Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy: The Next Powerful Step in 21stCentury Learning

by Diane Penrod

Beyond the mainstream media hype about the dangers of adolescents and blogs, we find that young people are developing 21st century literacies_especially in information and visual literacy. In this book, Diane Penrod addresses the social, developmental, and pedagogical issues surrounding the use of blogs and the implications that blogging has for current and future students.

Paperback

First published March 1, 2007

Reviews

[Deana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually picked this book up for some research into what I might possibly want to do for my PhD research. I don't think it gave me any useable ideas for my PhD, but I really liked the book for its uses in a high school teaching environment. The author makes great arguments about how blogs can be used to get students interested in reading and writing. Most middle- and high-school students associate blogging with fun, so in theory creating a classroom blog will take some of the more tedious aspects out of writing. Also, many people (either other members of the class, or anyone on the internet, depending on whether the teacher sets up a class-only blog or a public blog) can see and comment on the student's writing, so a student may have more motivation to do well to receive comments of praise from others. She points out that a study shows that a huge majority of abandoned blogs have never received a comment, and believes that students enjoy blogging -because- of the feedback they get.

She gives ideas for using blogs - a way for students to learn and use vocabulary needed for units they are studying in school (like a Word of the day). A way for them to give "reviews" of the books (or chapters of books) they are reading for their courses. A way to discuss their hypothesis of what will happen in tomorrow's science experiments. A way for them to post their opinions and findings on historical events (the holocaust, women receiving the right to vote, etc). A way for them to explore statistics and mathematical concepts (polls, surveys, etc). And they can even exercize their creative sides with different layouts and themes, and their technical side with html and CSS.

Overall, it was a very interesting read, especially for me as a blogger. She explained statistical similarities and differences between male and female bloggers (I found it interesting to see that males, in general, use more words and longer words in their blogs than females). She explained trends. Really, it was a very intersting book. Highly recommended to all of you!

[Sebah Al-Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skimmed it. It's not new information for me, but Penrod made valid arguments for introducing blogs to classrooms.

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"In the classroom, a blog's worth comes from the ways teachers can use this genre and technology to enhance their students' creative thought processes and encourage all students, regardless of gender, to develop important technological abilities." (p. 61)

Explaining the reasons why bloggers choose to blog, Penrod mentions five reasons, "1. Blogs are incredibly easy to publish because of technological advances.
2. Blogs mix pleasure with information to create an information reformation.
3. Blogs are a malleable writing genre.
4. Blogs empower those who are often marginalized in society." (p. 3).

Explaining the difference between what students are taught to write and what they are expected to produce on blogs, "Bloggers arrange written information along with images, sounds, and links to direct readers' attention. They take a highly active role in the production of texts and the distribution of information compared to writers in the past." (p. 20)

Reasons for including blogs in classrooms: "1. Blogging encourages fluency in writing.
2. Blogging encourages cooperative learning.
3. Blogging encourages critical thinking.
4. Blogging encourages performance-based learning (PBL) among other cross-curricular strategies." (p. 22)

[Kelsy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Even in 2007, this author's take on what she calls "blogging" (and the rest of the world calls "social networking") would have been dated. Because of this, the book is almost entirely unhelpful. I did quite like the idea of a Word of the Day blog, but it took me 110 pages to find this first practical idea. The 109 pages preceding it felt a lot like empty rhetoric based around the author's limited experience: has she actually asked a teenager about blogging? I sincerely doubt it.
To make this whole thing worse, the book is astoundingly racist. My views on ethnicity, as a New Zealander, may not be the norm, but I read through the chapter "Ethnicity and Blogging" with a horrified expression. Look out for arbitrary associations such as white students and long silky hair, and black students and crack dens.
Overall, I do not recommend at all. It went from boring and badly written to downright offensive within about 60 pages, and while I finished it out of morbid curiosity, I heartily regret picking it up in the first place.

[Kevin Hankinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome! Penrod does an amazing job exploring blogs in every facet. Here examination of blogs and marginalized groups is fascinating.