Learning to Write Publicly: Promises and Pitfalls of Using Weblogs in the Composition Classroom

While blogging is no longer a new technology, research on blogging as a pedagogical tool to help teach writing is relatively new and still in its initial stages. Existing research considers blogs as remediating older genres for classroom writing (Brooks, Nichols, & Priebe, 2005), explores the value of blogging for composition pedagogy (Lowe & Williams, 2005), discusses using class blogs in the graduate classroom (Colby et al., 2005), and offers “primers” on how to use blogs in the writing classroom (Barrios, 2005). Many discussions to date focus on the logistics of integrating blogs into classroom activities (i.e., what software to use, whether to require individual blogs or a class blogs, the value of rubrics, and parameters for blogging assignments), but few address in depth the related concerns of requiring that students participate in a public forum. Our discussion builds on these useful discussions of how to implement blogs in teaching by exploring, in particular, the implications of asking students to learn to write publicly.

Research relating to technology and teaching writing has addressed the importance of integrating Internet technology in the writing classroom (Selfe, 1999; Selfe and Hilligoss, 1994; Hawisher and Selfe, 1999; Selber, 1997; Breuch, 2002). These works offer useful suggestions for assignments and activities such as evaluating web sources, creating e-portfolios, and engaging in online discussions about course content. These classroom approaches often rely on communication technologies like static webpages and Blackboard and WebCT sites. As Charles Lowe and Terra Williams (2005) rightly point out in their discussion of class blogging, however, it is important to note the ways in which blogs are distinct from other online communication technologies, like Blackboard and WebCT, that might be used for class participation. These electronic spaces allow class members to communicate with other class members, but not with members outside of a particular classroom community. Blackboard and WebCT, while useful tools for delivering class materials, emphasize content delivery and centralized control by the instructor. These course management websites are accessed online and contain links to other Internet sites, but as students move through the password-protected online environment, they soon recognize that such online class spaces are not part of the social, networked world of the public spaces they often navigate. Instead, these spaces are one-way communication spaces that do not attempt to contribute to the larger, public discourse of the Internet. Even when composition instructors adopt newer communication technologies that are part of the Web 2.0 era in their classes, these technologies can offer limited opportunities for students to connect with the larger public sphere. While social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook can help to establish community increase communication among members of a class, they are also a type of “walled garden,” as they contain many privacy settings and user control over reader access. Wikis are another useful pedagogical tool for content creation, but serve better as technologies for collaborative writing rather than multi-way communication. As such, these various communication technologies, while having a place in composition pedagogy, do not alone foster the type of network literacy that is essential for students today.