Just last month, I incorporated a blogger.com exercise into my university’s Introduction to Computers class. It was a mixed reception. This introductory general education class normally consists of students from age 17, straight out of high school, to age 35, and a mature, income-producing adult. The young, digital natives were highly receptive to the activity; the mature, digital immigrants were much less receptive and had difficulty understanding the purpose of the activity.
This leads me to the statements by Davies and Merchant (2009) that “Many children and young people are already engaged in Web 2.0 practices” and that “Important kinds of learning can be developed in Web 2.0 environments through knowledge sharing and distributed cognition”. It is clear that the digital natives are primed and ready for Web 2.0 and social networking engagement. It is also clear that our digital immigrants are not.
I believe we have an obligation to narrow the divide between digital natives and digital immigrants. It is possible to believe, that if we do not narrow this divide, it will only grow wider and deeper as the new generations of today’s children engage more and more in social media activities. Many of my mature students come to the classroom stating that they want to know what their children are doing; that they want to not only understand what the children are doing, but also engage in what the children are doing. Why would we, as teachers, not take this opportunity to develop this desire for “knowledge sharing and distributed cognition” (Davies & Merchant, 2009)?
The use of blogs in the classroom as learning activities and then continued use as educational communication forums provides a significant step in narrowing the divide. Blogs are easy to set up, easy to use and easy to network. The most difficult part of having a blog is simply keeping step with the changing characteristics of the blogging environment. As Mr. Donald J. Leu, Jr. (2009) states “the ability to learn continuously changing technologies for literacy may be a more critical target than learning any particular technology of literacy itself.”
In developing any kind of rationale for educational uses of blogging, the teachers must be the first ones to understand the opportunities and applications of blogging. As many of our teachers themselves, fall into the digital immigrant category, it is a process of playing catch-up in understanding what the world of Web 2.0 and specifically, blogging, is all about. Stephen Downes (2010) reminds us that teachers must first understand that a new and evolving pedagogy is taking place when we engage Web 2.0 technologies. He states that we must first “teach students to critically engage media” and that we must teach our students how to “address writing for a public audience, how to cite and link and why”. These are the very skills we are learning ourselves in this blog engagement.
Several of the sites I have researched and visited for commentary on this blog are blogs themselves. They are edublogs developed by educators for commentary on such topics as the educational uses of blogs. It is a very amazing thing to see such a global collaboration and exchange of ideas within the educational community. It is exciting and somewhat intimidating. To have a voice in such a vast ocean of knowledge and experience seems to be a very thwarted opportunity. We leave ourselves open to criticism and judgement; but, yet, I seek what my educator colleagues are saying and I value those opinions, thoughts and ideas greatly. Blogging is a very compelling, addictive, and intimidating method for communicating educational understanding, pedagogy and experience. We are pushing the boundaries of understanding forward and blogging is just one of the tools with which we are moving the horizon of understanding. I feel the greatest educational use of blogs - right now, at this point in time - is by the educators themselves. It is an exciting time to be in education.
Davies, J., & Merchant, G. (2009). Web 2.0 for Schools. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Downes, S. (2009). EduBlog Insights. Retrieved February 05, 2010 from Rationale for educational blogging: http://anne.teachesme.com/ 2007/ 01/ 17/ rationale-for-educational-blogging/
Leu, D., Jr. (2009). The New Literacies: Research on Reading Instruction with the Internet and Other Digital Technologies. Retrieved February 05, 2010 from IRAchapt.html: http://www.sp.uconn.edu/ ~djleu/ newlit.html
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