Twice the Fun Means Twice the Work: Learning To Blog in University Course Assignments

To respect students’ desire for privacy, I’ve allowed them to choose whether they want their blogs to be private or public. While I don’t entirely disagree with one blogger’s point that private blogs are not blogs at all (Arvan), my decision was based on my belief that students might feel uncomfortable, and take fewer risks, if they are forced to write in an online public space.  

However, has not knowing how to create private blogs, how to add each other as readers, and how to respond to blogs in fact added more strain? Students must not only understand and follow particular formatting guidelines, structural and stylistic rules of writing, and standards of critical engagement; they must also learn how to use blogging technology in order to complete blogging assignments on time. This may be a confusing and overwhelming assignment for those who know little about blogging, or who have little time to learn about it. Knowing nothing about how to work fountain ink pens, if I had to write an essay using one, I’d only have frustration and blue hands to show for it.

So far, some have picked up the blogging tech more easily than others, due to differences in the time they have allotted themselves and in their individual abilities with computer technology. I am decidedly un-tech savvy myself. When I first started using Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop, I constantly wished for some little magical helper on my shoulder to instantly answer all of my questions. I also wished for a full week just to “play around” with all the little buttons. Learning how to learn to use technology is itself a valuable skill; but, when you’re very late, you’re far less interested in how the car runs than in how fast it can get you where you need to be.

A “cost-benefit” approach suggests that our efforts are worthwhile when we get out more than we put in. Of course, in the middle of learning those “benefits” are not always apparent. As we discussed in class, blogging is a valuable tool for learning about gender in a global context, in part because this activity allows everyone to bring to class their own interests and experiences. So, although I cannot be a little shoulder helper this weekend, I ask for students’ patience as they continue to learn about this new writing medium. On Monday, I hope to spend time as a class in the computer lab so that we can all be on the same (virtual) page.

Works Cited

Arvan, Lanny. “Teaching With Blogs”. Inside Higher Ed. 27 July 2010. Web. 16 Oct. 2010.

Sample Media Blog

“Women and their Maids: A Photographic Levelling” is a photography project by Justine Graham and Ruby Rumié that takes a feminist approach to understanding the relationship between two different groups of women. By making these women appear to look “identical” (Lisa) in their photographs, the project tries to challenge economic and cultural hierarchies in which maids are regarded as socially inferior to their employers.

On one hand, I like this project because it makes an effort to promote equality between women. It also makes viewers wonder who is the employer and who is the maid, which highlights other racial and cultural stereotypes upon which viewers might also rely. On the other hand, however, I have some reservations about this project because it risks suggesting, firstly, that all of these women actually are the same, and, secondly, that one photograph can effectively level out the economic, cultural, and racial differences between each pair of women.  

The photographers assume that these photos capture the “openness” and “pride” of the maids, as a report by Daniela Estrada quotes; however, while the photos might appear to promote female equality through representing sameness, what happens afterwards when these women return “home” to their prior labour relationship? They may appear the same here, but each maid is likely feeling something quite different from what the photographers—and her employer—might assume. Power, status, and privilege go far beyond the appearances that can be shown in one photograph, and the representation of “sameness” here seems to come at the expense of acknowledging these women’s actual lived differences as well.

While this project attempts to promote social change through representing equality, I believe that, ultimately, it ignores the fact of both white and economic privilege and alleviates what Shelby Steele describes in her podcast interview with Pamela Monk as “white guilt.” In my view, these photos encourage white viewers to believe that these women share a greater degree of similarity and equality than they actually do. This project makes me wonder how the employers and maids first responded to being asked to participate in this project, and how their responses might have been different. Would printing interviews of the maids alongside their photographs make this project more successful in achieving its anti-hierarchical feminism goals, because it would then acknowledge the value of both equality and difference?  

Works Cited

Lisa. “Women and their Maids: A Photographic Levelling.” Sociological Images. 13 July, 2010. Web. 10 Sept. 2010.

Estrada, Daniela. “Latin America: Photos a Leveller for Maids and Their Employers.” Global Issues. Thursday, June 17^th. Web. 10 Sept. 2010

Steele, Shelby. “A World of Difference; White Guilt.” World Of Difference. WPSU. Web Podcast. 10 Sept. 2010.

Introduction to the Media Blog Assignment

Today I introduced the media blog assignment to our class. I discussed the guidelines for the assignment, the due dates for the five required postings and responses, and the in-class participation that will run alongside the out-of-class blogging. I told students about the delicate balance that must be struck between being accountable for the ideas in one’s writing and the importance of withholding personal information in the interests of maintaining privacy and safety. In many instances, the key to the success of blogging is cultivating an “ethos” to one’s online persona, that is, communicating through form, image, links, content, tone, and diction that one is informed and accurate, but also capable of being compassionate and forgiving, particularly when discussing controversial or sensitive issues. I gave students some strategies for ensuring their safety online by suggesting that they take some precautions regarding self-disclosure. I also emphasized the degree to which non-verbal elements of the blog – such as background, colours, and typeface – also contribute to the meaning of blog writing, and so it is important to choose them carefully as well. The point of this part of the class was to remind students that blogs are not just “words on a (digital) page”; every decision that they make in how they are going to present their writing will have meaning and consequences.

However, due to time constraints (and the fact that I desperately needed another caffeinated beverage by 11:30am), I had neglected to discuss with students *why* we were going to undertake this particular assignment, rather than, say, another traditional academic assignment, such as an annotated bibliography, book report, or persuasive essay. Certainly, it would be easier for *everyone* just to do some library research, type up a paper, proofread it a couple of times, print it, and then hand it in. "Essay dun.” Everyone recognizes the logistics of essays – no extra stylistic hassles or technical difficulties (aside from running out of printer ink at the last minute, which I ALWAYS manage to do). Why go to the work of creating a blog, finding one’s way around it, deciding what to post, deciding what not to post, and considering carefully how to post? Why do all this extra work reading each other’s writing and responding to it *outside* of class, when clearly there are more important things to be doing (like catching up on lost sleep)!

Off the top of my head, I can think of three main reasons why I chose to assign blog writing in this course.

1)      Blogging is, to some extent, a “democratic” form of writing. Online, anyone can publish - as long as they have the knowledge of and access to the resources necessary to get a blog and have time to add to it. Thus, we can use blogging as a tool to hear the voices of others, particularly those whom we would not normally hear by traditional publishing channels, and hearing these individuals is an important aspect of coming to understand the effects of globalization on disempowered subjects. (Obviously, however, these technological resources are NOT equally available to everyone, and this must be taken into account when we celebrate the internet for being the great “leveller.” Clearly, it’s not.)

2)      The academic field of study related to gender and global cultures is formed by a complex network of ideas, theories, perspectives, and disciplines. There is no “one voice” or “one authority” on the matter (least of all is that voice mine.) Thus, the form of this assignment follows the content of our course. In order to encourage understanding gender relations as a “dialogue” among people within and between cultures, I am encouraging students to create dialogues amongst themselves, enabling them to share their knowledge and expertise.

3)      Globalization (to make an over-simplistic assertion) is about technology – its production, its commodification, and its development and use for various ends (be they militaristic, corporate, media, or some combination of the three). To promote an feminist ethics of global sensitivity, while critiquing the politics of globalization (to make an equally over-simplistic distinction), does not necessarily mean to shun that which has been used as the means and the matter of industrialization, colonization, and exploitation. Global feminism does not propose a return to a natural, essential, pre-technological state of the world. Rather, following “cyborg” feminist scholar Donna Haraway, I am interested in the ways in which communications technologies can be use to disrupt orderly power structures, dominant interests, and essential identities. High-tech can break down old dualisms, particularly through radical and resistant experimentation with it.

Are there other reasons why students and I will benefit from this exercise, even if it causes us more hassle and work? I’m sure there are. At least, I hope there is. To find out, I will need to address with students in our next class not only how we are going to build this assignment together but also *why* we are doing it, what is our criteria for doing a productive job of it, and what we, as a class, hope to get out of it.