Pff, I didn't have energy to write for a while. But then I read in a few days time several things about weblogs in educational settings, so these papers I want to summerise here.
The first article is written by Stephen Downes, about Educational Blogging, which appeared in Educause review, September/October 2004. What makes this paper interesting is that Downes mentions dilemmas that are also relevant outside an educational setting, for example in a company.
How can students publish freely, what they really like or think, when there is a sense of censorship because they have a teacher who monitors their input. In fact, the students write for only one person: the teacher. Some don't call this blogging, but just using blogging software and posting prompts.
I wonder if this could be the case in a business weblog. Are bloggers (employee) free to write what they want, and I don't mean the (obvious) competitive information about their companies. Even then, would they write knowing there might be managers monitoring and therefore be cautious in their sayings?
Blogging is not just publishing, but resembles more a conversation, as Downes discusses. "And for a conversation to be successful, it must be given a purpose and it must remain, for the most part, unconstrained". Similar to good conversations that begin with listening, weblog writing starts with reading. It fits with our view on introducting weblogs in our company: let people read first other weblogs. And for good writing you need to keep on reading.
Another interesting observation in this paper that adds to this:
... blogging isn't really about writing at all; that's just the end point of the process, the outcome that occurs more or less naturally if everyting elke has been done right
So, then blogging (really) is: (1) reading, what interests you; and (2) engaging with the contents: reflecting, criticizing, questioning, reacting.
The second is from Williams and Jacobs (2004): Exploring the use of weblogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. (Hmm, the second time I visited the link I see it's password protected, so I don't know how I accessed it the first time). The authors describe a small trial of weblogs in a MBA course. Compared to Downes the authors are far more positive about implementing weblogs in higher education (I miss the critical view the authors promised in the end of the introduction). Main potential for blogs in education is that they provide greater interaction with peers, is the conclusion of Williams and Jacobs. In the introduction they use a nice metaphor when they call blogs an oracle of information.
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