Blog Exploration and Analysis
Purpose: This exercise was designed to help students investigate blogs as a possible research source, and also as a potential genre in which to communicate about findings from the research assignment once completed if appropriate to course design.
Timing: This exercise is designed to work during the research essay process, when students have established a topic and are engaging in the process of finding sources. The exercise best helps students who have found some traditional sources and may not have considered alternate sources. Plan for one 75-minute class plus homework, or longer.
Assumptions: Because students are familiar with digital communication – texting, email, facebook and other social networking applications – it was assumed that familiarization with blogging would be easy or unnecessary. This assumption was wrong, and ultimately required that the assignment be suspended until blogging was explored as a class before asking students to embark on individual explorations.
Assignment:
1. Have students read The McGraw-Hill Handbook, Chapter 14f, about blogs, before class.
2. Demonstrate how to set up a basic blog using www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com and find one blog from each to focus on briefly as an exploration with the class watching. Have a few examples of robust blogs to show that you’ve identified earlier.
3. Ask students to work in small groups with your blog examples to identify purpose, audience, message, visual design, and level of interaction. Return to full class and discuss, comparing analyses that each group developed.
4. Have students work individually to research blogs related to their topics. If students have similar topics they might work in teams or groups to share information on blog sources they find.
5. End the class with a 5–minute freewrite about the blog exploration exercise that asks students to reflect on their findings and the potential value to their research.
6. Ask students to complete for homework a full analysis of two blogs they found, using Chapter 18 from The McGraw-Hill Handbook (Evaluating Sources) as a guide.
7. Also ask students to start a blog about their research process, which they will continue over the next few weeks as a means of reflecting on what they learn about conducting and writing about research.
*This exercise can fail without enough time spent as a class on understanding what blogs are about, how they function as a public forum and why that can be valuable, and what makes some blogs more credible and effective than others. The first time I did this exercise it failed miserably with students who did not easily grasp the idea of collective knowledge, while others who had blogged in the past or quickly grasped the utility of a good blog fared much better. Whether it requires one class period or three, it is vital to ensure students understand what is and is not effective in a blog before they research.
