Blogging As Pedagogic Practice Across the Curriculum

Blogging as Pedagogic Practice Across the Curriculum Ken Ronkowitz Bloomfield College Faculty Technology Showcase January 2009

Most discussion and research on blogs and teaching and learning in higher education focuses on them as another technological tool.

This session looks at the use of blogging as a way to address traditional writing practices.

OVERVIEW

WHY use blogging?

WHEN did this begin?

WHAT is it being used for in education?

HOW do you get started?

WHO is doing this?

WHERE can I get more information?

- Howard Rheingold, Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies

If print culture shaped the environment in which the Enlightenment blossomed and set the scene for the Industrial Revolution, participatory media might similarly shape the cognitive and social environments in which twenty-first century life will take place (a shift in the way our culture operates). For this reason, participatory media literacy is not another subject to be shoehorned into the curriculum as job training for knowledge workers.

Educational Blogging

Using college-wide blogging tools or free blogging services, instructors in varied disciplines are addressing:

e-portfolios

Writing concepts (audience, voice…)

Publishing

copyright and plagiarism

authentic writing

writing in a digital age

Those of us striving to integrate participatory media literacy practices into our classes often face resistance. Other faculty might argue that we are turning away from the foundations of print literacy, or worse, pandering to our tech-obsessed students.

Meanwhile, students might resist too, wondering why they have to learn to use a wiki in an anthropology class. 

The surprising-to-most-people-fact is that students would prefer less technology in the classroom - especially participatory technologies that force them to do something other than sit back and memorize material for a regurgitation exercise.

We use social media in the classroom not because our students use it, but because we are afraid that social media might be using them - that they are using social media blindly, without recognition of the new challenges and opportunities they might create.

Michael Wesch, Participatory Media Literacy: Why it matters on his blog Digital Ethnography

WHEN

History

"weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 and the shortened "blog" Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase “we blog” on his blog Peterme.com in 1999.

Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb and devised the term "blogger" in connection with their Blogger product (acquired by Google).

Precursors might include Usenet, online services such as Genie & CompuServe and Bulletin Board Systems. In the 1990s, Internet forum software created running conversations with "threads" - topical connections between messages on a metaphorical "corkboard."

Web + Log = blog

A web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

personal “diary” or

public forum on a topic (politics, hobby, research...)

corporate and commercial blogs

http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/

Reading Blogs

According to 2006 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project

39% of Internet users (57 million American adults) said they read blogs

An increase of 27% from 2004

Universal McCann (March 2008) determined that there are 184 million blogs worldwide and 26.4 million are in the United States.

Blog readers = 346 million worldwide with 60.3 million being Americans.

77% of active Internet users report that they read blogs.

Where are blogs headed?

Tumblelogs http://ronk.tumblr.com

Microblogging (short posts using Twitter)

Moblog (via mobile phones)

It may already be too late to save blogging in education….

WHAT

http://www.edtechpost.ca/gems/matrix2.gif

Blogs Offer Students & Teachers

online discussion through time-stamped comments

video posting (vlog)

podcasting

posting via email & cell phone

free web space for class materials, portfolios, projects

minimal web design skills required

Blogs being used as...

Hypertext

Journalism (politics) & convergence journalism (NY Times)

Promotional tool – corporate, product blogs

Community of interest – poets, software (non-corporate)

Personal writing

Media delivery– Vlog (Video), Photolog, linklog, sketchlog (artist portfolio), podcasting

Early Lessons

Your blog should have a basic “mission statement” or “about” that shows the intent of the blog

Who is your audience ? an ideal reader & your emerging audience needs

Developing a voice

Conventions, formality

Citation, copyright

Blogosphere Conventions

Regular posting

Hyperlinks to additional materials & sources

References to other blogs via links

Less formal writing style?

Allowing/encouraging comments, interaction and sharing of content

WRITERS AS READERS Reading & Subscribing to Blogs

Using RSS and services that aggregate your subscriptions in one place.

Bloglines.com or Google Reader allow you to pull blogs that you have subscribed to and show you unread entries in one place

You can browse their directories in different categories and see what is popular. All it takes to add a site is a click.

HOW

Getting Started - Blog Hosts

FREE blogger.com (from Google) and

livejournal.com, wordpress.com

edublogs.org - Create your own ad-free fully featured WordPress blog including free assessment tool from the Chalkface Project and an ad-free wikispace

Students may be familiar with sites such as MySpace.com, Vox.com which offer blogging.

And paid services such as typepad.com

Many Styles & Templates Offered

WHO

Elements of Design - NJIT

Blog as writing portfolio

Reflections on course modules

A tool for web design

http://globonautenglish.blogspot.com/

http://walkmethru.blogspot.com/

http://quirkitecture.blogspot.com/

BLOGGING FOR DOLLARS: AN ENGAGING STUDENT ACTIVITY by Jonathan Goodman, FDU

Premise: Online Advertising Dollars

In 2006, advertisers spent $16.9 billion on-line, up steadily each year from $6 billion in 2002.

According to the Internet Advertising Bureau In the first half of 2007, on-line advertising reached nearly $10 billion, a nearly 27 percent increase over the first half of 2006.

His Blog Project