Final Project: Applying Blogging to My Course Work

I appreciate the exposure to the various technology tools we have had in this course. I plan to use Slideshare, particularly the cartoon section, in the future. Also, I want to further develop my understanding of Animito and apply it to use in the classroom. However, for my final project, I will focus on using Blogging as the application to enhance learning in my class.

At this point, I still need to develop my competency with blogging. But, of the technologies we have learned about, it is the application that I can navigate and use, even though I have only rudimentary skills at creating and managing a blog. I am also drawn to blogging because I have colleagues that have blogs that provide content and examples of issue analysis that apply to activities that I already use in my class.

I plan to use blogging as a way for students to develop and apply their critical thinking skills as well as increase their fund of knowledge about social issues. One of the goals of my course, Contemporary American Society, it to engage students in the process of analyzing social forces, issues created by those forces, and ways to become active in advocating changes or improvements to social policies. I want students to become interested in the political process and become active in expressing their concerns and recommendations to elected officials and policy-makers.

Because of my new knowledge of blogging, I have been exposed to two blog examples that have direct application to my course. One blog provides a rebuttal to the blog posted by Andrew Breitbart on Shirley Sherrod's work for the Department of Agriculture. Although his blog had inaccurate and inflamatory information, it was taken as fact a publicized on major news outlets. As a result of another blog, his comments were refuted. The blog that refuted his comments also included video of a speech made by Breitbart; having the video provides an opportunity to analyze his non-verbal behaviors such as body language and tone of voice. The video provided another means to analyze the blog posted by Breitbart.

This first example provides students with an example of the risks of using information from blogs because the information can be inaccurate. It also provides students with a way to develop "alternative explanations" of what is presented in a blog. In a discussion about this blog, I would also ask students to consider that ramifications of actions such as Breitbart's for our democratic process. It could be argued that Breitbart's blog led President Obama to fire Ms. Sherrod. If a blog, eventhough inaccurate, can lead a high-ranking elected official to make a decision about an issue, what does that mean for our democratic process? Students would be asked to ponder this question and submit a blog with their answer. Students who are unable to blog, would be asked to submit a paper assignment of their blog.

The second example of a blog that I can use in my course to get students active in the political process is from an advocacy organization in Wisconsin that analyzes the state budget. I hope to use this in my class at MATC this week. This blog has direct application to the discussions we have had throughout the semester and can provide an example for students about issues for the upcoming state budget. This blog should help to "demystify" the budget process and pique students interest in the creation of our state budget. Ultimately, I would encourage students to use this information to make their views known to elected officials.

While the above examples offer opportunities for positive outcomes from using blogging, I also recognize that there will be challenges to using blogging. After reviewing information on grading blogs, I have some ideas about how to address my concerns about developing rebrics for grading blogs that insure fairness and clarity of expectations for students. Rather than using letter grades for blogs, I would use a "+" or OK grade system. I would provide criteria for the blogs and students would be evaluated on the adequacy of their response when compared to the criteria. There may also be value to creating criteria for students to use when evaluating their blogs and then ask them to revise two of their posts to strengthen those posts.

The other challenge I expect to encounter is that some students will not be familiar with blogging or have ready access to computers to do blogging. In that case, students will have to submit written, "hard copies" of their blogs. While I may be able to spend some time exposing students to this technology or using the expertise of other students to do this, I do not have the competence yet or the class time to demonstrate blogging effectively. It may be possible to have students work as pairs on such assignments, but I need to give further consideration to this possibility. I am looking forward to having students experienced in blogging teach me more about its use.

I expect there will be other challenges that will arise, but it is difficult for me to see those right now as I have not yet incorporated this technology into my course.

It is likely that as I become more familiar and competent at using the other applications I have learned about in this course, that I will incorporate them into my course.

In the word of Porky Pig, "that's all folks."