Blogging Builds Discourse Communities
Unfortunately, I must admit that I have done little to educate myself on the topic blogging. Nevertheless, I can definitely identify the benefits of this technology as well as its downsides. During the first class, we discussed the reasons for blogging, and the types of discourse communities that might use such a genre. However, we did not discuss, in detail, using weblogs as an extension of the traditional classroom. However, I did find an interesting blog (http://edu.blogs.com/) that focues on using weblogs as a educational tool. Although I do not consider myself a master of web technology, I find the new technology that is exploding on the World Wide Web fascinating. My time is limited, so I have not had the opportunity to experiment with different kinds of web technology, such as chatting, instant messaging, or blogging. However, I find that they all, when used responsibly, can build discourse communities, when people lack the time and resources needed to engage one another face to face.
1 comment:
I've found that blogging, when used for instruction, can have some major pros (and, of course, cons as well).
I had my 103 class build blogs last semester and use them for a writing journal, and it went much smoother than having them build a website. Many already knew how, and Blogger offers such an easy template, it is no large stretch of effort to get their blogs up and running in a single class period.
However, my mistake was having them EACH build a blog, instead of using one class blog. What I wanted to avoid was a cluttered space, and what I wanted to provide was a place on the web for their OWN authority. What I got was the task of wading through 25 seperate web pages, and very little communication between students. But that was a problem dealing much more with my execution of the assignment than with the nature of the blog itself.
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