Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Issues regarding use of blogs with students
Some questions to think about when planning to use blogs with students:
- What is the purpose of the blog – make sure it is clear – is it linked to assessment? If it isn’t assessed will they bother to use it – probably not?
- Do you use a class group blog or individual blogs? Perhaps you only need one blog in wwhich you as tutor post the questions and assignments etc., and the students merely respond via comments.
- Will they have a choice which blog to use and whether or not to make it or bits of it public?
- What if they already have a blog and prefer to use the same blog, perhaps with a specific tag to make it easier for you and anyone else to read? otherwise they may end up with many blogs, e.g., for each class plus private ones – which is difficult to manage.
- If you specify what blog tool they use, will you use an internal blog provided by the institution or an external one, with all the disadvantages of hosting off-site?
- Do you insist they have a “professional” identity – do they need guidance in the tone and theme of the blog? Can they use a pseudonym or other less formal identity?
- Will the tutor be reading the blog or will everyone in the class be expected to read one another’s? Will students be expected to comment on one another’s posts?
Labels: academic blogs, blog network, blogging, blogs, collaborative working, reflective learning, writing
posted by Helen Whitehead 12:02 PM
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Blogs vs communities of practice
A community of practice defines itself along three dimensions:
- What it is about - its joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its members
- How it functions - mutual engagement that bind members together into a social entity
- What capability it has produced - the shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artifacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.) that members have developed over time? (Wenger 1998)
I've been reading an interesting post from back in 2004 comparing blogs and online communities of practice.
In summary:
What blogs provide that other web-based collaboration tools do not:
- Blogs are more respectful of their authors and of their audience
- Blogs are better connecting tools.
What Communities of Practice provide that a network of bloggers cannot:
- Communities are better social structures for problem-solving, knowledge stewarding and innovation
- Communities of practice are better social structures for learning
How blogs and CoPs live together?
- Blogger networks generate communities of practice (and communities of practice generate projects)
- Communities of Practice can use blogs to communicate with the outside world.
I wonder how that discussion would be updated now? Certainly you wouldn't talk about "weblogs" now! I might have a think about this and post my thoughts at a later date.Labels: blog network, blogging, blogs, communities of practice, emoderating, online community
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:06 AM
