The Power of Blogging
We should respond to Steve Outing’s Blogs Have a Place on News Websites with a parallel article that Blogs Have a Place in Education.
- Last year, I wrote a column for Editor & Publisher Online suggesting that many reporters, correspondents, editors and columnists at newspapers should produce Weblogs. I stand by that advice, but these days I place equal importance on non-staff members producing the content for blogs at news companies.
Over the past few years, we have been encouraging teachers, administrators, pre-service teachers, student teachers, and others to use Weblogs in the education arena. We place even more importance on putting this in the hands of our students! - Weblogs present a wonderful opportunity to get the voices of the public onto your site.
Weblogs present a wonderful opportunity to get OUR voices heard by the public and each other. It presents a wonderful opportunity for students to have an audience for their writing. There’s discussion from many, not just a few. - Blogging actually makes it easier for community members, because of the nature of the format.
We’ve named it - instant publishing! Anywhere, anytime, from any browser. It’s much easier for teachers than learning a program such as Front Page or Dreamweaver and then having to buy and load it on ONE computer.
Steve Outing goes on to say that blogs should be used to attract a younger crowd. Now why isn’t education a place that is looked at by those outside our field? We could definitely get that younger crowd involved.
He closes by saying, ”Go With the Flow. Use your imagination and start blogging!
I agree with that. We’re doing it and getting others involved, too.
The pace of change is rapid and is central to life in the 21st century. For once, I’d like to see education in the forefront of leading the way in helping students embrace this rapid change. Our students are going to experience even more rapid change. The ability to read, write, and keep up with this is of paramount importance. A good education does not necessarily measure up by just test scores. (I won’t get on a tirade here!) Students need lots of practice engaging in exciting, collaborative learning activities where they have to discuss, think, contribute, read, and write.
Our students have to be involved in the emerging new information and technology- the new literacies, so to speak. Seb is addressing this entire learning issue and he says it much better than I can. He has a continuous flow of posts that are thought-provoking and so relevant to the things we need to think about.
I see weblogs as a vehicle to open some of these closed doors in our field. We need more voices. There’s power in good use of weblogs.
August 8th, 2003 at 11:28 am
You really need to get publishing Anne…that’s a great topic. Go for it!