I am actually new to blogging well after reading your article here i have really learn t a lot in my new experiencing here.well i have read some of the other comments here and i am really inspired with Eric T. MacKnight ,well thanks for such wonderful post and great conversations

Regards
Nevin

I’m not entirely sure that having many readers is as important as having one reader whose opinions you respect. I think a too- supportive environment can be as bad for the intellect as a too-soft mattress is for the spine.

There may be nothing authentic about school from our point of view, but school is kids’ equivalent of our jobs. For them school is “real life.” I am sure they would rather go home and relax. Hey, I’d rather relax than sit by myself (no collaboration here!) and write about how to install steam turbines. Real life is not much fun some days.

Here’s hoping you’re having a better day than I am!

Linda

It is the result of your discussion in Alec’s class last week and as a first attempt to respond to concerns of Alec’s for credit students in their blogs.

I would love to have your reactions.

Thanks.

John

Hi again Linda.

So much depends on what we are comparing things to. I begin with the assumption that just about nothing is truly authentic about schooling: it’s all contrived, artificial, unnatural, etc. Give anybody the choice between their best day at school and going home to relax—the school would empty in minutes.

Writing instruction, in particular, has peculiar qualities in a school setting, one of which I wrote about here—

http://ericmacknight.com/wordpress/?p=143

—the way that real writers collaborate with many others, whereas in school we insist that students write all by themselves. (If they get help, we call that ‘cheating’.)

However, compared with the situation when I began teaching in the 80s, we are much better off now. Then, the only ‘audience’ was the teacher. Students almost never read each other’s work, or commented on each other’s work. They had few models of good writing to work from; they had little idea how their own writing compared with their classmates’ work. They had less motivation to do their best, because only the teacher would read it. Etc. So compared to all of that, blogs are a huge step forward.

And I don’t feel bad about asking students to comment on each other’s work, either. Most of us are lazy by nature. We need someone to nudge us in the right direction. In the classroom that’s me, and I accept the job.

Yes: thanks for this conversation!

Eric

One question that keeps nagging at me, however, is whether we can say a blog is truly an authentic writing situation if we have to prod students to contribute. Outside of class situations, the motivation has to be in the writing content, doesn’t it? Can we say the class blog does more than approximate an authentic writing situation?

Sue’s comment that some teachers use blogs well supports my basic sense that the anecdotal reports of writing gain may be the result of factors other than the blog medium.

Bottom line: I’m not convinced blogs produce the effects described. I may yet become convinced, but I’ll need something other than anecdotal evidence.

I love having this conversation. It forces me to clarify in my own mind what I think . I believe the thought-clarifying function is what makes blogging valuable.

Thanks Sue and Eric.

Linda Aragoni
http://www.you-can-teach-writing.com
http://twitter.com/LindaAragoni
http://GreatPenformances.Wordpress.com

It’s like anything. There are educators that are doing it well, achieving amazing accomplishments and others that aren’t.

For example, I know from personal experience that Jan Smith outcome with her students has been absolutely amazing and the gains by her students are greater than students that are a lot older than her students.

I also think that you can’t just look at the surface; it’s also important to know the history behind the student blogging. For example, as Eric highlights his students have been on holidays. How long the students have been blogging also is a factor.

Probably the most incredible work I’ve seen is students from non-Engligh speaking countries.

Hi Linda. I think you were looking at the most recent onslaught of postings. We’re on holiday now and their deadline for posting journal entries that will count on the first report card is Sunday night, so they are busy writing rather than reading and commenting. Next week I will ask them to read each other’s journal entries, leave some comments, and get some ideas of what books being read by their classmates might appeal to them.

To see the other end of the range, try this category—

http://ericmacknight.com/myp9a/?cat=49.

It’s certainly true that they tend to comment more on personal writing than on literary writing; but then, don’t we all?

Cheers,

Eric