[Air-l] is this ethical?

[Hugemusic]

Whenever I've taught online journalism, or other forms of specifically 
online communication, I make my students blog - specifically to make them 
aware of the public nature of what is published on the web.  I set up a blog 
for them in the class name using a tool like blogger and ask them to post 
... using an alias, or student number, or whatever name THEY choose on any 
topic they like. Then I make them search for their blog posts, then I make 
them contact a friend and ask them whether they could find the blog post by 
searching.

It's all public because the purpose is to teach them about publicity ... and 
its consequences.  On occasion I have had to point out to them that blogging 
the time, date and address of their next party is particularly dumb ... and 
delete the blog at the end of each course.  :-)

This teaches them a lot about the value of selecting words carefully, about 
inter-linking, social navigation and a heap of other New Media stuff.  It's 
a very powerful teaching tool. Some are motivated to continue for whatever 
reason, some couldn't care less.  Occasionally, I've been personally 
embarassed at what they've posted but I wouldn't change the teaching tool 
for an instant ...

Cheers,
Hughie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alex Halavais" <alex at halavais.net>
To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 11:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Air-l] is this ethical?


> On 3/16/07, Jill Walker <jill.walker at uib.no> wrote:
>> I also make my students blog in public - although like Doug, I've
>> come to the conclusion that blogging doesn't work well with
>> unmotivated students.
>
> Motivation in the classroom is complicated, but one of the reasons I
> regularly have students blog, and blog in public, is precisely because
> it provides for intrinsic forms of motivation to learn. I guess I've
> been lucky, and have always had pretty overwhelmingly positive
> responses to blogging.
>
> For it to work, I think students need to understand that it is
> important to you (and to their grade). This at least provides the
> initial impetus to put time into understanding what blogging is and
> how it works. For many of my classes, the vast majority of the grade
> in the class is based on individual blogs.
>
> But once that initial introduction is complete, I find that students
> are motivated to write when they believe that more than just their
> instructor or TA will be reading what they are writing. Much of that
> motivation comes of having their peers be able to read what they are
> thinking, but many are also encouraged by the idea that they might
> have a wider audience. In many cases, I make gathering such an
> audience an explicit part of the evaluation: if you can demonstrate
> engaging in a cross-blog conversation with others in the class or
> outside of the class, I think this represents the best sort of
> learning through blogs. Kevin Lim and Derek Lackaff have taken this a
> step further this semester, offering "awards" for the student blogs
> that get the greatest exposure (cf
> http://com125.wordpress.com/awards/).
>
> - Alex
>
>
>
> --
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> // Alexander C. Halavais
> // Social Architect
> // http://alex.halavais.net
> //
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