Weblog Worlds Notes and Discussion Questions
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Contents |
Chapter Topics:
History: How blogging has become an important part of societies.
Hegemony: The kinds of written power dynamics found in different types of weblogs.
Examples: Three different types of weblogs.
Pedagogy: Considerations for how to use weblogs in the classrooms.
What's a weblog?
“A weblog—or “blog” for short—is most easily described as ‘a website that is updated frequently, with new material posted at the top of the page’ along with the date when it was posted (Blood, 2002: 12)” (Knobel and Lankshear, p. 73).
History of Weblogs (Knobel and Lankshear, pp. 72-74)
- Fill in the timeline using information on page 73:
Early 1990’s:______________________________________________________________ 1999:____________________________________________________________________ 2004:____________________________________________________________________ Comprehension Questions
- Why do people blog?
- What gave impetus to the explosion of weblog use?
Discussion Questions
The text observed, “Rebecca Blood, an early blog adopter, describes this new use of weblogs [as a “journal” space and a link to other sites and interests] as being concerned with creating ‘social alliances’ (Blood, 2002:x). In other words, weblogs are largely interest-driven and intended to attract readers who have (or would like to have) similar, if not the same, interests and affinities.” (p. 74)
- In terms of tenor, do blogs and social software like MySpace or Facebook serve similar functions?
- Who has the power in blogs—the reader or the blogger? How is this power manifested?
- In this quotation, Blood alluded to intertextuality. How is this used in blogs, and what function does it play in revealing a blog's success (and thus power)?
In-Class Activity
Take a quick look (we’re talking only a couple of minutes) at the two blogs from the book, www.stevenberlinjohnson.com and www.littleyellowdifferent.com.
- Thinking both personally and pedagogically, what features are attractive about these award-winning links?
- Would these sites benefit learners? How and why?
- For future perusals
For learning 'foreign' languages try this blog: le tutor. Jo Anne Kleifgen
A Good Blog (pp. 85-7)
- Has a sense of purpose.
- Has a clear and reliable point of view.
- Has an appealing and high-quality appearance.
Blogging and the Classroom
Comprehension Questions:
- Do the authors feel that "good blogs" are useful in the classroom?
- What do teacher-imposed class blogsites often end up looking like?
- How don't they contribute to reading and writing?
Discussion Questions:
- Last week in class, Matt brought up the issue of maintaining space between personal interests (like blogs and social sites) and the classroom. In the authors' words, "A key point here, of course, concerns the extent to which it is educationally appropriate to want blogging to cross over to schools in its non-school varieties" (p. 90). What's your opinion of this?
- Comment
I had mentioned that Perry Gilmore once wrote about teachers and researchers "colonizing" children's worlds. This was before the Web's emergence. With Allan Glatthorn, she wrote a book back in 1987 called, Children in and out of School. Jo Anne Kleifgen
- If students were forced to blog or to make a MySpace page, would their interests in the activity diminish?
- How would assigning learners to participate in these social sites affect what they post?
- Based on the observations and opinions listed in this chapter, how would you use blogs in the classroom? Or, rather, would you use blogs as a teaching tool?
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