Steve Hooker mentions, in the story below, that he and I had a meeting on Friday 18 Feb and talked, among other things,  about the nature of Blogs. Thanks for the info and ideas below, Steve. It seems to me that the fundamental power of blogs is that it allows students to begin communicating, formulating ideas and thoughts in a way that would be difficult in the more formal setting of the classroom and at a time and in a mode of their own choosing.  It also creates an interactive mode that encourages participants to operate in a constructivist modality. That is, the contributors engage in a Platonic type dialogue and explore and construct their universe of knowledge and understanding. There is a deep freedon to the process of contributing to a dialogue on the net that can allow those who are inhibited or unsure to gain the confidence to find their voice. The downside of this is the question of rigour. There are those who will see blogging (and other constructivist modes) as a sloppy easy alternative. However, the process of communication and engagement has deep validity in itself.

Readers may wish to look at IKIT as a very interesting example of use of ICT for constructivist learning in classrooms. Take a look at  http://www.ikit.org. This will open the world of "Knowledge Building" and "Knowledge Society Networks" to you. I worked with Dr Scardamalia one of the originators of IKIT at the University of Toronto.

The National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY) at the University of Warwick have some exciting on-line study groups that use a blog type process to great effect, with some great discussions and dialogues going on.

Posted by Robin Brooke-Smith on 20/2/05; 6:26:28 PM from the Europe dept.