Wisdom of the Crowd – Weblogs
As mentioned on the video “Blogging” (Fisch, 2007), blogs can be used as an extension of a classroom. Weblogs allow students to feel more comfortable creating posts. Here, shy students have an equal voice and can participate free of face-to-face pressures and anxieties. Weblogging also promotes a more personal connection with the topics being discussed on the blog as students can go back and re-read at anytime to recall details of the discussion. Public weblogs truly allow students to draw “wisdom from the crowd” online (the general public, and of course, their peers who are taking the same course as well) and expand their learning multi-dimensionally. However, this experience doesn’t come without potential risks and hazards.
Giving students more autonomy and ownership of their learning experience comes with responsibilities.
• Teachers need to assess students’ technology skills so they know the skill level of the group they are working with and how much guidance they may need.
• When introducing weblogs, teachers must provide clear guidelines and instructions for online discussions and blogging etiquette, Stephen’s “Golden e-Rules”.
• It is also important that we, teachers, keep our parents informed of the nature of the projects and activities that are to take place using the internet and the school policies regarding these interactions. This includes teachers informing all parents about the security settings in place to ensure their child’s safety online and that when participating in internet based activities like weblogs, all discussions should be appropriate and school-related, and that all school policies apply, such as plagiarism and bullying.
High school students should be allowed to work on public weblogs, with security settings that prevent interaction from outsiders (those who do not have access). Outsiders do not know our students personally, and they certainly don’t have the training or security checks required (such as criminal record checks, etc.) to work with the students and to comment on their work. With security measures in place, students are able to have easy access to the vast resources available on the internet and they are able to contribute to the weblog discussions.
In CMS students are still confined in a virtual room, surrounded by invisible walls with holes that link to the outside world by pre-defined hypertext. However, there are security issues here as well (similar to above) which can be addressed by ensuring all access and security measures/guidelines and policies are being followed.
As mentioned by Downes and Wesch, there are a lot of advantages to learning via educational blogging. The use of weblogs should be a way to enhance our students’ learning experience and should not be a mere replacement of classroom instruction. The following is a summary of the advantages to educational blogging from a number of interviews on educational blogging at Arapahoe High School, in Littleton, Colorado (Fisch, 2007):
1. Q & A – Students can ask questions that they don’t get a chance to ask during class on the blogs. It also promotes fairness as there will always be students who are shy or without the courage to ask during class. Weblogs give all students an equal chance to meaningfully contribute to the discussion.
2. Anytime Learning – Weblogs enhance the classroom experience and engage students in learning. Students can, at any time, continually add more thoughts and comments to an already-discussed concept (similar to a wiki). Students who do not understand the topic can re-learn the concept by just reading their peers comments.
3. Autonomy, Ownership, Accountability & Responsibility for their Learning – It allows students to learn responsibility and accountability when they post their thoughts online as they need to support their thoughts with relevant “sightings” or references. This includes being mindful of the “Golden e-Rules”. Students can have a chance to be the leader of a discussion and this can give them a sense of belonging, ownership and confidence.
4. Printable – Students have the affordance of a written record of the online discussion, and can actually print out the discussion which is not possible with face-to-face classroom discussions unless they are recorded and then transcribed.
5. Absences – It also allows students who for some reason were absent for the class to go online and see what they missed. Students have no excuses for absences now as teachers can easily track student participation and contributions.
6. No Competition on a Weblog – While I agree with most of the above, I tend to disagree with the last point about competition. I think competition is a personal thing. Just like some people compete for “attention” from their friends some may compete by blogging the most. Possible, I think so. Is it true then, that students see weblogs as an equal “playing field”? What do you all think?
Sorry for the scroll-a-thon!
Cheers,
Evonne
References
Downes, S. (2004). Educational Blogging. Educause Review. September/October 2004. Accessed online 3 July 2010.
Fisch, K. (2007). “Blogging: In Their Own Words,” The Fischbowl. Accessed online 3 July 2010. http://thedischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/06/blogging-in-their-own-words.html
Wesch, M. (2007). A Vision of Students Today (& What Teachers Must Do). Accessed only 3 July 2010. http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/a-vision-of-students-today-what-teachers-must-do/