Lit. Review: Final Draft

Abstract

This review of the literature examines whether blogging might have been a useful instructional tool in a language arts classroom, in which one at-risk and suicidal student was a significant behavior problem. The difficult student’s behavior improved after the death of one of her classmates because she had written a poem relating to her classmate’s death. I gave the poem to the parents of the deceased student who then had the poem read at their son’s funeral. The class was exceedingly distraught at their classmate’s death, but gained new admiration for the student who had written the poem. Because teenagers are such avid users of blogging, I investigated whether blogging in an educational setting would have benefited the class and my at-risk student in that it would have allowed them to share their feelings with each other in a medium that they are comfortable using. The research does show that when students blog, they tend to open up and share their feelings more than in a traditional classroom setting. The research also confirms that teenagers much prefer to write in blogs than with paper and pencil.


Blogging and the Secondary Classroom: A Match?
Dianna Trang


In this review of the literature, I examine the current research on how blogging can be used in the secondary language arts classroom on two levels. The first question I want to address is how can blogs be used academically? Second, can blogging be used to nurture a caring, supportive environment in the secondary classroom? How do these questions tie into my critical incident? Here is a brief summary: an at-risk, suicidal girl, who behaved atrociously in class, became a model student after the tragic, accidental death of the young man, who sat next to her. She had written a poem about his death which I gave to his parents, and which was then read at this young man’s funeral. The first day back after the funeral was tough; the students were stoic and said little, but I have a hunch they simply did not want to express themselves in front of the class. Looking back, giving the class the opportunity to blog, they might have been able to sort out their feelings more effectively, grieve together, and support each other. So how does the research validate my hunch?
First of all, how popular is blogging? A quick look to Livejournal.com confirms that there are 13,482,545 online journals and communities. MySpace alone has over 34 million bloggers (Kornblum, 2005). The largest distribution of blog authors fall under the age of twenty (Huffaker, 2004). Typically, 145,775 people will post in one day. Why is there such an explosion of blogs? Blogs “ . . . provide a unique mixture of visibility and anonymity’ (Blogging teens, 2007). Interestingly, teens are happy to have of the most of the world’s population read their blogs, but they do fear that a parent might discover the blog and be privy to their thoughts (Kornblum, 2005). Furthermore, teens have found that having a blog is one place where they can actually express themselves openly and receive positive comments from friends and others (Blogging teens, 2007). However, Kornblum (2005) cites a young woman from Brandeis University, Jenny Rypkema, who claims the teenagers will share their most intimate feelings on their blogs, sometimes to the point of being “exhibitionist.” So while many teens use blogs for personal expression, blogs also help teens establish friendships and thus feel less isolated and alone. Safe to say that outside of the classroom, many teens are avid bloggers and use them often. But many teachers are not taking advantage of educational blogging because the medium is new to them.
Since teens are drawn to the technology of blogging, it would make sense to use that enthusiasm and channel it into academics and the classroom. Tyron (2006). argues that blogging in a composition class has a useful in that it exposes students to a much wider audience than they would normally ever have. Not only did Tyron use blogging as an instructional tool for the writing process, but also to teach rhetorical analysis, asking his students to analyze political blogs. His students were disillusioned with political bloggers who allow no commentary on their blogs—in other words, some politicians want to be heard, but they don’t want to listen. Poling (2005) maintains that students can learn effectively by blogging if the learning environment is safe and supportive. She noticed in her classroom that students would write much longer if allowed to blog, compared to writing with pen and paper. Dickey (2003) observed that students use blogs not only to respond to their assignments, but “ . . . also evident in postings were elements of socialization, reports of activities and events, signs of support, and reports of feelings and emotions” (p.283). She also found that students would use their blogs to socialize, share their feelings, and support each other when help was needed. They would also share information related to their health and personal life.
However, Kajder and Ball (2004) found that not all parents are enthusiastic about their children becoming bloggers. When blogs were introduced in their classroom, it took some time to obtain parental permission, but once parents understood that blogs are not necessarily public to everyone in cyberspace, most relented and allowed their children to blog within their classroom community. But they also found that students wrote much longer pieces while blogging and enjoyed the interactions with other students and their teacher. Students who would normally not share ideas and comments orally in class would be quite willing to do so via a blog (Kajder and Ball, 2004; Richardon 2003; Huffaker, 2004; Poling 2005). Richardson (2003) also found that responses posted to a blog were more meaningful than the usual comments offered in class. Interestingly, he noted that parents of students enjoyed the classroom blogging experience because they would read the same book as was assigned to their child and get in on the online discussion.
Wang and Fang (2006) also report positive results with blogs. In their study of college writing classes, they noted that blogging increased the students’ confidence in writing and in their ability to work as a team. However, the students in their semester long study also appreciated face time with other students and the instructor—in other words, the human factor might still be important, despite the desirability of remaining anonymous and invisible.
Huffaker (2004) makes the urgent point that a new type of literacy is emerging: digital fluency. He describes this as the ways that people become comfortable with computer technology, much as they would with another language. He further maintains that in the future, such digital fluency will be necessary for one’s education, employment, and even social life. Huffaker (2004) is a strong supporter of blogging in the classroom because bloggers have a personal as well as communal space in which they can communicate. This not only advances personal expression but also a supportive community in which to share ideas, teach each other, and develop friendships.
Thus, the research shows that blogging could have been beneficial in my classroom when my student died. The students would have had an outlet in which to share their emotions and support each other in their time of grief. Perhaps my at-risk student would have shared her unhappiness with us, so that we, the class, would have understood her cries for help better. Her classmates might have seen her in a positive light much sooner. The research also supports the educational uses of blogs. Students write much more and more willingly if allowed to blog. Of course, teachers must monitor their students blogging carefully, so a supportive and trusting atmosphere might need to be a prerequisite to successful blogging in the classroom. Anyone who has viewed teenage blogs knows that they often publicize information they should not, so vigilance is necessary. But used judiciously, blogs can be a tremendously useful asset to a classroom, not just for educational purposes, but also to support a cohesive social environment. While a certain amount of technological expertise is necessary to use blogging successfully in the classroom, a teacher should not do it simply to integrate technology but should use it to support activities they would have done in a traditional setting anyway (Weiler, 2003). So, in the final analysis, while blogging may present a few stumbling blocks to teachers who are unfamiliar with it, the research shows that for teachers to teach the students in the most effective way possible, teachers must do their best to keep up with technology. Educators can no longer pretend they can teach they way they were taught. To all of those naysayers, I say “Welcome to the blogosphere!”


References
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