Comments are a powerful motivator of student writing in blogs, especially when those comments come from sources outside the classroom walls.
If the power of Weblogs is in the interaction, discussion and collaboration, what responsible professionals might we invite to participate in our own Weblogs? Also, how might we ensure the well being (safety) of our students and at the same time show respect and trust to these same community contributors?
5 comments:
Again, I'm willing to start the discussion. Remember, I'm a team player. :)
For starters, I'd love to invite reporters and editors from the Press & Sun to participate in a Journalism blog. Not only would their insights into the profession be a wonderful addition, but I think that mere participation in our class leads to a more legitimate and meaningful experience for students.
As far as keeping students safe, I don't see this sort of community involvement as dangerous, especially if you, as the administrator, have complete control over the Weblog, which means you have to be able to edit and delete posts and comments as you see fit. With Blogger.com, you have that control. You can invite only specific contributors, and you can limit their access to students as you see fit. On the same hand, you can limit students' access to your contributors.
Can you imagine inviting Kevin Stevens to discuss his approach to writing the Press $ Sun Bulletin's Athlete of the Year feature article. That would be cool -- for both me and my students.
For my curriculum, I can see inviting lawyers, professional writers, principals, historians and other community memebers to take part in our discussions.
Let me play the devil's advocate for a second here. Knowing that Scott has had a lot of experience using weblogs, I am curious as to some of the difficulties and/or obstacles that he has encountered. It would be very powerful to have community members join our classroom discussions however, how does this complicate the planning of curriculum and time constraints that are upon all of us? How do we go about finding reputable community members who would be dependable enough for us to invite them into our conversations? I agree with Scott that blogs can be an outstanding resource for opening up the confines of the classroom, but I am not sure that I am ready to dive in until I am certain that all barriers can be broken and learning standards will be met more effectively.
At this point, I am not planning to invite community members to participate in blogging with my students. My thought was to invite selected hs staff members whom my students would feel confortable writing to, and develop activities which would enchance the knowledge base of my students on that subject. Maybe at some point in the future, I would consider expanding the knowledge base of the experts who would dialogue with my class.
When I used Typepad.com's blog to publish Newark Valley stories in journalism I found that my need for control over the administration and posting aspects of blogging slowed the process down. I had to have students email their stories to me, and in turn I had to post their stories to the blog. While the thought was unique and interesting, the blog didn't turn control over to students enough. It wasn't their online publication. It was mine. There were other issues as well, including ones related to teaching a half year course (time restrictions)
Since then, while using blogs in writing lab, I've found that too much control is also an issue at times. Some students are so in love with their blog that they can't wait to publish their writing, even when it's not ready for publication. Still, you can't beat the motivational aspect of blogs as the portfolio or filing cabinet. I've yet to have a writing lab student ask me why he even needs to be in the class, or what the purpose of writing lab is. And, when I get to lab, students usually have my lab web site up, their blog open and a Microsoft Word file ready for writing. How often do traditional "classroom" students get their materials out before class officially begins?
Lastly, when I used a discussion forum in my ninth honors class last year, I never invited students, but allow them to comment on posts openly and often anonymously. It became a problem. I think that if you're going to use a blog, you'll be much happier if you take the time to set it up securely. And, the blog is only a tool for learning and participation. It's not an answer all by itself.
As far Smallery playing devil's advocate, I agree that inviting "outsiders" presents problems of all sorts. I guess when I get excited about the possibilities of doing so, I think about how I could do it once in a school year. No one has time to recreate curriculum over and over. It's small steps.
Can't we meet standards through blogging? If we think creatively, I don't see why we can't.
Community contributors would be quite and asset. But would it really be as valuable as we all think?
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