Hello and welcome to my blog! It's entitled the sceptical blogger because that's what I am - or how I feel at this moment in time. As a university lecturer, we seem to be increasingly told that web 2.0 and new technologies are the future of education, and I'm always left with the question, WHY? Will be interested in your answers to this question, and am open to listening to the fantastic educational benefits of such technologies, or would also like to hear from people who, like me, are still a bit sceptical. The cynics, if you like!
I sometimes get the impression that technophiles think that others (like me!) are only sceptical because we can't use the technology - hence my enthusiasm for setting up my own blog ... just to demonstrate that I can do it - I just don't necessarily see the point! (at least in educational terms). Yes, I can do it, but having looked at sites such as Facebook and Bebo, I can't help that thnking that much of the content is anti-educational and illiterate, rather than educational in its content and language. OK, call me an old fogey if you like, you're probably right!
3 comments:
Hi Sceptical blogger.
I do share your concerns about much of the stuff out there such as Facebook and MySpace seems illiterate and anti-educational, but looking at it from another point of view, people are communicating with each other and are comfortable using technology that you and I would probably feel more reticent with. Also the fact that they communicate in "textspeak" doesn't go down so well with people of our generation, but the fact that they all understand each other and studies have shown that when they are discussing things in an educational context, although they are using a different language almost, they are grasping the concept and what they are discussing is usually gramatically correct. I think there is definitely potential to be capped here and the fact that students coming into HE are very comfortable in this environment means we can use some web 2.0 elements in our teaching, but obviously there is still room (and it is necessary) for more convential teaching methods. I have seen some really good examples of wikis used in an educational context.
http://ssad.bowdoin.edu:8668/space/snipsnap-index
Well done for overcoming your scepticism and creating a blog. Steve Wheeler has an excellent blog and makes very frequent postings:
http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/
I also have a blog but I am afraid I don't post very often. Maybe seeing your blog has inspired me to start posting more regularly.
www.uopteachlearn.blogspot.com
Happy blogging,
J
: )
Hi Joanie,
Many thanks for leaving a comment on my blog - it makes me feel much more interesting already! And you've already made it more useful than it was by putting in some suggestions of useful resources.
I should say that it's not so much the textspeak that I object to but more the bad language and dubious content! However, I appreciate that just because these sites are used in such a manner does not mean that this is the only way in which they can be used. In fact I do have some ideas for possible educational uses of a blog (involving academic staff who may manage to avoid the use of expletives etc!) If I do, then I'll be interested to get feedback from them into whether they have become 'converted' to the joys of blogging. I'm not yet!
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