Last May I explored the topic of digital media in the classroom. As though to prove my point, the post generated little conversation on the topic, accumulating an astounding zero comments. Since then, PLA administration has instituted a number of significant changes in blogging policy, including a novel attempt to generate conversation and community. Such measures, however, enforce participation rather than encourage communication--an emphasis on quantity over quality.
In anticipation of these new regulations, the PLA read Alex Reid's "Why Blog? Searching for Writing on the Web." In his essay, Reid suggests that blogging provides an opportunity for students to write without typical concerns for word limits, MLA format, content, etc. According to this logic, minimum requirements and grading rubrics undermine this opportunity to explore alternate avenues for writing and break free of stale academic writing. Though he offers no practical solutions, he proposes a careful compromise between cultivating creativity and a college education:
Last week the sophomore class discussed unruly fan behavior at collegiate sporting events as they began the search for potential solutions. Blog posts generally fell into one of two categories the first week, "fan behavior" and "State Patty's Day T-shirts":
The similarity of these titles reflects the similarity of their content. On the topic of fan behavior, I read posts authored by Tom Rauch, Jared Marshall, and Caylie Hake. While each offered a perspective unique to their respective authors, my comments (found with each post) suffered from that same degree of similarity and redundancy. As I drafted responses for each post, I found myself citing articles more than once and referencing the other posts as I attempted to "connect the dots" between posts. When I moved onto a fourth post, this one written by Sarah Dafilou, I read about a t-shirt promoting State Patty's Day...conveniently linked back to the topic of fan behavior. Further, in the comments, fellow PLA student Chris Randby proposed a potential link between rowdy fans and alcohol consumption, a topic already mentioned in Jared's post. Linking these posts together, and with new content, quickly becomes a tedious task, creating a labyrinthine maze of hyperlinks and posts that fail to come together in a meaningful or productive way. While the new PLA guidelines acknowledge the lack of continuity in the blog experiment, they fail to foster a genuine dialogue.
In "Metablogging" I outlined the possibility of a communal blog where students both serve as moderators and provide feedback, driving the discussion forward in a more productive manner. Alternative solutions might include a Wiki-based format resulting in a more democratic forum that preserves dissent as a matter of record. Additionally, such an approach yields a coherent product for consumption by a broader audience, like a portal linking together the relevant research and subsequent proposals the Academy produces during the sophomore year.
In summary, with compulsory responses, I find myself citing the same relevant article multiple times when once in a central forum should suffice. Rather than a single, concise piece articulating individual thoughts on the subject, I have written four disjointed and redundant posts, parts of which other contributors will never read, despite any relevance, solely because of the time required to read 59 other posts and their comments (which require return trips to remain updated on any latest additions). A more communal effort would reduce much of this overlap in content, improving the overall quality of our conversations online. As Reid observes in the assigned article, "the nearly inescapable carrots and sticks of the classroom can serve as an impediment to creative thinking" (310). Ideally, we can use these same challenges as an opportunity to forge new and better methods of deliberation worthy of our classroom conversation.
In anticipation of these new regulations, the PLA read Alex Reid's "Why Blog? Searching for Writing on the Web." In his essay, Reid suggests that blogging provides an opportunity for students to write without typical concerns for word limits, MLA format, content, etc. According to this logic, minimum requirements and grading rubrics undermine this opportunity to explore alternate avenues for writing and break free of stale academic writing. Though he offers no practical solutions, he proposes a careful compromise between cultivating creativity and a college education:
"General education requirements, credits, grades, and other potential rewards and punishments of academic life can crowd out our ability to find some intrinsic motivation. Even though instructors work hard to devise assignments that will inspire engaged student writing, they are also enmeshed in this same context of grades and GPAs. Students confronted with a syllabus or an assignment can find it difficult to get beyond the mindset of 'what do I need to do to get an A?' Unfortunately, decades of research suggest that such extrinsic motivators can actually hurt our performance on challenging intellectual tasks like writing an essay." (303)Now, with compulsory comment requirements, I spent last weekend perusing the blogs of several of my colleagues, reaffirming many of my reservations regarding blogging as an academic requirement. To date, there are 59 participants in the Presidential Leadership Academy. Of those, thirty currently attend a weekly course taught by Dean Brady. Consequently, each week introduces thirty posts on the same topic, and while each blog offers worthwhile insights on the most recent topic, there are invariably some redundancies. This repetition dilutes the otherwise potent conversation by diffusing relevant or connected points across thirty separate blogs.
Last week the sophomore class discussed unruly fan behavior at collegiate sporting events as they began the search for potential solutions. Blog posts generally fell into one of two categories the first week, "fan behavior" and "State Patty's Day T-shirts":
"Fan Behavior, #1"
"Where is the line drawn between being an avid fan and a nuisance?"
"Freedom of Speech, State Patty's Day, and Fan Behavior"
"'The [Irish] Connection' to Fan Behavior"
"Fan Behavior Brainstorm"
"Fan Behavior: What Crosses the Line?"
"Early Findings on Fan Behavior"
"Is a shirt really only a shirt?"
"What!?!?!? Its only a green shirt..."
"What's in a T-shirt?"
"T-shirts"
The similarity of these titles reflects the similarity of their content. On the topic of fan behavior, I read posts authored by Tom Rauch, Jared Marshall, and Caylie Hake. While each offered a perspective unique to their respective authors, my comments (found with each post) suffered from that same degree of similarity and redundancy. As I drafted responses for each post, I found myself citing articles more than once and referencing the other posts as I attempted to "connect the dots" between posts. When I moved onto a fourth post, this one written by Sarah Dafilou, I read about a t-shirt promoting State Patty's Day...conveniently linked back to the topic of fan behavior. Further, in the comments, fellow PLA student Chris Randby proposed a potential link between rowdy fans and alcohol consumption, a topic already mentioned in Jared's post. Linking these posts together, and with new content, quickly becomes a tedious task, creating a labyrinthine maze of hyperlinks and posts that fail to come together in a meaningful or productive way. While the new PLA guidelines acknowledge the lack of continuity in the blog experiment, they fail to foster a genuine dialogue.
In "Metablogging" I outlined the possibility of a communal blog where students both serve as moderators and provide feedback, driving the discussion forward in a more productive manner. Alternative solutions might include a Wiki-based format resulting in a more democratic forum that preserves dissent as a matter of record. Additionally, such an approach yields a coherent product for consumption by a broader audience, like a portal linking together the relevant research and subsequent proposals the Academy produces during the sophomore year.
In summary, with compulsory responses, I find myself citing the same relevant article multiple times when once in a central forum should suffice. Rather than a single, concise piece articulating individual thoughts on the subject, I have written four disjointed and redundant posts, parts of which other contributors will never read, despite any relevance, solely because of the time required to read 59 other posts and their comments (which require return trips to remain updated on any latest additions). A more communal effort would reduce much of this overlap in content, improving the overall quality of our conversations online. As Reid observes in the assigned article, "the nearly inescapable carrots and sticks of the classroom can serve as an impediment to creative thinking" (310). Ideally, we can use these same challenges as an opportunity to forge new and better methods of deliberation worthy of our classroom conversation.
August, I started a comment and it got a bit out of hand! So I created a post on my blog. Perhaps it will generate some more discussion. :-)
Blogging for the sake of...?
Hellow August! As I mentioned to you in the Writing Center earlier this week, I think it was a great idea to incorporate Reid's article into this post. After reading his article, I remember thinking to myself that I wanted to start using my blog as a space for more personal and creative reflection. But then we had our meeting, parameters were set, and I forgot all about the strong points Reid offered in his article. Now this, to me, shows where the root of the problem with blogging lies. Most of us, myself included of course, make this division between things associated with academia and the rest of our lives. We're burnt out from classes so we don't usually feel like having long, intellectual thoughts with our friends outside of that environment. We associate the blog with that world of academia, so we don't associate it with more personal reflections a lot of the time. Even when we find an article interesting like the Reid article, we don't extend its influence beyond the classroom much of the time. My point is that the problems with blogging are very reflective of the problems with mindset/attitudes of college students. This, in turn, is very reflective of our society and education where there is so much focus centered around grade and extrinsic motivators as Reid explained. We must find a way for personal reflection and academia to become intertwined, because that is where the best thinking could really take place. And all I can say on how to do that is to life boundaries and really let students make their academic experiences their own. Maybe when I go into the world of education policy I will try to work on that more :) Thanks for your great insights!
Hello August. I agree with your opinion. If the purpose of blogging is to foster dialogue, then instead of using this method, wiki-based media (where everyone will be expressing thoughts in one central forum) is better. I support your proposal to create a communal blog, which will be more effective than this system of individual blogging for discussion. However we could still use the individual blogs to do self-reflections.
So what I think we should do is to create a one-stop portal/blog for relevant classroom or PLA-related discussions. The individual blogs would be used more towards writing things interesting or relevant to our college/academic career, instead of things that we are forced to write. The individual blogs is going to be our e-Portfolio anyways, so we should fill it to things related to our field/career. I think with this proposed system, all of us will be more motivated to write and express opinions, and eventually we would create better quality discourse.
I challenge you to follow through with your intentions. I think that a common misconception to the blogging requirements is that we are bounded by them. In fact, it is the opposite. The blogs are incredibly open space to do with as we please(as I would argue our education is), it is just that we collectively have chosen to do nothing(please see Dean Brady's response blog post). You say that this blog helps show the division between academia and the rest of our lives/the collegiate mindset, and I think that the problem isn't somewhere within that chasm, but that that chasm exist at all is the problem. The fact the August has written this post actually demonstrates that that chasm does not have to exist. We are free to make what we want of our education. Life is learning and during college, this is our only task. As such, we are each charged with searching out people who are not too burnt out from school to have those discussions, by blog or otherwise. I hope you’ll keep posting and utilizing these blogs for the forum.
I also refer you to the Dean's post where you'll find a continued development of this topic. I think you'll find my response to the Dean illuminated some of the points you have restated here, and the Dean has responded to them.