Ask the students? What a novel idea!

Bud has the somewhat novel idea that we should ask students what they think about blogs in education. He says, in part,

Blogging is a unique set of skills and much of what my students are doing on their personal blogs (journaling and ranting, mostly, according to one student) isn't really what I'd like to see in the classroom. But I wonder how many students are actually participating in this conversation. Are adults once again making decisions for students without their input? Wouldn't it be terrible if the decisions about blog use in classrooms were all made for students, instead of with them?

Bud took the plunge and asked his students. He promises to report back once they have posted their responses.

Reading Bud's post, I suddenly wonder if we shouldn't be teaching students about register in blogging, too. Well, not really, but I wonder if we shouldn't help students at the high school level especially see that there might be some things you write about in a class related blog that you wouldn't put in a strictly personal blog and vice versa. If we don't teach them the difference between blogging as a way of thinking, as Will R refers to it, and online journaling or flirting, who will?

Looking at my own blogging habits, I have several blogs. Each has a different purpose and a different audience. Why couldn't we encourage students to do the same right from the beginning? Maybe they could have a "serious" blog for school and an online journal and a xanga page for whatever.

I hope Bud can fill us in on his students' ideas before long. I am really interested in finding out what they have to say.