Moving to the Public: Weblogs in the Writing Classroom was a really important article in my research on this topic. What I thought was noteworthy about this article was its discussion of peer response and workshops. Sometimes it can be frightening for students to make their writing pubic, especially to their peers. Weblogs create a safe space where students feel comfortable posting their work. In actuality students are publishing their writing online, but it seems as though the weblog takes a lot of pressure off students. Similarly, students who may normally be shy in class, tend to participate more when weblogging.
Another really interesting point this article brings up, is that while teachers often encourage students to experiment with style when writing for a weblog, the student knows that they are ultimately going to be graded by the teacher. So in some cases, assignments generate artificial responses. Yet either way, students do become more comfortable with presenting their writing publicly, and that is a huge hurdle for anyone.
The article states that one of the benefits of a weblog, over student web pages, is that it is not necessary for students to learn HTML when blogging. Thus, students with even limited experience can easily participate in blogs. This is important because students can become overwhelmed by the thought of so much work, and possible criticism. Also as the article states, web page design can be distracting for the students, but when blogging they “spend more time developing their texts” and “these texts likely end up being more rhetorically sensitive” (4).
Because weblogs are similar to journal writing, they lend themselves to a greater stylistic flexibility. Students can write critically as well as reflectively, and they can also engage in a dialogue with one another, if they so choose. Students even reported reading the work of other so they knew what the standard was, or what ideas had been discussed. In this respect having the online space helped the students to work together to make their individual writing better, or more relevant.
This article gave examples of student responses to the blogging exercise, and some of the comments are really moving. They show how the students were really able to develop a strong sense of community through blogging. They even developed friendships and were, in many cases, supportive during times of struggle; caring when their peers were ill or injured. I really liked the aspect of community that this article brought up. As far as the “perks” of weblogs, the article went over the same teaching benefits as other articles but, the sense community that the students develop is a new idea. I think this concept is crucial to the development of writing. Students need to feel comfortable before they are willing to share their writing, because it is a part of who they are. Being able to develop a space online where students are able to publish their work, and feel good about it, is wonderful. Blogs give students the opportunity to share with their peers and they don’t have to worry about being shy. Being a student myself, and often worrying what my peers will think, or how I will be judged by my professor, made this article, and blogs, appeal to me.
