Students and Blogging
One thing we did not consider at our workshop last week was the conundrum of students not liking to blog or not utilizing the technology. With so many students using social software such as MySpace and Facebook, not to mention having their own blogs with Xanga, I did not think about students actually not wanting to use the blogging technology.
A post today on The Wired Campus, Blogging in the Dark, discusses an article in the Shanghai Daily concerning students who "simply ignore" classroom blogs. Wired Campus blog author , Brock Read, poses the following:
"So here is a pair of questions that could easily be extended to professors who blog: What flaws can keep a classroom blog from getting off the ground? And once students begin to lose interest in a blog, how can it be reanimated?"What does anyone think? In our zeal to incorporate blogs into academics and libraries, did we overlook the obvious?
posted by Diane Schrecker @ 1:48 PM
1 Comments:
You have a good point. Of course, this issue was true for listservs and other technology as well.
One option is to tie the blog to the grade in some way, such as part of the participation grade. Hopefully, once students participate they will become interested and continue to post and engage the subject. However, unless the blog is meaningful and is the best tool for the class, students will only post what they must in order to get their participation points.
So in response to Brock Read, I would say some flaws would be blogs that are not clearly defined and/or do not seem relevant to the students in the class. Also, if the students are not familiar with feeds, then there can be a general inertia to checking the blog. I would think if the blog is clearly defined that interest would be maintained.
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