Since I'm posting later in the week, I have the advantage of being able to read what others have already written. (One small thing I hope to learn in this class is that "trackback" feature that Hendron mentions in RSS for Educators.) Maybe these comments would be better suited as replies to the original posts, but for now I'll leave them as part of my own posting.
So Molly mentioned blogs as possibly the new form of the Sunday Night Dinner. And while I really like the rich discussion and enhanced communication that this analogy conjures, I can't help agreeing with Crystal's point that blog discussion is missing that face-to-face component (not to mention a thick, juicy slab of pot roast). And I think that face-to-face communication should still be valued as the most important form of human communication -- or at least the original, from which all other forms of communication evolved as proxies. In this respect, I agree with Ellyn that socially accepted rules of politeness should apply to blogs just as they do in face-to-face communication. I hope that blogs remain only as a tool that is a proxy for face-to-face communication for the purpose of enabling more ideas and information to be shared -- and not as a substitute for face-to-face communication.
Tonight I was talking to my husband about the social rules around blogs. His comment was that if the benefit of blogging is to get your ideas out to a wide audience, then wouldn't it be equivalent in purpose to standing on a street corner (or in the middle of a college campus) and shouting out to passers-by? Of course blogs are more efficient than that because the reader can peruse the information and add comments at his or her leisure, as opposed to stopping right at that moment to engage in the discussion. But I do think it's interesting that one form of getting ideas out to a wide audience is socially acceptable and one is not.
I also wonder if an increase in digital communication will change the way that we interact with each other when we are face-to-face.
In my student teaching experience last spring, I used blogs with my 11th and 12th grade world literature students. One thing that I noticed is that students were not hesitant to comment on the blog posts of other students whom I observed to be outside their usual group of friends that they sat with and preferred to work with in class. So I'm interested in how digital writing affects the face-to-face communication in the classroom -- I'm hoping it may improve it.
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Hi Kate I agree that online communications can not replace in person communications. But I think for teachers maybe it's always a supplement anyway, and the students already know each other in their classrooms.
Maybe at an more abstract level, online communication can serve some additional purposes. For example, like in the role play, students can write with others from different parts of the country or even different countries.
I think it also depends on how you use it. I think some people can engage in real in-depth exchange of ideas with strangers online and maybe even go ahead and make real life friends, vs just hiding behind the screen from real communication and social life.
it seems you're worried about how to control, I don't know enough about kids' classes to comment. I guess it is a big problem. But on the other side, I think it's also motivating for kids, because of all the possibilities and visual and multimedia features.
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