that reveal that a significant number of
blog authors are younger than 20. Lenhart (2006)
notes that by 2006, these numbers had increased to
12 million American adults who keep a blog, and 57
million American adults who say they read them.
Thus, students come to the classroom with a facility
for maintaining and communicating through blogs.
Beeson (2005) argues that it is an approach that is
more in keeping with their way of thinking (29).
With the increased popularity of blogs, faculty
members have been integrating them into their
courses to enhance class discussion. Past research
has summarized findings from case studies involving
the use of blogs in a single course (Glogoff, 2003;
Quible, 2005; Ducate, 2005). The authors of this
study, conducted at a business university, assigned
a similar blogging exercise in three different
courses—expository writing, e-commerce, and
government--in order to introduce students to the
use of blogs in their respective disciplines and to
help students prepare for meaningful classroom
discussion. This study finds that by completing the
required readings and then posting discussion
questions and reflections on topics of interest to
which their classmates can respond--essentially
beginning the conversation prior to the class
session--students become more engaged in the course
material. This exercise requires students not only
to read the required course materials but to engage
with them critically in order to move beyond a
superficial understanding of the materials. By
using the same assignment and assessment tool, the
authors found that blogs can be effective in
enhancing class discussion in a range of disciplines
and in integrating liberal learning into
professional programs.
Blogging in the Classroom
Keith Hamon on 09 Nov 10There is a tendency in universities today to think of teachers as, like sales people and politicians, interested in outcomes. And so there is a tendency for teachers to treat their students in the way sales people treat their clients and politicians treat the voters: without respect. Professors these days, as well as our graduate student assistants, are encouraged to approach the classroom as a social engineer might. We are prodded to think about how most effectively to seat the students, to organize them into working groups; journals, wikis, presentations, and such like, are devices we are told to use to restructure the classroom experience. And we are encouraged to get ourselves videotaped and so, in general, to come to think of ourselves as teaching professionals whose main concern is student outcomes. Now there is nothing wrong with working hard to make the classroom the most exciting place it can be. But we are not social engineers and students are not products we are manufacturing. To think of students that way is to insult them and it is to make genuine teaching and learning impossible. Students, like citizens, are free and equal, and they have the power of reason; they can make up their own minds and can discover and enforce their own conceptions of value and truth and meaning. To view them as any less is to view them the way politicians so often view the public, without respect.
