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January 27, 2005
Do Non-Bloggers Need an Invitation?
Blogging as Civics Lesson
There is an article in College Teaching, "Employing Civic Participation in College Teaching Designs," by David L. Palmer and Christina Standerfer (vol. 52, no. 4) that makes some good points about how educators should encourage civic participation among students and I couldn't help but think about these points relative to blogging. That is, if I didn't know better, I'd think they were talking about blogging. For example,
Having students act as citizens encourages them to embody--rather than merely wade through--the ideas they study (122).Civic education accentuates community responsibility and democratic participation (123).
Studies indicate that combining civics and education creates effective forums for applied knowledge, enhances social-issue awareness, and strengthens motivation to learn (Jarosz and Johnson-Bogart 1996) (123).
In light of our question about academic blogging, would more posts and conversations about print sources, and active marketing of such help matters? That is, if we bring other academics who aren't presently bloggers to our blogs by responding to their work in print sources on our blogs, and then they stick (create their own blogs, etc.) because they like the forum? In other words, we invite them to 'embody the ideas we study' and participate in our conversations.
Posted by mhansen at January 27, 2005 09:43 AM
Comments
Ok, so I'm just now reading the comments at CultureCat on her Rhetoric Carnival post. How weird that I arrived at a similar destination by reading an entirely different source. I didn't realize everyone was already talking about doing a group reading. May I say, I like the idea!
In other coincidental news, I was on the phone talking with a friend from Tampa and she answered three questions I was about to ask right before I was about to ask them. Unsettling.
Posted by: Marcia at January 28, 2005 12:19 AM