Comments on: My blog as a book…why it’s not that great

By: Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech » Blog Archive » Lesson #1 Share

Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech » Blog Archive » Lesson #1 Share — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:16:38 +0000

[...] Thompson writes, I know that I am struggling to come up with a meaningful way to incorporate blogs into my science [...]

By: Louise Maine

Louise Maine — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:35:05 +0000

Claire brings up a good point, and I am glad to know there is another science teacher struggling with this. Some classes it is easier than others (environmental) but even if it can be done with a traditional assignment the writing and reflection aspect makes the blog a better choice.

By: Claire Thompson

Claire Thompson — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 04:49:09 +0000

Dean, thanks for posting Michael Wesch’s video–it really shows the power of web 2.0. This video and your experience with your blog as a book really make it clear that blogs are about conversations and links and networks. No way you’re going to get that in a book. (Having said that, please don’t take away my books )

The challenge, as Diane mentioned above, is to get teachers to capitalize on the conversational aspect of the blog. I know that I am struggling to come up with a meaningful way to incorporate blogs into my science classes. If what I’m planning could just as easily be done as a traditional assignment, then why do it using blogs? An added challenge is that my classes consist of small groups of student’s working asynchronously. If we’re going to blog, it is going to have to be about big ideas in science, not the specific details of, say, the cell cycle.

By: Diane Hammond

Diane Hammond — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:45:13 +0000

What a great point de départ for a PD session! I’ve been finding with the teachers involved in the Ontario Blogs project this year, that they are very focused on “traditional” assignments, e.g. respond to a book, answer a teacher prompt. It’s great to see so many teachers bringing their classes online, but I would like to push them to see the conversational nature of the blogging medium in addition to the publishing aspect. You’ve given me a great idea – publish three or four blog entries as printed PDF handouts, discuss the merits, have the teachers visit those same postings online and then compare the strengths and weaknesses of the two versions. Thanks for sharing this approach to your blog!

By: Cathy Nelson

Cathy Nelson — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:37:23 +0000

But it could be the one thing that the slow principal who doesn’t “get” it will understand. Too bad they are missing out on the networking that happens as a result, …but it is a beginning.

By: Louise Maine

Louise Maine — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:36:29 +0000

It would also make a great paper weight. But the blog is the item with the best “weight”. The education there is gold.

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:11:01 +0000

You can always use the book to prop open a door or even out a wobbly table. You can’t do that with a blog

By: Kyle Lichtenwald

Kyle Lichtenwald — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 05:49:54 +0000

ah, the great debate blog vs. book. When you first twitted that your book had arrived I was thinking “holy Dean writes a lot, the man knows what he is talking about, he has a book published.” Since then I too have thought about your blog as a book and although you are still a man who knows what he is talking about, it doesn’t change the fact that books have deficiencies. Often I am reading books and magazines and a website is printed on the paper, sometimes I jot it down, but most of the time I never think of looking it up again. Hypertext does so much more for the reader, it lets us realize the links and build upon our original source of information.

I think your book does fulfill a purpose though. It is a conversation piece. It is something that measures your writing by traditional methods. The disconnect occurs because you are not a traditional author, you use new literacies to improve the message.