I’ve been exploring the formatting capabilities of WordPress, and I’m fairly impressed. This blogging platform has come a long way, and gives the user control over many styles that people are accustomed to in word processors. When you insert a picture, you can adjust the positioning, wrap, size and other attributes easily. And the formatting sticks — it doesn’t go wonky (and irreparable) for inexplicable reasons, as it does when using the Java editor in Vista. There are many limitations — one can’t use a textbox to create a sidebar, for example. And yet WordPress gets many things right — e.g., the interface encourages the user to insert multimedia.
Why does this matter? Some might even view such features as time-wasters. But from a learning perspective, they do matter. In flexing his formatting chops, or incorporating multimedia, the learner not only communicates his ideas more vividly and meaningfully in the immediate term; he also develops his ability to use these techniques in the long term, and thus to communicate effectively in a society whose norms and expectations regarding “written” expression have exploded since the days of the typewriter.
It goes beyond impact (adding sizzle to your steak, e.g., with a picture). The ability to format text more precisely facilitates nuance and clarity of expression. Obviously, italics are better than all-caps, but the learner should also learn not to overuse italics. Another example: the ability to colour text grey, or shrink its font size, can enable de-emphasis. The act of using or experimenting with such styles can foster stronger engagement with the ideas one is expressing. Not all learners will avail themselves of these features, at least to the same extent. But even some of the reluctant may feel emboldened to do so, as they see their peer learners organizing their ideas more vividly, thoughtfully, clearly and engagingly. In any event, giving learners the ability to format more effectively and incorporate multimedia will appeal to more learning styles, e.g., those who think graphically or visually.
Which brings me back to the Java editor in Vista/Blackboard, which by comparison with WordPress seems fussy, antiquated, even dysfunctional (in the discussion lists of this course, I’ve learned that some fellow students have given up in frustration). In sticking with such an editor or word-processor, Blackboard Inc. is inhibiting aspects of learning that WordPress facilitates. Perhaps Blackboard needs to make its learning-management system more of a learners’ management system.
| SIDEBAR (not really) |
| This is a sidebar generated in Dreamweaver as a table and then pasted into this posting as HTML. It demonstrates that it can be done — in theory (as you can see, WordPress isn’t reading the “align=right” and “width=20%” code). But very few people are going to take the time even to try it, much less work out the kinks when it doesn’t turn out right. |
Image © Popular Mechanics.