A few professors at Whitman have integrated blogging into their curriculum recently as a peer-editing tool or a replacement for journaling. Professors Kristy King and Lynn Sharp introduced blogging to Encounters this year, asking their students to post every few weeks regarding the reading material and comment twice per week with additional ideas or critical feedback. A main reason that these professors have made the move to blogging is to encourage first-year students to share their work with a wider audience.

“With journals, students got used to writing just for their professor. The blog posts stimulate them to challenge themselves, this time writing towards the entire class,” said King.

The students are more aware of their writing when they know that more people will be reading it, which the professors hope makes them work harder to write well. So far, the professors have noticed several benefits from their new method.

“By reading the posts, students are able to learn from each other’s writing,” said Sharp.

Each student is able to read all of the other posts and comments, which is a major difference from any previous assignment. With blogs, students are exposed to many different styles of writing.   The professors experimenting with this method hope that the blogs will offer a much more effective (and possibly faster) way of teaching how to write at a collegiate level.

“They must think through their blog posts much more than their points in a classroom discussion, which brings things to a deeper level,” said Sharp.

However, some of the students using the blogging method question its effectiveness.

“While there might be more detail in the posts, they bring up the same ideas we discuss in class,” said first-year Luke Hedlund. “We just happen to know everyone’s opinion before we meet. The only advantage is that the blogs could help someone who isn’t as likely to speak up in class get their ideas heard.”

Other students do see significant value in the blogging system.  First-year Jess Good likes the extra help with her writing.

“The blogs present different ideas that I might not have thought of in class. I also find it very helpful that my professor comments and gives me feedback on them,” Good said.

Overall, the professors agreed that they are very impressed with the work they have seen.

“The blogs make students take a stand,” said King, noticing much more disagreement in discussion than she is used to. “We’re making use of productive differences!”

Though they can be a lot of work, the professors believe that they will be beneficial to their students’ writing and critical thinking skills.

“Anyone who writes well writes constantly,” said Sharp.