On ‘Blogs as a tool for Teaching’ by Steven D. Krause

Blog about it! I’m really having a difficult time warming up to this technology. I mean, my Microsoft Word document isn’t even recognizing the spelling of this word. That’s right, I’m typing into word so that I feel less like I’m blogging —blogging has that red squiggly line that crutches my spelling throughout any given essay. That’s another technology that has hindered my basic writing skills. But I digress.
I don’t want to be a cynic of technology because I know certain advances have significantly bettered society. As far as written composition, I’ve always been frustrated with grammar and punctuation. If it were not for Word’s compliment to a top-down learning approach to writing I probably would have given up on the task a long time ago. It has allowed me to put my thoughts on the screen and sort through them without being hung up on spelling.
As for Blogging, Krause notes three lessons that have shown him why this newer technology has failed in his classroom. First, the opportunity for technology isn’t always received well by students cautious of its use. I am one of these students, but Krause notes that his students complained about the vagueness of the task. I don’t feel this way about our classroom use, but his second point enlightened me—“to write in a blog takes a desire to reach an audience.” I can’t seem to find this audience and I think it is connected to his second finding that “blogs do not do a very good job of helping writers interact.” He found that email list and sources like blackboard are more discussion oriented because of the “threaded” format. I’ve used this before for an online class and while still turned off to internet I was more successful at producing a written piece and creating a discussion.
We discuss the readings in class and the blogs are intended to produce questions for this discussion, but personally I find my discussion ability better suited for spurred rather than planned dialogue. Basically, I want to want to blog, but I can’t even sell myself on the idea. I just feel self defeated by the thought of it…
So how do we sell this technology to the class? I’m not sure. How have others in this class adopted it so well?


A Denver University rendition of ‘The Office’ to their dealings with technology:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6svk_R_rVhA