"Believing that dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago is far less demeaning and asanine than believing the pure rhetoric that Obama spews...Only a complete idiot would but the snake oil he's selling, financial experts all agree that his proposed trillions in new federal spending would cost taxpayers dearly..."
Now I am all for rational-critical debate in the public sphere, but it seems to me that this is not the only use and probably not the most popular use for internet wikis and blogs. I actually cannot remember ever finding a blog about politics that did not have entries like the one above.
This is also my fears about using a wiki or blog in the classroom. I understand that I can tell my students what appropriate electronic behavior is, but that does not mean they will listen. And, if I am not there to immediately acknowledge the situation and show the other students that it was dealth with, how do I know they will not all start to mimic this behavior?
1 comment:
I agree, Katie, using wikis and blogs can be risky, as given the wonderful example you provide, not all online debate is rational, that's for sure. What sort of strategies can we put in place in terms of pedagogy that would lessen the risk; in other words, how can we devise policies in collaboration with our students that would keep them not so much "in line" but more aware of the need for the same decorum in online academic spaces that we expect in face-to-face ones. Whatever the case, I think that just like group work, the use of digital tools requires directives, what is the goal of such activity and how does it contribute to the overall improvement of students' functional, critical, and rhetorical literacies, print or digital?
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