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Articles Conference Reviews |
2007C28FinnC28: Me, Myself, and I: Examining Identity in the Blogosphere Hillary Robson: “Me, Myself, and I: Examining Identity in the Blogosphere” Robson’s presentation focused on the practical questions teachers should be asking themselves when considering assigning blog writing in the classroom. She compared MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, and LiveJournal and gave advice about each. I was particularly interested in the statistics she shared about the number of users for each and the pros and cons of each site. Probably the most practical advice she gave was that instructors should blog for a semester before assigning a blog as part of a class in order to familiarize themselves with the expectations that they will be placing on students. In other words, if the teacher feels put out or uncomfortable writing 2-3 posts a week, chances are the student will too. Claire Bates: “Using Blogging in the Composition Classroom to Teach Voice, Audience, and Feedback” Bates presented on her use of MySpace in her composition class. She began blogging on MySpace “as a way to practice writing while not in school.” This project became a part of her course and is now the focus of her master’s thesis. She shared survey results from her class along with student comments on the use of blogging in the course. I’ll be most interested to see how her thesis addresses the “friend” terminology used in MySpace and how that impacts her role as teacher in those courses. Samaa Gamie: “Constructing a Subaltern Digital Subjectivity: The Rhetorics of Two Arab Women Activist Groups on the Web” Gamie’s presentation compared two websites, one a very basic website and the other a professionally done site associated with the United Nations. The basic site didn’t appear to be active, but in reality has a very active following on a separate discussion board. The UN site, although visually impressive, doesn’t appear to do anything to further the conversation among Arab women. The presentation would have been enhanced if an internet connection would have been made available to Gamie; the transparencies of pages from the sites were useful to the audience but not as useful as the actual sites might have been. Comments? |