What's Working? Weblogs in Education (A Reply)

This citation is the second in a series of columns by James Farmer on xplana:

Personal Publishing in Education... What's Working?.

Here's my latest xplana piece which basically asks of weblogs in education the question 'what's working?' and to an extent 'why?'

I think that throughout my attempts to clarify what personal / social publishing can do for education I've always run up against this... if these are such free, liberating, personal tools then why don't they get used more? Originally I figured I'd got it wrong, that I'm not losing that 'control' thing that dogs so many teachers, but now I'm coming to think that in fact I'm recognising how this 'radical freedom' doesn't quite cut it and that our society (and ourselves???) demands structure, meaning and guidance...

Hmmm... still not too sure though, help!

[incorporated subversion]

Responding to just one of James' questions: "why don't they get used more?" 

Teachers don't use them more, I'm sure, because weblogs are of the lesser world of rhetoric rather than the world of logic. OK, everyone is not going to be impressed by that lame reach. Weblogs require dealing with technology, not with intellect. Closer? They require changing the way things have always been done and they require re-writing lesson plans for the umpteenth time. They involve risk (what do you do when a student uses a weblog to write up dark and violent essays that you hope and pray are only fantasies?) and additional time to evaluate, without any reward for doing well with them. And so on.

Why don't they get used more by students, to better effect? James, I guess I'm wondering what educational outcome you are "going for" with weblogs or personal publishing. Not too many students ever did all that much with paper-and-pen journals, and those that did were usually exceptional people who were already on their life's course. My recollection of students at the high school and undergraduate level is that most are set on shorter-term goals (getting finished, getting a degree, finding a job) than on a deliberate and rational path to a life of high achievement.

Weblogs are no easier than journals or lab notebooks to keep and to do well. Two-thirds of people give them up, I think because a good weblog is a hard thing to make, and because it can consume a lot of hours. The technology involved with most weblog tools (well, ALL weblog tools) is very distracting. It doesn't help one's confidence or motivation when the inevitable happens - a software glitch, a server failure, a careless keystroke, and all your work is gone forever. On top of that, having your words published publicly is a daunting thought for a lot of young people -- social embarrassment, etc. Even Darwin kept his Origin of Species as a VERY private, handwritten book circulated only among his closest colleagues for a decade or more, because he feared ridicule. I think we're asking a lot of learners when we add weblogs.

Almost no one teaches people how to use journaling (read: weblogging) as a personal tool for building up a knowledge base, or as a record of personal introspection. Hardly anyone offers a course on how to go back through your old journals (weblog entries) and gain new value from them. Are you teaching scientists, engineers and mathematicians? Your task is different from that of the person teaching writers, artists, and philosophers, isn't it? And wouldn't the uses of weblogs be different for these groups? When I was a student, it was my great privilege to work as an assistant in the University of Texas Archives, where I had access to and was able to help researchers who were using materials left by great (and, face it, some not-so-great) writers and thinkers. Later, I worked as a research assistant and accessions specialist in the University's History of Science collection, with the actual notebooks of great (and not-so-great) scientists from the Middle Ages through the early 20th century. Even forty years later, I recall clearly that their notebooks were of very different characters, and not just because their personalities were different.

I have the sense that the key to getting learners to use weblogs effectively is to find a way to help each learner find, for himself or herself, the lifelong *value* in journaling as it contributes to their life's work (whatever it will be).

If this is off the mark, I apologize. My experience is in the training (yes, that word -- not education) of adults in the business and professional worlds, not in the education of young people, so if I missed the point it won't be a surprise.

5:55:35 PM    

Fallout from Eolas lawsuit.

Jeffrey Zeldman is providing some excellent coverage on this.

Eolas: first fallout. Microsoft, Apple, Macromedia, and RealNetworks publish technical papers explaining two ways to work around the crippling of IE/Win. We examine the pros and cons of both methods and consider the merits of sitting out this round. [Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]

I was going to quote the whole article, but it's better to read it on Jeffrey's actual weblog. This is vital information if you are using the Web to deliver content of any kind, including marketing and e-Learning.

5:09:19 PM