Digital Age, My Foot

My brilliant plan for next term?

Blogs instead of journals.

That sounds great, right? Students could interact with each other's work, respond to audio, videos, photographs, search the web for content, TYPE ON THE COMPUTER, as I've been led to believe is the center of their lives.

Wrong.

For their journals this week, I asked my students to consider their personal pros and cons of writing in a journal or switching to blogging. Here are a few considerations they had, summed up wonderfully in one student's entry:
"I would prefer to write in a notebook and not a blog for a few reasons. First, I don't even know what a blog is, but it is on the computer, which means I could be distracted by other things by working on it. Plus, if I had spell check, I would just be editing my words and not learning to spell them correctly. Also I would not be as open and honest in a blog because it is more open for people that I do not want to read it. Overall, I would prefer to keep writing in a notebook/journal and not a blog."
 I had fifteen other decisive votes against blogs. (I also had two people misunderstand "multi-media" to mean that they would have to create videos or audio for their blog--that was not the case, but I can understand their worries.)

So what do I do? Blogs wouldn't take effect until next term, with different students. I have several interesting (I hope) blog prompts planned and at the ready. (Desert Island Discs? Writer's Almanac? 144 character entry?) I feel strongly about allowing my students the chance to intereact with the world around them, and I feel that the internet is, unfortunately, the best way to reach into the world and into different subjects. And let's face it, eventually these students will have to share their writing and, more importantly, their thoughts with someone other than their teacher. Be brave, I always tell my students.

Is this an obstacle I'm sensing? Fear of defeat, perhaps?

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 9, 2012 at 7:52 PM

    I think that you should try the blogging despite the feedback against it. In response to the exerpt you provided, it's pretty easy to clarify what blog is, they've got to learn how to work with distractions because there will be loads of them in the real world, spell check gives you instant feedback on your spelling and grammar, and when you're writing you are usually writing for some kind of audience. Blogging is a way of practicing many of the skills people need to have to write in the professional world. Many companies utilize blogs to discuss their products and services and topics related to those products and services directly with their target market. I also agree that there is an advantage to giving them a platform in which their peers can give them feedback, because it allows them to learn from each other.

    Soooooo, I guess my verdict on the whole thing is that do it. Whether they like it or not, it's good for them.

    ReplyDelete

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