Blogging Concerns in Education
Well, I feel that I’m being repetitive in my opinion, but privacy is a huge concern of mine, but I will save that for another time. My concern with blogs is honesty. I have used blogs in classes before with overall positive results. However, I have come across some issues that need to be addressed, mainly on privacy and civility. The bottom line (for me) is this; students need supervision. I worry about cyber-bullying and about free thought. In an environment where everyone can ready everyone else’s opinion how are we to know that the opinion in genuine? It is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that students are not expressing their true thoughts and opinions because they are worried what other might think.
My 2 cents,
David.
Posted in: Uncategorized, Week 07: Blogs
jenaca 11:08 am on October 22, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi David,
Thank you for your post and I agree that privacy, honesty and civility are major concerns when it comes to blogging. I think students do need supervision as we all know face-to-face is not the same as hiding behind a computer, so I agree that cyber-bullying and other kinds of “free thought” are things we as educators, parents and adults should be aware of.
You pose a good question, how are we supposed to know that others opinions are genuine? As it is always hard to tell through text and text alone. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Jenaca
Jason Lam 12:29 pm on October 22, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Dear David,
I think the problem is that when your students are posting replies to your posts or creating their own is that everyone knows who they are. It would be a form of social inhibition. A factor you should consider is the size of your classes. How big are they? Big enough to fill a lecture theatre or just enough for a small classroom in Buchanan?
A solution (albeit unwieldy) is to let students create their own pseudonyms and email/private message you them and their real counterparts. They won’t feel as pressured by their peers to conform to any ideas the majority may agree on. However, they may feel that there is a certain answer that you want to hear from them.
If you’re looking for answers as truthful as possible, you may want to consider anonymity. Although the disadvantage (not knowing who’s contributing what) is obvious, there is a lower probability of retracting one’s statements and being truthful.
Take me, for instance. I’m a student, though not one of yours, which is why I’m being as frank as I possibly can with you. If you were one of my current instructors, I would most certainly think of what I’m saying before posting it on the Net, because as everyone knows, once it’s on the Net, it’s out there for good. Unless you delete right after you post it (and even then), you’ll have no choice but to watch as your post gets bombarded by replies that will embarrass you and make you retract into a figurative shell.
Cyberbullying… well, that’s the downside of the anonymity solution I posted above, the GIFT. While not exactly inversely proportional, there is a somewhat negative correlation between truthfulness and civility. Best to consider the options you have and what you’d prefer.
bcourey 2:21 pm on October 22, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks David for bringing this subject up – there is indeed a risk that students will not express their opinions honestly because they may worry about what others might think…but this does not just pertain to online blogging. Think of the number of times in regular classrooms (I am thinking of K-12 here) that student work is posted for all to see – students are expected to express their opinions and present arguments with evidence to back up their stance all the time. So I am not sure that a blog would be a scarier place for expressing opinions – we teach our students to always express their opinions (even when they are expressing a strong disagreement-or giving peer feedback) in a respectful but honest manner – it takes a long time for students to get used to this, but it does work. I know that we often use anonymous surveys as a means to get feedback from a group, but we should teach our students to stand up for themselves, be advocates – and also be gracious when on the receiving end of criticism or an opposing view.
Deb Giesbrecht 7:21 am on October 23, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I have the same concerns. Honesty though, in a blog takes on a different meaning- I think we can be dishonest in all our endeavors and not just blogging. However, it is far more challenging to be honest if you are writing your classmates and everyone in the world, or just your educator. Bullying and civility are major issues – and can always be a bit stressful in dealing with the consequences of having public spheres.
Allie 8:25 pm on October 23, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
In pointing out that students need supervision, you point to something important about using blogs in education – it takes a *lot* of time to monitor online activity. I’m lucky that with my university students (I’ve used wikis, not blogs – but similar deal), I merely need to let them know that I expect them to be kind, cool and respectful. I imagine that with younger students, there’s a lot more behaviour modification – esp online behaviour- that one would have to engage in.