Educational technology is defined by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), as referenced in Duffy and McDonald’s Teaching and Learning with Technology (2008), as “the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning” (p. 5). As such, the broad interpretation of educational technology allows for many concepts to be included within its scope. As technology develops, more of it is being looked at for its educational implications. The first web log hosting tools appeared on the Internet between 1998 and 1999 and allowed broad, popular access to Internet publishing that had previously been in the realm of the technologically savvy (Jensen, 2003, par. 3-4). A web log, or more commonly known as a blog, is an “easily created, easily updateable Website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection” (Richardson, 2006, p. 17). These websites often have a general topic, and a typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Blogs can be used to “write about personal reactions to topics, post links, write reflectively, and summarize or annotate reading (Richardson, 2006, p. 29). With the rise and mass proliferation of blogs in the early 21st century, journalism and media coverage of political and historical events has significantly changed. The way that students access news has likewise changed. From the historical events of September 11th, 2001 to the present day campaign for the United States presidency, politics and news coverage as well as potential in history education have seen a dramatic shift that has powerful learning and teaching implications for students and educators in journalism, media studies and social studies classes.
Blogs transformed the media coverage of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. in 2001 from a mass media perspective to individual coverage. The early use of blogs during this time marked a general shift in news reporting. The immediate response to the attacks caused a surge of people to log onto the Internet and caused web and phone lines to become clogged (Veltman, 2001, par. 2), but within weeks and months hundreds of bloggers began to offer insight, commentary and reporting in the wave of the attacks. As the years passed, it ballooned to hundreds of thousands. In 2003, Mallory Jensen (2003) wrote “In 1999, there were dozens of blogs. Now there are millions” (par. 2). But academics and mass media outlets were slow to take notice. A search of blog archives on the LexisNexis Academic database with the term “terrorism” between September 10, 2001 and September 11 2005 yields six hits, all from a single business news weblog. The same search between September 10, 2001 and September 11, 2006 exceeds the query. Did the millions of blogs suddenly appear out of nowhere? No. While the content before 2006 is irretrievable through such databases, it certainly existed. Their very existence helped fuel the rampant spawn of political blogs. One might assume that the wealth of deeply important topics for average Americans to discuss in the years following the attacks significantly influenced the spread of individual web log use. Today it is possible to retrieve news and views entirely from syndicated blogs.
Bloggers influence United States Politics. From holding politicians accountable to the comments they make to politicians themselves utilizing blogs to advance their political campaigns, politics throughout the 2000’s, especially the run-ups to the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections, were changed by bloggers. Howard Dean was the first political candidate to create a blog in the campaign to the 2004 elections. By 2003, “Blog for America” was reaching 30,000 hits per day (Gill, 2004, p.3-4) while other candidates without blogs suffered from low visitor hits. Other candidates followed suit and soon began to create interactive blogs (Gill, 2004, p.4) The trend continued to the point where in the run-up to the 2008 election, Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, as well as Republican nominee John McCain all have campaigns that maintain up to the minute blogs. And while some politicians have used blogs to increase their visibility, others have experienced political downfalls because of the investigative nature of political bloggers. Perhaps Howard Dean realized the potential for blogs when in 2002 one of the most notable cases of blog reporting uncovered Senator Trent Lott’s racist commentary in a public speech about segregationist Strom Thurmond and soon led to his resignation as Majority Leader in the Senate (Gill, 2004, p.4-5). In the democratic arena of the ‘blogosphere,’ everyone has a voice, and all voices are weighed equally – if the points are salient and worthy of attention.
The ability of blogs to increase everyone’s access to information and for everyone to equally share in publishing has enormous potential for studies in citizenship. Kathy Gill (2004) writes “Participatory journalism is a concept that embraces an expanded two-way communication between established media and readers, allowing readers to interact with journalists and news organizations” (p.2). This idea has enormous potential for education. In no era before now could students so easily analyze, interpret, respond to and shape the media. What better way to encourage participation in civil society than to fully equip students with the information and voice required to effectively engage in democracy? If used in a classroom, a blog space has the ability to give students practice in an even larger technological world that equally values new opinion. Will Richardson writes that:
The Weblog is a democratic tool that supports different learning styles. For those students who might be more reticent in class, a blog gives them the opportunity to share in writing the ideas they may be too shy to speak. Everyone has a voice in the conversation, and all ideas, even the instructor’s, are given equal presentation in the blog. As students participate, they also take ownership of the space, and depending on how teachers frame that participation, this can lead to a greater sense of participation. (Richardson, 2006, p.28)
When given consideration in the classroom environment, the ability to follow news, share opinion, shape media, write text and all of the other options available to the bloggers that shaped American politics and news coverage throughout the 2000’s has revolutionary potential for learners – for the first time ever, their voice truly matters.
There are several ideas about how to integrate history and social studies education with blogging. While having access to news and resources to respond to it in a public forum, there are other ways to use blogs in the classroom. Through blogs, it is possible to write and share experience through virtual and actual field trips. Judy Britt (2006) writes, “When teachers use a blog to plan, organize, and document a social studies field trip, the project-oriented approach to using Web resources becomes highly interactive and meaningful for the students” (p. 29). Virtually experiencing a location both before and after the actual trip can provide a new depth to the field-trip experience. No longer does the written requirement after the trip seem like a dull comparison or an obligatory response to the experience. Britt (2006) continues, “Expository writing is encouraged in blogs when students learn to summarize details in descriptive paragraphs. For example, if a class visits Washington, D.C., teachers can assign sites such as the Lincoln Memorial or the Washington Monument to small groups to organize reflections from the field trip” (p.29). This is just one example of how students may benefit from blogs in a history course. Teachers, likewise, can experience benefits.
There is a realm in the blogosphere known as the edublogosphere; in this vicinity, teachers and other educators contribute to pedagogy and practice to increase the sum of knowledge and to share ideas for education – often including blogging and other technologies in the process. There is no shortage of Social Studies educators in the edublogosphere. C. Frederick Risinger (2006) writes from the perspective of a “digital immigrant” who began to experience blogs and found the process easy and enjoyable. “I became a fan of blogging in education, as well as in other aspects of politics, history, and other fields” (p. 132). He goes on to list several political, historical and social studies education blogs that provide links to other sites and ideas for education in history. The “Speaking of History Blogspot,” for example, is eighth grade educator Eric Langhorst’s blog that he uses to discuss his classroom, his professional development, and his own ideas about education and technology. He links the blog to his classroom webpage, and the interactive experience allows viewers to see the person, the teacher, and the thinker in front of the classroom. Similar to a number of other educator’s blogs, this is just one example of how teachers may benefit from the use of blogs.
In summary, since 2001, the use of blogs has ballooned to unprecedented proportions. Political and news blogs updated by regular citizens have given real voice to millions who in previous generations would never have been heard. This actually elevates the level of democracy to never before seen proportions. Students and teachers can access information – and respond to it - more readily than any other people before this generation. This history of blogging in these seven short years has seen enormous growth, and there is an ever growing population of educators and students who are using blogs in the classroom to share ideas and publish them globally. Alongside the theoretical implications of mass access to information and the ability to instantly publish for all to see, there are practical implications for using blogs in the classroom. Edubloggers continue to develop these ideas and to share them in the edublogosphere. Social studies, history, journalism, and media studies will never be the same. Yet, despite their documented influence and still enormous potential, we must remember that blogs are still in their infancy. They are hardly in their teens. Current generations of students will shape the future of blogs, and we must instill a sense of democracy and responsibility when using them so that they may continue to create civic participation on an individual level in years to come. The future of teaching and participating in democracy is a bright and exciting one.
Works Referenced
Britt, J. (2006). Go blogging with Social Studies Field Trips. Learning and Leading with Technology, 33(6), p.29.
Dean, H. (2003). Howard Dean Blog for America. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://www.blogforamerica.com/
Gill, K.E. (2004). How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere? Retrieved March 23, 2008, from http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/gill_blogosphere_www2004.pdf
Jensen, M. (2003). Emerging alternatives: A brief history of weblogs. Columbia Journalism Review, (5). Retrieved March 22, 2008, from http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2003/5/blog-jensen.asp?printerfriendly=yes
Lever-Duffy, J., & McDonald, J.B. (2008). Teaching and learning with technology. Boston:Pearson Press.
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Risinger, C.F. (2006). Using blogs in the classroom: A new approach to teaching social studies with the Internet. Social Education, 70(3), p. 130-2.
Veltman, C. (2001). Letter from America: Web responses to a day of terror. New Media Age, Sept. 20, 2001, p.15. Retrieved March 22, 2008, from LexisNexis Academic database.
