Professor advocates blogging in the classroom

The grammar in Facebook postings or instant messages might make some teachers cringe, but not North Carolina State University Professor Chris Anson.

Anson encourages the use of Internet tools including blogs, Facebook and instant messengers to improve students’ writing skills. He said many students who write blogs are more prepared for academic writing.

“Those people on blogs can be more ruthless than academians in their criticisms,” Anson said. “Writers know that they will have to back up their arguments with tons of evidence.”

Anson was the keynote speaker at the fifth annual “Success in the Classroom” seminar. The Wednesday seminar was open to UNM faculty and drew over 100 teachers from various departments.

Anson said asking students to do writing assignments in the form of an instant message conversation is fun for students and helps them truly understand information in every subject. He said this technique is something professors in biology, English, and even engineering can use.

“I think we need to understand how to use those technologies in more effective ways in our teaching,” he said. “I use a blog in every course I teach.”
Student Sevy Gurule said blogging was required in her senior honors class. She said she blogged about assigned readings and was also required to comment on her classmates’ writing.

“I think it was helpful because usually in such big classes you don’t really interact with other students and the blog allowed you to do that,” she said. “It was a more creative way of learning than writing papers.”

She said blogging also allowed her to see the perspectives of other students on her senior project.

Gary Smith, Office of Support for Effective Teaching director, coordinated the workshop. He said faculty members made presentations on engaging students in topics from geology to intermediate algebra. Some faculty members made poster presentations of their research on teaching methods and answered questions from other faculty members.

When professors learn new ways to teach, students benefit, he said.

“We wanted an opportunity for faculty to get together and share their experiences in teaching,” he said. “They can get ideas to take into their classrooms.”
He said many professors may need to consider changing the traditional lecture-and-test methods.

“A lot of students have gotten used to that passive intake of knowledge, but it doesn’t produce very much thinking,” he said.

Many teachers picked up new ideas from the presentations for more group work and technology incorporation, he said.

The keynote speaker, the lunch and the full-day presentation cost about $5,000, Smith said. Office of Support for Effective Teaching, President’s Office and Anderson School of Management contributed to the funding.