Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Hey, where'd the community go?
Class today was what I called the second loop on the research cycle: I asked them to assess what they knew about weblogging in education based on the research they have been doing. I also asked them to identify what else they need to know in order answer the question--weblogs, what's the use?--and I asked them how they are going to get the information they need.
Wide range of responses: some students have already figured out that weblogging isn't really for them, although they like and are interested in forums or community blogs. I am going to set up a class blog tomorrow. The students most interested in this both said that they just didn't like writing "for themselves", but they were both on forums where good info about topics they are interested in are regularly discussed.
A handful of students seem not have done much research at all, and seem to be at about the same spot they were 10 days ago. Sigh. One said that it is hard to find information. I was a bit snotty and said something like "nobody said education was supposed to be easy."
When we discussed what they need to do to get information, I asked that they think about this without doing a search. Someone said "email Rebecca Blood" and somebody else said "email the professor at FSU." But they didn't get much further than that. I told them to visit my web page and my blog--that seemed to be news to many.
A few are thinking that it might be okay for a teacher to keep a blog, but the majority don't seem to think that they should be keeping weblogs--at least not individual ones. My most articulate student also mentioned that 2 of his professors maintain personal/class websites, 3 uses Blackboard (all differently), and one doesn't use either. He said he spends an hour and a half most nights just crusing the different information sources to keep track of what is going on, and that he finds all the different means of communicating pretty overwhelming. We might think about spinning out a "case study" from each of our five classes, where we talk with students about not only this class, but their engagement with technology their first semester at NDSU.
okay--let's hope this posts.
Class today was what I called the second loop on the research cycle: I asked them to assess what they knew about weblogging in education based on the research they have been doing. I also asked them to identify what else they need to know in order answer the question--weblogs, what's the use?--and I asked them how they are going to get the information they need.
Wide range of responses: some students have already figured out that weblogging isn't really for them, although they like and are interested in forums or community blogs. I am going to set up a class blog tomorrow. The students most interested in this both said that they just didn't like writing "for themselves", but they were both on forums where good info about topics they are interested in are regularly discussed.
A handful of students seem not have done much research at all, and seem to be at about the same spot they were 10 days ago. Sigh. One said that it is hard to find information. I was a bit snotty and said something like "nobody said education was supposed to be easy."
When we discussed what they need to do to get information, I asked that they think about this without doing a search. Someone said "email Rebecca Blood" and somebody else said "email the professor at FSU." But they didn't get much further than that. I told them to visit my web page and my blog--that seemed to be news to many.
A few are thinking that it might be okay for a teacher to keep a blog, but the majority don't seem to think that they should be keeping weblogs--at least not individual ones. My most articulate student also mentioned that 2 of his professors maintain personal/class websites, 3 uses Blackboard (all differently), and one doesn't use either. He said he spends an hour and a half most nights just crusing the different information sources to keep track of what is going on, and that he finds all the different means of communicating pretty overwhelming. We might think about spinning out a "case study" from each of our five classes, where we talk with students about not only this class, but their engagement with technology their first semester at NDSU.
okay--let's hope this posts.
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