Konrad Glogowski and Barbara Ganley should get together and write the “Blogging as Writing Genre” book (or at least an article.) Konrad’s post today begins to bring to light the findings of his classroom research about blogging, and it’s a fascinating read. There is much here that makes me long for the writing classroom once again…(maybe it’s time to find an adjunct position somewhere???)…none more than this line:
I’ve learned from my study that, in a blogging classroom, students learn when they are allowed the freedom to use their blogs in order to write themselves into existence as individuals.
And Barbara, who is starting her sixth (count ‘em, sixth) blogging semester with this provocative description:
It’s quite harrowing when I really think about what I am about to do –construct the syllabus with the students as we go and remove grades as much as possible –because it runs counter to what everyone around me does. I am about to pitch the teacher’s safety net–a tight syllabus–out the window. I am about to pitch fifteen students into freefall, into discovering with me what it is they need to learn and not what I, without having met them, think they need to know about writing for the college classroom. That involves my asking them challenging questions, and helping them to be deep readers of all kinds of texts. I’ve been moving towards this class for five years now, and it will take all my skill as listener and facilitator, as teacher, to pull it off. And that’s as is should be. If I’m not growing and challenging myself every semester to be a better teacher, then how can I ask my students to challenge themselves?
What powerful, powerful articulations of what this can be. Color me awed.
technorati tags:barbara_ganley, konrad_glogowski, blogging, writing, teaching, education, weblogg-ed
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I love the title “Write Yourself into Existence.” I’ve been blogging for about three months. Three months ago I typed my name into Google and lots of things came up before anything dealing with me. That’s not the case anymore. It is incredibly empowering to know that I write ideas that others find useful. In some sense, I matter more now that I’m making a larger contribution. Perhaps I can write that my existence has grown? As teachers it is our responsibility to help students perceive their existence as growing. Blogging is one way that we can accomplish this objective.
Andrew Pass
http://www.Pass-Ed.com/blogger.html
Hey Will,
I sure appreciate your kind coverage of my blogging, and to be put into the same post as Konrad? Wow.
One little correction, though: I am starting my sixth YEAR of blogging, my sixth fall semester, my 11th semester in all.
I am amazed each day to see all the new teacher and student blogs out there (when I first started blogging with my students, I had you, Peter Ford, and a handful of others to look to–it was challenging to find the community using blogs actively in the classroom), and yet in my day-to-day encounters with people offline, it is clear how few in the grand scheme of things are using these tools and approaches, how few schools are paying attention to media and network literacy. Not one student in my new class has ever had a blog; several had never heard of them. And we’re talking Middlebury College.
You’ve got more ground to cover, I’d say, in your evangelizing! Go to it!
Cheers,
Barbara
Will,
Getting mentioned on your blog is always an honour. Thank you for your kind words!
I love Barbara’s idea of “freefall” - and, of course, her thoughts on what it takes to grow as a teacher and encourage the same kind of growth in one’s students.
We used to think that teachers were static pillars of knowledge and experience. Given the kind of environment we’ve been thrown into, that is no longer the case. Barbara reminds us that every day in the classroom presents us with yet another opportunity to grow. It’s important to see ourselves as learners and see our students as catalysts for professional development.
Just beginning the “freefall” myself this Monday for the first time…with pre-college writers in a community college. What can I say? Geronimo!
hey..i was juss wondering wat is existence can sum1 plz help me out wid this..as in…wat do u mean weni say i exist…or dis book exists…if u can c a book..den it exists 4 u…but if a blind man dusn c it…den it disn exisnt 4 him…so does it actually exist iror not…ais dere sumthin absolute or everythin is relative…maenin i …meaning if im outside my room and cant see da table in my room…so does it exist or not….y shud my cin it chang its existence…coz wexistence is a intrinsic propperty of matter i think..or as told 2 me by my friend….ponder over this n lemme kno….