Possible Activities for Blogs in the Classroom

I’m supposed to develop some activities for how I might use blogs in the classroom, but I think all my initial ideas run straight into the warnings given in the Beach, Anson, Breuch, and Swiss book, Engaging Students in Digital Writing (draft copy, 2008). For example, the authors quote Sandy Hayes:

“’It’s not about learning how to use the tools . . . it’s about understanding how to use the tools to learn’” (p. 8).

One page later, the authors add:

“We need to consider how students perceive their uses as more than simply completing writing assignments for teachers—now on blogs or wikis rather then [sic] in Word. Clay Burell (2008) warns that blogging can easily become ‘just another way to turn in homework.’” (p. 9).

Similarly, the authors quote Anne Beaton:

“However, I felt that my students were essentially experiencing a typical classroom task via a blog—an electronic substitute” (p. 101).

So now I’m left wondering: Maybe it’s a learning curve. Maybe I need to start with whatever ideas I have, see how they work, then modify and improve upon them. But it’d sure to nice to start off with wonderful ideas that will work splendidly every time. Of course, I know from experience that this is well nigh impossible. So on to my initial ideas.

In English 0950, for example, since it is a developmental-level college writing course, perhaps start out the semester with the idea of blogs, perhaps even assign some of the chapters in Blogging for Dummies, and have students set up their own blogs. Then, rather than continue on with teacher-assigned readings, have students explore the course anthology and find five readings that they are interested in. This next part sounds the most like the “blog-as-teacher-assigned-horror,” but I could have the students write five posts, one for each reading they’ve selected, briefly summarizing and then perhaps arguing why other students should explore the same reading. All these activities would help them setting up their blog, get them reading, help them with writing fluency, get them to think of their audience as they write, and get them responding to and thinking about each others’ posts.

My next idea also seems very teacher-driven and really just another spin on a typical classroom activity, though this time in the electronic medium. Once students have drafted an essay, rather than the usual in-class peer reviews (which never seem to work the way I want them to, and which never seem to result in all students getting great feedback), the students would copy-and-paste their drafts into a blog post, and then their “writing group,” perhaps now called their “blog partner(s)” (grouped in pairs, trios, or quads), would read their posts/drafts and provide feedback through the comment feature.

This seems only a novelty, however, which might produce one round of good feedback, or which might improve over the semester. However, Hendron, in RSS for Educators, offers something similar to this idea in Chapter 9, in “Lesson 2: Keeping a Fine Arts Portfolio” (pp. 163-165). I think the key here would be to get students to comment on the comments they receive, something I don’t allow them to do in class in their small groups, thinking that they would start “defending” their paper (they should be seeking to understand the comments, asking questions for clarification, etc.). However, with the blog, maybe it would be different. I would, of course, tell them not to defend their paper but to seek clarification, or to initiate some sort of dialogue. This, of course, might require that I have the writing group read the drafts/posts again, including the comments, and to comment on the comments to their comments. If you can follow that!

Lastly, for English 1121, our college writing (or FYC) course, I’m not sure yet about blogs for that class. Since it is the class focusing on argumentation and research, perhaps a class blog and/or a wiki would work better. But I still need to find out more about class blogs; hopefully, that will happen in class on 9-23-08. The Beach, Anson, Breuch, and Swiss book has already given some good examples where class blogs and wikis are used for argumentation and research assignments. And the Hendron book, in chapter 9, offers “Lesson 4: Let’s Review” (pp. 168-170) which seems like an ideal assignment for this course. The critical review / critique could be of a movie, book, or musical recording, as Hendron suggests, but it might also be of an argument (the focus of the course), whether written, oral, or visual, whether academic, political, social, or pop culture.

NOTE TO RICK BEACH: I would still like to learn about “track-backs” in blogs, wherein the blogger cites and links to other sources within his/her own blog. I know you covered this a bit last week, right at the end, but a little more time on it would be great! How is it best done? Is it copy-paste, or a hyperlink, or both, or what? It is especially mentioned on p. 103 of your book.