Learning to Blog, Blogging to Learn

Last summer I finished an E-learning solution for highschool and college teachers who would like to learn how to use blogs as a part of their instruction. Videos, links to online resources, and walk-throughs are provided in this extensive (2-3 hour) self-directed tutorial website. Feel free to use these materials in any way you want (think of the content as open source, as well as the code).

New Personal Web Site

I’ve created a new personal portfolio Web site at www.bob.wadholm.com. It is split into three sections: Theology, Instruction, and Design. It’s not much, but it’s something.

If you are a Wadholm, and you also want your own Web space, let me know about it by leaving a comment or by emailing me, and I’ll set you up.

The Role of RSS in Education

What can a simple xml file do for education? What’s the big deal? So what if RSS gets the word out easier and more consistently than other forms? So what if its standardized and often rich in metadata content (making it more thoroughly searchable even than html)? So what if it caters to a society that doesn’t want to take the time or effort to actually go anywhere even when they’re not going anywhere (i.e. to not have to surf the net while sitting at a chair at their computer)? So what if it helps make the user the meta aggregator of what is meaningful and useful, and the editor of their own publishing empire? So what if learning opportunities are made more readily available and mobile? So what? Why should we all get excited about a couple of xml tags with some simple content? What’s so revolutionary about having the world’s news, entertainment, blog entries, podcasts, and latest updates in education sent to your favorite E-mail client or feed reader? What’s so great about not having your head explode from information overload? And from a Web programmer’s point of view, what’s so great about being able to serve up others’ continually updated content for free without having to code a thing?

I say RSS has no future in education. Why would we want to educate more people anywhere in the world? What kind of bleak world would it be if everybody was able to streamline their content so that they could control their own education? If students didn’t have to sit in a specific chair in a specific room in a specific building at a specific time of day to learn? And why would people want to increase their choices in educational media delivery and production? Do we really want to learn more often? Do we really want to hear a professor on our ipod? Do we really want to share with the world? Nah. I think clay tablets are the future.

WoW Politics

I viewed a great video during election week that was both humorous and pointed. Here is the URL on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5Kg-K7em20 (I’ve also included the video below). By the way, I found this video while reading www.Ubernoggin.com, a blog written by Sarah Robbins (Intellagirl), coauthor of Second Life for Dummies, and a social networking consultant at my place of employment (the IU Alumni Association).

The video was a series of interviews with World of Warcraft (WoW) players about their political stances regarding the upcoming election (it was made just prior to Obama’s election). World of Warcraft is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). In a virtual 3D world of wizards, elves, and orcs, players fight their way to attain supremacy over other lands, races, and/or beasts. View the video to get a glimpse of how these virtual worlds overlap with our own. (For instance, notice that warriors and priests overwhelmingly preferred McCain over Obama, something generally real in the real world as well). Do people project their real worlds into these virtual environments? Does their Avatar represent more about them than is normally supposed? What can we learn about education in virtual worlds from such a humorous video? Will students also project themselves and their ideologies onto their virtual selves, their worlds, and everything they touch? While possibilities for self-expression are exponentially expanded in these virtual worlds, such self-expression may be just that — self expression. Are these truly second lifes, or are they merely extensions of first lifes? Perhaps virtual world educational adventures may be more immersive and real-world than I had at first assumed. 

Why blog for school or pay?

Blogs are Web logs. Online journals. Spaces where humans can share their world with their world. They combine the most deeply personal and private concept of the diary, journal, or log, with the social media perspectives of Web 2.0. I like to think of blogs as my way of communicating to the world and myself without having to address anyone in particular. This is free form flow of consciousness at its best–in a social milieu. The informality and relative anonymity it provides is ingratiating.

So why blog for school or pay? Why use blogs as school assignments, or better yet, work? Isn’t my blog the essence of me being me with the world as my audience? Do I really want to invite my work or school life here? Aren’t journals supposed to come from within, not from outside sources? Does the necessity to blog put on me by outside forces beyond my control really provide me with the best creative juices? How can I bear my soul with my boss or professor breathing down my neck? Is this a misuse of the blog format? If someone is telling me what to write about, when to write it, and then rewarding me or punishing me if I don’t write it the way they think it should be written, is this an abuse of this dear form? Are we twisting a Web 2.0 tool to do our own bidding and neglecting its ultimate value?

Or is this what the internet is about at its core? Connecting people so that business or learning can occur. Even blogs have to come under this yoke at some point. And maybe this corner of my world could use some sprucing up. Maybe the added feedback and attention to detail that comes with doing things for money or learning is not a bad thing. Maybe the world would be a better place if everyone could get gain from using social tools. It certainly can be a lot more fun than writing term papers or memos (not that fun is the objective). In the end, I’m gaining from opening my brain up to the world in this way. And I’m thankful for the opportunity it affords me–to be rewarded to stand on my soap box and rant about people being rewarded for standing on their soapboxes. That’s the freedom of Web 2.0. A valuable lesson learned from blogging for school or pay.

Today

Today I made a WordPress blog.