"... we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization."
Preface
The web log, or blog, opens up new possibilities for teaching and learning by cultivating social communities of education. The power of blogging as a pedagogical practice is rooted in the recognition that meaning is made and knowledge created in social interaction. As Dewey put it in Democracy and Education:
The Pedagogy of Blogging
-- Andrea Lunsford, in Wired article "Clive Thompson on the New Literacy"
Preface
The web log, or blog, opens up new possibilities for teaching and learning by cultivating social communities of education. The power of blogging as a pedagogical practice is rooted in the recognition that meaning is made and knowledge created in social interaction. As Dewey put it in Democracy and Education:
"Schools require for their full efficiency more opportunity for conjoint activities in which those instructed take part, so that they may acquire a social sense of their own powers and of the materials and applications used" (Democracy and Education, 37).As a sophisticated yet simple publishing platform, the blog offers a powerful opportunity for conjoint activities of learning. By opening a rich, diverse and broadly accessible site of dialogical engagement, a blog is able to cultivate dynamic social contexts of communication in which a symbiotic relationship between teaching and learning becomes possible.
The Pedagogy of Blogging
This presentation is illustrates the power of blogging as a pedagogical practice by focusing first on what a blog is, second, on the dynamic structure of a blog, and third, on how this dynamic structure can be leveraged to cultivate robust learning communities.
In the context of ethics education, this presentation seeks to articulate how blogging allows faculty not merely to deliver content to students about ethical theory and practice, but also to perform the virtues of inter-human ethical interaction with students in light of the theories and practices under consideration.
Blogging thus allows us to perform the ethics we teach.
Blogging thus allows us to perform the ethics we teach.
The Virtues of Blogging
Some Examples/Possibilities
- Writing for an audience, kairos
- Openness to Diversity of Opinions: PHIL200 on Religion
- Blurring the Boundaries between World and Classroom: Asher and Holly
- Ongoing Reflection on Experience: Blogging Rubric (.pdf)
- Creating Community: Weekly Roundup Podcasts
- Cultivating Critical Reflection: Questioning Authority, Reflections on Wednesday's Class
The Ethics, from the Rock blog seeks to engage in public deliberation concerning pressing ethical questions with students, faculty, alumni and the broader local and global community:
- The What Would You Do? posts feeding from the blog to The Rock Ethics Insititute Facebook page seek to cultivate:
- Ethical Imagination,
- A Sense for ethical ambiguity and complexity
- An Ability to reflect upon concrete social/political problems
- A Community of people concerned to think and act ethically
- Not pimarily about publicity, but also publicity delivery system: announcements of events, etc. via The Rock Ethics Institute's Twitter Feed, follow us at RockEthicsPSU!
Other Resources
- Downes, Stephen "Educational Blogging," EDUCAUSE Review, 39 (5), 14-26.
- Reinhart, C.J "Constructing the Café University," On the Horizon, 16 (1), 13-33.
- Google Reader, RSS feed reader
- Podcasting and Blogging the Liberal Arts, presentation/blog post about how blogging can cultivate the excellences of thinking and acting we have long associated with a liberal arts education: critical reflection, active writing, engaged reading...
