Can be used to handle certain pedagogical strategies: resource-based learning, project-, problem-based learning
"do it now, learn it later" to some extent
shared links
Weblogs
make above more dynamic, e.g. profit from user-generated knowledge
share information about good things on the web
Social Utility:
"after sales support" & diffusion of informations
Pedagogical utility:
new learnings (see above)
global contribution to general knowledge
A few quotes from the weblog pages around the IU project mentionned before (Laura Shefler, Chris Ashley):
The weblogs represent a body of work that has both academic and literary substance.
students exercise critical thinking, take creative risks, and make sophisticated use of language and design elements
students acquire skills that may be useful to them in both scholarly and professional contexts
"Indisciplinary Education" making reference to Dewey's and Vygotsky's ideas difficult to integrate into a classroom setting.
The weblogs are an undertaking in which adults and students learn together as equals, in which the process is as important as the product, and in which cognitive development results from a student-driven exchange of ideas.
As such, it suggests possibilities for how our educational system might promote the development of rationality, as David Moshman (1999) proposes, by showing students respect and supporting their intellectual freedom.
© Daniel Schneider