Are blogs creating a healthy, inclusive learning environment? From what I understand, blogs, discussion boards, and the Web 2.0 like, are changing the learning environment for students. Students that are not confident speaking in class might be more confident posting to a discussion board, which allows them to contribute to and participate in a form of class discussion.
One thing that I am noticing with our Education and Society blogs is that my classmates are making valuable, insightful, engaging, and sometimes humourous contributions on the lectures, class presentations, or other topics of interest. Great, fantastic even, please keep it up. However, what is the rest of the class doing? Are they losing out on this learning experience? Are these blogs creating another classroom? If so, this “other classroom” does not include our fellow classmates. Are our fellow classmates missing out?
Are we intentionally saving our contributions for our blogs and thus neglecting to bring them up in class? Are we doing a disservice to our classmates by not discussing these issues in class? I know that “other classrooms” may pop up when a group of classmates discuss a lecture or presentation over a beverage of sorts. So do I miss out on that learning experience? Or maybe my learning experience is enhanced when end up chatting with the professor after class. Does the rest of the class miss out?
I just find it interesting how we have this community of bloggers who are experiencing something different from the rest of the class. It also makes me wonder if there is any value in encouraging students to speak in class.
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I really never thought of it in that way, but yes, I think that we are having our own little classroom through these blogs and I do think that it has benefited me. However, are the student's blogs not posted on WebCT for the whole class to view? Each and every student has the opportunity to look up these blogs and comment on them even if they have not chosen to do a blog themselves. I also think that I am extremely grateful for the blogs because I am exactly like the student you described in your intro. I am far more comfortable writing my thoughts and ideas in a blog than actually bringing them up in class. I find that I get my ideas across more effectively when I am able to write them down and read through them before posting them. I am one of those people who needs to think before they speak but doing that in class leave you little time to actually be heard. :) I don't think that we are excluding anyone from the class with these blogs because, like I said, the list was made available to everyone and we were all given an equal opportunity to take part in this "other classroom" and those who chose not to take part are simply missing out.
ReplyDeleteMy experience has been that the people who speak in class are often a different subset then the ones who take leadership roles on class discussion boards or blogs etc. But it does raise all sorts of interesting issues!
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