Students' blogs going great!

I have been so wrapped up in following the blogs of my students that I haven't kept up with my own! I don't have much time to write here, but wanted to share that I'm really excited to see what students are learning through blogging, both in terms of the process and the product. But even more exciting has been the parallel discussion that they have been having in our class online asynchronous discussion about the whole issue of blogging. Many key points have been brought out about different purposes of blogging, uses in different types of work and school settings, privacy/confidentiality issues, and freedom of speech. Today on NPR they did an excellent story on legal issues and blogging and shared an interesting web resource on this. It's at: http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/

We are off! My students are starting blogs

Today in class I introduced the concept of blogs to my students in my Computer in Education class (that I am teaching to a cohort of graduate students). Actually, I had the assignment posted on my course website yesterday and I asked the students to take a look at it. By this morning a couple of them had already gone ahead and started their blogs before we even got to it in class. I'm excited to see how this works out.

What I am asking students to do is create a blog that they use as a reflective journal to guide them as they research a topic for my class. Specifically I've asked them: "Begin researching and reflecting your topic. As you do so, journal about your progress and your evolving ideas on your blog. Note: your blog is not a formal paper. Let it be a free-flow journal in which you explore ideas, pose questions to yourself and to others, and share your evolving findings. You will each be reading each other's blogs, and I ask you to comment on and share your thoughts on other's blogs as appropriate. This way you will be engaged in ongoing discussions with each other about the issues that are of interest to you. If you wish, invite others outside of our class to view your blog and to make comments (you may invite others to your own blog, but please do not give out the URL of the blogs of your peers without their permission)." I'm eager to see if this helps students with the writing of their research paper -- and to hear their views on whether they think it helps them. I'm inviting them to come and take a look at my blog here. So folks in my class, feel free to share your thoughts here on how your blog is helping you, and what your thoughts are about doing it! It would be great if others could read your comments (and I truly DO want your honest thoughts!).

I found an interesting article today about blogging statistics in the USA: The State of Blogging. Lee Rainie (2005). Pew Internet and American Life Project. What is interesting is the rapid increase not so much in people who are creating blogs, but even more so those who are reading them. I know I've found ones on international news (such as Iraq) certainly are providing rich insights into these events in ways that don't make headline news. It's really powerful to read people's first hand accounts of events. Of course it's really important to keep in mind that those blogs are personal journals -- no written to be objective documentaries of factual events.

Requires commitment

I realize that now that I have created this blog, in order for me to make it meaningful I need to maintain it! But that's an important part of this techno-journey for me. I realize that it's not like a web page that you put up and can leave and come back to, as my mother would say, "In the fullness of time." :) I'm seeing the difference between having my students create a blog for their own learning, and me practicing what I preach. For this to be meaningful to me and to others who read the blog (a) it has to be kept current (b) what I say must be relevant -- not just writing for writing sake. The latter is a tricky one, though, because as I look at blogs of others (for example, the blogs of Kim Riordan's son, who is in Iraq -- she refers to it in her comment to my previous blog post), what makes some of them very compelling is the conversational, free stream-of-conscious flow. So for me, for now, I'm going to shoot for meeting item (a) -- being current -- and just let my thoughts flow.

Thanks to Kim and Linda for your comments on how you have used blogs with your students. It's really fun to be in this together. Have any of you out there done your own blogging along with or in addition to having your students do them? What have been your experiences?