Friday, March 25, 2005

Active, Collective, & Collaborative: Blogs as Social Software

Barbara Ganley gets it.

Citing Hamada and Scott that "learning is essentially a social activity," Ganley makes a strong argument that the classroom is changing, for the better, as collective intelligence forms "strong, resilient learning collaborative[s]."(Ganley)

In her paper Blogging as a Dynamic, Transformative Medium in an American Liberal Arts Classroom Ganley makes the point that with the advent of the web, communication has become immediate, limitless...non-linear and that students are "unaccustomed and unwilling to learn sequentially."(Duderstadt) Teachers are at this time in a unique position to actively involve students in their own learning by providing them with the medium and a central location where collaboration can take place. Students and teachers "must work as a social entity" for this to be successful as a classroom project.(Ganley)

Collaboration is essential in the new classroom model. Students assume the roles of apprentice and expert alternatively while interacting with each other. While one student is strong in one area and assumes the role of expert, at another turn she assumes the role of the apprentice, learning from the comments and links made by another student in class. Students are involved in a totally dynamic learning experience with the class blog in the role of a "localized learning network."(Ganley)

That students can take control of the direction of a course with the aid of a class blog, can be threatening to some teachers, but it doesn't have to be. The teacher continues to function in the role of facilitator, a guide, if you will. The teacher creates the central class blog for the purpose of disseminating essential class information (assignments, links, etc.), providing a location for class discussions, as well as providing a location for student publishing. The class blog becomes an "emergent behavior"(Johnson) as the teacher gives up control and allows the students' collective activities to steer the course. The class blog also exemplifies emergent behavior in that there are roles and boundaries governing the use of the class blog even though the teacher has given up absolute control. It is important to note that the teacher is not absent, or acting as a silent observer. The teacher is actively engaged in modeling and encouraging the students.

The collective body of knowledge (ie: the class blog) is the result of the many weeks of collaboration, with student articles, links, and comments offering "visual and tangible evidence"(Ganley) that they have accomplished something truly meaningful, truly dynamic, connecting themselves to each other in a truly unique way.

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