The Blog-olution: Using Blogs in Education
One significant “wake up” moment for me happened about 4 years ago when I took my first trip to Guatemala. I was working as a technology consultant for the Rose Education Foundation at the time. While I was there I had the chance to see issues in the news, both about the world and about the United States, from a Guatemalan perspective. It was surprising how different the stories were from what I had heard on CNN and other US news services. US reports of our global good-doing did not correlate with the reports in Guatemala. This was how I began to understand that “free press” does not necessarily equate to “true press”.
To take an example a little closer to home, I don’t think I’ve ever been quoted correctly in BYU’s newspaper, the Daily Universe (this bothered me until a friend pointed out that the Daily Universe is like the supermarket tabloids – everyone knows that it’s just a jumble of poorly written, inaccurate articles - but once you realize that, it’s kind of fun to read). In addition to making me slightly leery about what I hear on the news, these experiences have made me look for other sources of information, such as Blogs and Wikis.
While there is no more guarantee that the information from these sources is any more accurate than what we hear on the news, the sources are more direct. For example, if I want to learn about the US involvement in Iraq, I can read from an Iraqi who is experiencing the situation first hand. Below are some “news” articles about the important role of Blogs:
* Iraqi Blogs (BBC)
* US Soldier Blogs (CNN)
* Convention Blogs (CNN)
What does this mean for education?
We must not miss the opportunity to teach the importance of looking to multiple sources for information. In addition, students should understand that their opinion and voice count too, that they can contribute their experiences to the informational sources around them. A student in today’s world should understand the concept of slanted news long before I did, and they shouldn’t have to take a trip to Guatemala to learn it.