Blogs as branches from the same the trunk of thought

Will's unsuccessful attempt at finding student "bloggers" (writers) reminds me that there is still a lot of teaching and learning to be done on fruitful classroom blogging. While I cannot attest to the strengths or weaknesses of the blogs Will received from his Tweeting, I acknowledge the fact that Will's evaluation of student blogs was most likely fair and appropriate, given his professional background. If future teachers hope to incorporate blogs into their classrooms, perhaps there should be more of a focus on how writing is different from blogging.

Blogging is not simply writing online. Although blogging does ask students to produce text, it additionally provides a means for collaboration through hyperlinks. In a standard classroom, teachers provide writing prompts to students with the expectation that students will each write their own individual responses. When teachers read the assignments, they more than often look to see whether students succeeded in sustaining a thorough, complete argument. But what if teachers could evaluate a student's ability to continue a discussion rather than to complete one?

Every teacher wants to foster a safe learning environment where students feel comfortable sharing ideas in front of their peers without the fear of ridicule, and most teachers will give students the highest marks on persuasive and analytical assignments as long as the evidence supports the thesis, regardless of a teacher's bias. However, shouldn't teachers also strive to reach a shared understanding to some degree? Wouldn't a longer conversational thread (via a blog ;) )help in building this shared understanding? In the event students were providing hollow discussion tracks, teachers could step in to challenge or redirect thought. Now, I'm not suggesting that teachers lecture from the pulpit on the one, true interpretation of a text, but what I am intimating is that teachers should, perhaps, reconsider how they assess student thinking.

Being part of a conversation, as blogs enable its users to do, is a skill that all students should develop.

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Image Citation:

Mrhayata. (2008 January 3). Tree trunk. Mrhayata's Photostream. Retrieved on January 22, 2008, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrhayata/2161899616/