More on the Abuse of Student Blogs for Potential Young Writers
Tuesday, 13 March 2007 Clay Burell 
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I love how Technorati helps me find fellow-travelers linking to my posts so I can read their reflections on theirs. Bing Miller of The 21st Century Schoolhouse is a case in point. Reading his reflections on my “save blogs from homework” jag of late (see most of the last 10 or so posts) gave me more food for thought.
Bing observes that student responses to literature questions on his blog were more engaged than their traditional counterparts, and this is true. Linzel, likewise, voices reservations about web-log assessment being only the preserve of English teachers (he teaches science), and only to be assessed as writing, and not content knowledge and accuracy.
And they both have a point, leading to this further thought: student responses to directed questions on course content–I think Bing’s right about the value of having students respond to lesson questions of whatever sort on blogs. But–I think that whole class blogs are the place for that, while individual student blogs should contain freely written posts reflecting the individual student. Again, if blogs are about authentic audiences, then to me that means the writer’s own interests choose that audience, and tries to attract its loyalty and continued readership by honing his/her sense of what topics, and what style, will appeal to that audience. And the writer is only going to bother if the writer is writing about what drives him/her to write. So I want to hold firm to the point that blogging is for writer-development. There’s a big difference between a “writer” and a “student.”
As for Linzel–hey Linzel (can I use your first name?), what was that “learning fair” project they did in the middle school where students selected their project, independently carried it out, but under the mentorship of a cohort of teachers? And the academic credit was separate from any compartmentalized discipline? That sort of idea is what I’m groping toward for our own approach at my school.
If a student likes math, let him/her reflectively write, on a much higher order of thinking than getting the facts right, about math. And keep writing. For months, a year, years. As that writing progresses, those mentors–composed of a writing specialist and a subject-matter specialist (e.g., English and math teacher)–would periodically conference with the student about his/her exploratory, reflective journal-journey down the math path.
Ten-to-one, that student will eventually write his/her way down all sorts of side-paths into math history (cohort pulls a history teacher in for a conference), biography (“Why did Descartes invent calculus in the first place?” the blogger will one day wonder), science (“How does calculus work in the practical world?”–and cohort maybe sets up a Skype conference with an engineer from the real world to chat about that), etc. On and on.
That student’s self-directed blog, after he/she got into the groove–and this might take months to happen, since this sort of intensive thought is discouraged in our coverage-driven, garbage-in/garbage-out school system–that would be a blog worth reading.
Other student math lovers, locally and globally, might discover this individual, might like the way this individual is finding cooler and cooler questions to explore about something he/she loves, and the factuals and hypotheticals our young writer offers as he/she goes–and those readers will, because they are the writer’s authentic audience, come back for more.
And seeing that growth in readership–and in return readership–will give our young writer the experience school has never given students: that of being a writer, instead of being a student.
But what reader will ever return to a blog that’s full of homework posts? If Stephen Colbert were here, he’d say such a blog smelled of this: “Schooliness.”
So again: homework posts? For the class blog, in the comments. That’s where students can all read each other’s course-related stuff anyway, and get that peer-learning: in the “comments” section of the whole class blog.
But otherwise, only direct the student in his/her own blog to this degree: “You will write. For years. And you will write according to standards of high quality for content and style. But beyond that, you’re beyond school-writing. You’re writing to find your own connections, your own interests, your own ideas, voice, and style. You’re writing to become, to the best of your potential, an actual writer. And we’re here to guide.”
Otherwise, left unprotected, students will never have the opportunity to experience being an authentic writer in schools. They’ll be too busy being students doing homework. They won’t have time be real writers.
Though they will, chillingly, probably be dishing all that homework up on five or six different homework blogs.
(Photo credit: Hoyo by jubilo haiku, on Flickr.)
- From Red Pen to Invisible Ink: Assessing Student Blogs with Diigo Groups
- An Idea to Elevate Student Blog-Writers: Giving them space on Support Blogging.com
- Another Student Voice: "This is Why Writers Like to Write Stories"–A Wiki Makes a Writer
- Teacher Think-aloud on Student Blogging (a Fresh Start)
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Tags: critical thinking, lessons, professional development, reading, researching, student 2.0, teaching, web 2.0/ read-write web Print This Post
No. 1 — March 13th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I am hatching out my own idea in regards to this currently. The two blog types is perfect. One for class based requirements, and another for self-directed learning that is completely reflective and intrinsic. We have several programs in my building that would benefit from this model.
Thanks. This string of posts has gotten me moving in a great direction in my own thinking about student blogging.
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No. 2 — March 13th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
The distinction you make between class and individual blogs is exactly right, I think. My current question deals with how students “get credit” for this work. (And I say get credit, rather than use the term “assessment,” because a personal blog should be a place to inspire growth and exploration, not perpetuate the fear of “making a mistake.”)
If the student’s individual blog is going to carry real weight in the school, I think there needs to be a school-wide decision (or a teacher-team decision at minimum) about this question. I think we can look to older models of portfolio assessment as a place to start.
For example, what about the student (who I happen to actually teach) who does truly love to write about physics and calculus? Easy enough for me to give her credit for her “writing,” and to address specific stylistic choices, but how about her math teacher or science teacher? How about her history teacher? Does she only “get credit” for the writings that relate to a particular discipline? And what of podcats, images, videos … ?
Or do we need to devise a new kind of assessment model that takes into account this new, collective, synthesizing, collaborative approach to learning (and again, perhaps steal from portfolio models)?
Great post … thanks for the thoughts.
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No. 3 — March 13th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Patrick, thanks for the heads-up on your own posts in Chalkdust (great title!). Toffler quote is great. But I’d like Warlick to give us examples of where these student blogs are meeting such success, as I’m skeptical that it’s the norm. If he’s seeing them, he should link to them so we can look and learn. Does he do that?
It brings to mind a plug for ePals by some non-teaching edtech blogger (don’t remember who). I followed and signed up, and found it very aversive in practice. It’s made me more skeptical in general of edubloggers who aren’t actually doing this stuff in classrooms.
Eric, your questions are right on. And your possible answers are the right directions to pursue, seems to me.
The can of worms has many chambers, doesn’t it? But they’re so worth opening.
I’d love to Skypecast with you guys about these questions. Anybody up for a phone call?
Clay
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No. 4 — March 13th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
I would definitely be a part of that. pjhiggins1 on skype.
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No. 5 — March 14th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Hi Clay
I think I am beginning to get it. Thanks for continuing the conversation. Although I do still hold by the concepts I put on my blog I am beginning to see how the two can coexist.
As for the credit issue part of the answer may lay in our ability to deal with differentiated learning. If we can accept that not all students must do the same assignments then the student who chooses to pursue an interest and blogs about a particular field could receive credit without adding it on top of ..but making it instead of…
Just a thought. I really do appreciate your thinking here. Do you see any difference between how this applies at HS versus Middle or Jt high?
My skype is barbara.barreda
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No. 6 — March 18th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I’d be happy to do some talking, but we’d probably have to set a date/time. Maybe you could arrange a time and post it on your blog?
However, I know that I need to do more research and thinking about this before I feel I’ll have any real suggestions to offer … but I’m always happy to listen.
Skype ID: sicheiiyazhi
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No. 7 — March 2nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
[...] first used the word “schooliness” in March 2007 – my third month of blogging – in one of a series of posts on “how to save blogging from teachers.” (I still worry about that danger, and [...]
No. 8 — March 4th, 2008 at 6:51 am
[...] first used the word “schooliness” in March 2007 – my third month of blogging – in one of a series of posts on “how to save blogging from teachers.” (I still worry about that danger, and still [...]
No. 9 — January 9th, 2009 at 1:41 am
(I know this post is almost two years old, but I just now came across it…)
I love this. As a Spanish teacher, this is so easy for me to do! The kids can write about any subject that interests them, as long as they post in Spanish. It’s a great way to get them to “use technology” (read: fulfill my district mandate), get the students to use the language in a meaningful way, and communicate with people outside the classroom. Beautiful!
As for grading: Google Reader makes it a snap! Students should post *something* once a week – writing, video, photo — as long as it relates to his or her topic — and the student gets a “completion” grade for it (can vary depending on the quality of work, student’s ability, effort, etc.) (Yes, I know this is “schooling,” but those of us still in the public school system need to find ways to teach while still playing the game.)
Sra. Profes last blog post..On Tutoring and Availability
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No. 10 — January 27th, 2009 at 12:03 am
[...] first used the word “schooliness” in March 2007 – my third month of blogging – in one of a series of posts on “how to save blogging from teachers.” (I still worry about that danger, and still [...]
No. 11 — February 23rd, 2009 at 8:26 pm
[...] their learning, but I would also be afraid of just giving them busy work or overloading them. Clay Burrell gets at this idea. He says that a student’s personal blog should be left to them to develop [...]