How might you use a blog with students? How might they respond to a blog assignment? What concerns about blogging with students do you have? How might you use a blog for other educational purposes (other than with students)?
I like and dislike the democracy of the web. I like the fact that nearly anyone (those with the means anyway) can publish music, poetry, or even run a business on the web. I hate the web for the very same reason--some of the foulest tripe, both morally and from a craft perspective find a residence on the web.
Blogs are the same way--they allow an avenue of writing previously only available to those with either lots of capital or a sympathetic editor from a publishing house or magazine. If I could employ blogs in my district I'd probably start with my creative writing class because then their writing has the possibility of being critiqued by someone other than me. Of course, there are probably more people out there who would write "Nice" (see origin) rather than "A good start, but what about. . ."
Other than that outlet, blogs might work well as a sort of bulletin board for teachers.
I suppose the other problem I have with blogs are that they privilige the immediate, i.e. the latest post is the one that is displayed. While blogs do store old posts, they don't lend themselves to a sense of history like perhaps a library does. A library does display the new releases, but one usually doesn't encounter a problem in trying to find the classics.
I like and dislike the democracy of the web. I like the fact that nearly anyone (those with the means anyway) can publish music, poetry, or even run a business on the web. I hate the web for the very same reason--some of the foulest tripe, both morally and from a craft perspective find a residence on the web.
Blogs are the same way--they allow an avenue of writing previously only available to those with either lots of capital or a sympathetic editor from a publishing house or magazine. If I could employ blogs in my district I'd probably start with my creative writing class because then their writing has the possibility of being critiqued by someone other than me. Of course, there are probably more people out there who would write "Nice" (see origin) rather than "A good start, but what about. . ."
Other than that outlet, blogs might work well as a sort of bulletin board for teachers.
I suppose the other problem I have with blogs are that they privilige the immediate, i.e. the latest post is the one that is displayed. While blogs do store old posts, they don't lend themselves to a sense of history like perhaps a library does. A library does display the new releases, but one usually doesn't encounter a problem in trying to find the classics.
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