Wiki and Blog Blog

What is the pedagogical value for asking students to write in public spaces?

I am of two minds about this. On the one hand, I think that there is value in asking students to write in public spaces because it will help teachers “teach rhetorical situations” that will help students “understand writing as the decontextualized product of a single, isolated worker” (Lundin 432). I agree with Lundin on many levels, but I think that teaching with blogs and wikis can be a bit complicated in a 101 classroom. However, because it is (in many cases) an introduction to writing and rhetorical skills, I think that using the mediums will require a great deal of preparation and constant explaining of each medium. Although it may reduce anxiety about writing for the public, I think that it is important for students to be comfortable writing for a shared audience before other people (who will and can be mean) critique their work. I often think that some students will be scared by negative experiences with public writing in the initial stages of their academic careers. So, I think that using public writing beyond English 101 may be more useful (and I am writing with the assumption that public means that anyone outside of the people enrolled in the classroom can view the information).

What successes or failures have you (or do you foresee having) by using wikis or blogs?

I admit that this was rather premature of me, but I attempted to use blogs my second semester of teaching. Although I feel as if I have more a theoretical understanding of how to use blogs at this point, I am not too comfortable with using blogs in a 101classroom. I do think that “weblongs facilitate sharing and building community” as evident from our Teaching with Technology class (Lowe and Williams 7). However, I am not sure how the use will fare in 101, especially given my experience teaching with them as students really did not engage with one another. It was also daunting to have to read 52 blogs each week. Essentially, I have to find a better way to use blogs in 101.

How would you overcome technological barriers using blogs or wikis?

It is good to have sessions that focus on the technology. I know that some teachers may disagree with me, but I usually take a class period to show students how to use the Maimon handbook. I think that the same needs to be done to help students understand mediums before they are asked to perform in them. So, I would do some type of demonstration and then walk students through setting up accounts and posting information on the medium.

If you were to use public writing in your own classroom, how would you go about doing so?

At this point, I am really interested in using Twitter in the classroom. I am becoming more drawn to wikis for brainstorming, too. I think that it would be a great way for students to compose and think about the early stages of their papers. I would try, however, to control the site so that at a certain point, students will only be able to see their own writing (not sure that this can be done though).

Me, Facebook, and Teaching

Post an image of one of your social networking profiles (twitter, facebook, etc). Rhetorically analyze/break down the identity you've constructed on this site. In this analysis, you should discuss your audience.

As I look at my facebook profile, I see myself as a family oriented person who likes to help people. I have my religious affiliation there as well as 6 groups that I'm apart of. My quotes listed are from Hebrews and Dr. Maya Angelou. I also have a link for people who are interested in helping with Haiti relief through Wyclef Jean's organization. My favorite quote is a portion of a Negro spiritual. I also have my e-mail address available. This profile portrays a small piece of the southern person that I am...

I use my facebook site to network with new people. Sometimes, I become friends with people that I have met before but I did not (will not) get to know in person. So, essentially, my profile is mostly used to keep in touch with family and friends that I do no live close to. One side of my family even used facebook to get attention about the family reunion that we had this past August. Very recently, students and community people from my hometown have requested to be my friend as well. I also have a lot of people from my undergrad (professors/students) and my sorority sisters and fraternity brothers who are friends.

I have included limited information about myself mostly because the people who are my friends already know me (and if they don't, then, I guess that they could ask). I did notice, however, that I have 360 pictures that I've been tagged in, but I do not make those pictures available to anyone else. Vie notes that, "Facebook force (s) instructors to confront and challenge the labels placed on individuals in academia; student, teacher, administrator, and so on. Individuals behaviors in these sites may force us to reenvision what it means to be an academic today, what a classroom looks like, or what good writing entails" (20). As an scholar and as a regular person, I don't feel like I can say some things online, especially in a status. I have former and current teachers as friends as well as older people from my community.

At any rate, I agree with Vie in some respects because I do censor myself in this space. I do wonder about the degree to which my identity on facebook could mesh and interrupt my identity in the classroom if I used it ( and as students can find me and see some information if they chose to do so too). I think that this happens a great deal because most of the people that I know who use Facebook in the classroom do so under a separate account. So, there is a bit of personal space that I think teachers should not expose in an online setting (that can be taken out of context, especially in a photo). However, I am trying to be convinced by Vie's claim that "compositions [need] to begin looking at online social networking sites through an academic lens to examine the complexities these sites showcase and the ramifications they may hold for pedagogies and our field" (21). I think that she has a point here as many things have been looked at through an academic lens that were not necessarily created for such, i.e. some films, novels, youtube videos(Dodson in particular), and others. Thus, we are able to find pedagogical reasoning for critically analyzing these texts. I see no problem with looking to advertisements on social networking sites to do the same. My worry is that profiles and profile pictures will be analyzed as well, which will create a new type of judging/silencing/categorizing that plays into the same types of structures that some of us are trying to work against. Is it possible to separate the personal from the pedagogical if we use social networking spaces in classes? And to what degree are teachers and students willing to share that much of themselves with a class?