Week 3 Articles: Blogs

Title: Blog Overload

Bibliography:

Dawson, Kara (2007, February 2). Blog Overload. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53, Retrieved April 20, 2007, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1229861321&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=2507&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Summary:

The author of this article gave examples of how blogs are used by agencies to disseminate information as well as by students and others in academia in an effort to share thoughts. The author of the article is a college professor. In the past she had required her students to blog as part of the curriculum in her class. She felt students were “blogged down and blogged out.” She talked about how the blog site would be idle until a flurry of blogs started appearing within a 24 hour period before the assignment was due. This in turn made it difficult for her to read and respond to the postings given the compressed time in which the activity was taking place. She is not giving up on blogs, but she is going to redefine their uses in her classes. In her opinion, blogs are a difficult tool to use for an extended conversation, and she prefers using the threaded format for online class discussions.

Reaction:

Kara Dawson does a nice job of explaining what a blog is and what their primary purpose is. Before this class, I had not ever blogged. I found the author’s opinion of value since she is an instructor and she has used blogs in her class. However I took it as just that: one person’s opinion. I feel there is further research to do on this topic. The author herself feels blogs have value; she is just not sure how they fit into education. I am thinking that the next time I teach the entry-level computer course at GRCC, I will introduce my students to blogs. I find them easy to use. In my opinion introducing a computer concept/technological tool is different than using it to facilitate learning. Blogs are new to academia and have not yet found their place.

Title: Academics Give Lessons on Blogs

Bibliography:

Adenekan, Shola (2005, Jan. 23). BBC News. Retrieved April 20, 2007, from Academics give lessons on blogs Web site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4194669.stm

Summary:

The author of this article introduces ways that the academic world is utilizing blogs. She even discusses how Esther Maccallum-Stewart, a professor at Sussex University, uses the technology to teach and carry out research. The ability to post to the Internet so easily makes blogs a convenient place to store ideas, links and other references. The author notes that a different university is granting students and staff room on the university’s server to start their own blogs. Some students use blogs for school and personal communications. Some faculty members also practice the intermingling of personal stories with educational ideas. The author warns against this practice, as blogging is a new concept not yet clearly defined. Therefore, the ideas posted on the blog of a faculty member if found to contain inappropriate/inaccurate postings, could put the institution’s reputation at stake.

Reaction:

After reading the first article this week, I longed for a better understanding of how academia could fully utilize blogs. This article helped fill in those gaps. Blogging has huge potential for being used as a tool in facilitating knowledge acquisition. The author of the article also offered the notation that blogging, like most new technologies, is evolving quickly with little or no regulations. Who can blog what? From what I’ve seen anyone can blog anything. Is this a good thing? I think as instructors, our job of teaching students to think critically about the information that is presented to them just got harder yet more important than ever. Blogs allow individuals to post their ideas in what appears to be a very professional and concise manner. It would be easy for a student of little experience to be impressed by a blog’s appearance and be more accepting of the information that is presented on the website (blog).