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I.  Anti-inflammatory Description  II.  Polarizing Views or Questions  III.  Worthwhile Results
IV.  Guidelines - Evidence and Priorities  V.  What do YOU care about most? 

I.  Anti-inflammatory Description
Describe the issues in the least inflammatory language.  Identify important pre-requisites, conditions, stakeholders. 

How can blogs (and wikis and newsfeeds, and related tools) improve education?

Neutral/Constructive Questions:

Why bother?  (Why is it important to deal with this issue?)

Who cares?   (Who should be involved in considering this issue? 
Because they will be influenced by it? 
Because they are able to influence how it proceeds?  Other?)

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II.  Polarizing Views or Questions 
Restate extreme positions and provocative questions respectfully. 

1.  Blog Rage:  “…What's distressing about my recent experience is that a small number of highly partisan, energetic bloggers poisoned the debate instead of contributing to it...." more...

2.  "Blog Revolution ... a world inhabited by
content-producing ordinary people—also known as bloggers—means big changes. That's soon to be true for educators..."  more...

3.  "Wasting Time on Blogs...blogs appear to be stealing time away from work ..." more...

4.  "Blogs are just making the information overload worse..."  more...

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Why bother?

• Why is it important to deal with this issue? What are some of the feasible, desirable results that might make this effort worthwhile?
   
• Under what conditions is it important to deal with this issue?
   
• Under what conditions are the benefits associated with this issue likely to result? Are there any important pre-requisites that must be in place?
   
• Under what conditions are the risks of failure or acrimony associated with this issue too likely to occur - so that this issue should not be pursued or implemented?

Desirable Outcomes

• What are some of the desirable outcomes that would be easiest to agree on and accomplish? [Select one or two, agree on a plan, and get working!]
   
• What are some of the desirable outcomes that are feasible, but would be most difficult to accomplish? [Agree on a realistic timetable and plan for one or two of the most important of these and defer others.]
   
• What are one or two of the desirable outcomes that are so difficult that they should be excluded from these efforts (perhaps find some other way of proceeding or simply learn to live with the disappointment).

EXAMPLES

1.  More effective educational use of blogs
More faculty members develop and use blogs as an integral, effective part of their courses.

2.  More effective institutional policies
The college or university develops and implements new guidelines for the appropriate use of blogs when institutional resources,  personnel, or intellectual property are involved.

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V.  What do YOU care about most?  Personally, professionally, ...?[See also "Fundamental Questions"]

1. What do you most want to gain? [Regain?]
What do you care about?
For your students? colleagues? institution? yourself?
Whom do you care about?

2. What do you most cherish and want not to lose?

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"Clothing the Emperor" approach to Dangerous Discussions issues: 
Replace incorrect, inflammatory, extreme statements/views with realistic, balanced, civil, and constructive conversation.

[Online Workshop:  February 22, March 1 and 8, 2006 1-2 pm Eastern]

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- Will Richardson, posted in blog techLearning -
Oct 15, 2005

For full text (as of 11-6-2005):  http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/
onlinelearning/2005/10/blog-revolution-expanding-classroom.html

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"Blog Rage"

…”My career as a nitwitted, emasculated fascist began the afternoon of Jan. 19 when, as executive editor of the Post's Web site, washingtonpost.com, I closed down the comments area of one of our many blogs, one called post.blog. Created primarily to announce new features on the Web site, the blog had become ground zero for angry readers complaining about a column by Post ombudsman Deborah Howell on the newspaper's coverage of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. If I had let them, they would have obliterated any semblance of civil, genuine discussion.

“…Why are people so angry? It was a mistake, it was corrected. Part of the explanation may be the extremely partisan times we live in. For all the good things it has brought our society, the Web has also fostered ideological hermits, who only talk to folks who believe exactly what they do. This creates an echo chamber that only further convinces people that they are right, and everyone else is not only wrong, but an idiot or worse.

“…Another culprit in Web rage: the Internet's anonymity. It seems to flick off the inhibition switch that stops people from saying certain things in person. During the Howell flap, many of the e-mails I received that called me gutless, a coward or both were unsigned.
“… If you want to be positive, you could say blogs and the traditional media have a symbiotic relationship; if you want to be more negative, call it parasitic.

“…Blogs play a crucial role in the national conversation, whether it's giving readers insight into a specific topic, providing a forum for healthy debate or holding the media's feet to the fire.

“…What's distressing about my recent experience is that a small number of highly partisan, energetic bloggers poisoned the debate instead of contributing to it.

“…The irony of the backlash to my decision to shut off this comment string last month was that we've taken numerous steps during the past year to open up the Post Web site to its readers. We have 80 to 90 hours of live discussion programming every week, almost half of which involve Post reporters and editors. We've launched more than 30 blogs, which allow for reader comments and which have built vibrant communities. On our article pages, we've added links to related blogs. Just last week, we began hyperlinking all bylines on the site to allow readers to more easily send e-mail to Post reporters and editors. We'll continue to add features that allow us to interact with readers.

“…But we won't allow our comments area to become a place where people can use whatever vulgar language they want, personally attack Post staffers or bully other contributors to our pages or discussions. There are folks who call this position naive. That's their right. There are those who will decide not to be part of the discussion we're having on washingtonpost.com because they don't like our rules. That's their choice. We have chosen to build a certain type of community on our site, and based on the e-mail and letters I've received in the past three weeks, there are a lot of people who want to join it.

“… But what do I know? I'm an idiot. Just ask the people who don't know me.”

By Jim Brady;  Washington Post, Sunday, February 12, 2006; B01
Author's e-mail: jimbradyva@aol.com
© 2006 The Washington Post Company

For full text (as of 2-18-2006):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/11/AR2006021100840.html
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"Wasting Time on Blogs"
"According to an article in AdAge (unfortunately behind a free subscription wall), "U.S. workers in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years reading blogs." According to the article, about 35 million workers or a quarter of the labor force go to blogs, spending 3.5 hours, or 9%, of the work week at them.

"But why does AdAge say people are wasting time? Because for the moment, blogs appear to be stealing time away from work--not from other Web sites people visit, according to comScore. And according to ComScore’s tally of blog categories, just 25% of blog visits directly connect to the job." 

- Heather Green - BusinessWeek Online, October 25, 2005

For full text (as of 11-6-2005):  http://www.businessweek.com/
the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2005/10/
wasting_time_on.html

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Blog Overload

"Overload" session at Bloggercon III, November 6, 2004
Robert Scoble, session leader

Dealing with Information Overload (Or Getting Ready for 10,000 Feeds).
A day is coming when Robert will have 10,000 feeds instead of the 915 he's currently reading. (He guesses the average blog reader follows 50 to 100 feeds, based on anecdotal evidence of talking with other bloggers). In fact, the number of bloggers he reads is much higher than 915 thanks to group blogs and services like Feedster, Pubsub, and Technorati.

He's not the only one struggling with information overload. He's met lots of bloggers and journalists who are struggling to keep up with the larger and larger amount of great content that's being published every day to the Web (Technorati's Dave Sifry reports that they are seeing 15,000 new blogs per day. Even if only .01% of these are "great blogs" that means a huge increase in great content every day.)

So, those who are reading lots of RSS feeds are ahead of the curve. What are they learning? How are they becoming more efficient so they can keep up? How do they keep their sanity?

For full text (as of 2-1-2006):  http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail278.html

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Discussion Activities

• Alternate ways of asking important questions about this "issue"

• Questions for guiding discussion about factors, resources, ... that influence ...

• Cases
  South Dakota State University
  St. Lawrence University

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• TLT Group's Exploration Guide - a Website of resources about educational uses of blogs - how, why
• Unannotated directory of academic bloggers:
   -  http://rhetorica.net/professors_who_blog.htm

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Discussion Activity
Alternate ways of asking questions about THE ISSUE

How can blogs improve education?

1. How can blogs (and wikis and newsfeeds, ... related tools) help improve education?

2. How can blogs (and wikis and newsfeeds, ... related tools) be used effectively, conveniently, and conscientiously to improve teaching, learning, and scholarship?

3. Be used by whom?

4. How can anyone prevent, influence, or control the use of blogs (wikis, etc.) in education by anyone for any purpose?

5. How can learning be improved by the use of blogs (wikis, etc.) without reducing student/faculty ratio or increasing the workload for teachers or students?  
   Under what conditions?

6. In which courses and in which ways can blogs (wikis, etc.) be used effectively without reducing the quality of teaching and learning?  
   Without further overburdening faculty and academic support staff?  
   Without major external funding?  Without speculative restructuring?

7. How, if at all, can blogs (wikis, etc.) be used to reduce operating costs without sacrificing educational quality or the life expectancy of faculty?

8. “I usually meet face-to-face with 10-20 students in the courses I teach at this college, and I really enjoy the lively – and often thoughtful - discussions. I know I’m lucky. I put my course syllabi on the Web, and often assign Web-based resources to my students. Are there really any ways of adding interaction via blogs, wikis, etc. that would be any improvement?”

• What factors, conditions, or resources most limit ...

• What factors, conditions, or resources would enable you to ...

• Who should be engaged in a constructive "Dangerous Discussions" about ... within your institution?

Which versions are more/less inflammatory? 
For whom?  Under what conditions?

Which versions are more conducive to constructive results? 
For whom?  Under what conditions?

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Discussion Activity - Key Questions for THE ISSUE
1.  How do general uses of blogs differ from educational uses of blogs?  Now?  In a few months?  In a few years?  Why?  Who cares?  Why bother?

2.  Under what conditions can/should a college or university influence the blogging activities of its constituents? 

• Depending on whether the individuals are using institutional resources (hardware, software, Internet access, ...)? 

• Depending on whether the individuals are blogging as part of a course? 

• Depending on whether the individuals are faculty members, students, academic administrators, alumni, ....? 

• Depending on whether "influence" means any or all of the following:  encourage, discourage, permit, require, support, ...?

3.  Under what conditions should faculty members blog on topics outside their academic expertise?  Who can/should encourage/discourage/permit/require them to do so? 
"Is it really OK for me to blog about topics outside my academic expertise?" Last spring and summer, Jacob T. Levy, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Chicago, took a five-month hiatus from his blog. When he returned, he explained his reluctance to commit to blogging: "I'm worried about public-intellectualitis -- the well-known tendency for professors with real expertise in one field to pose as experts in many others, the pose of authority that comes with academics' comments on issues of the day."
From:   The Chronicle of Higher Education - Research & Publishing - from the issue dated June 6, 2003 - "Scholars Who Blog:  The soapbox of the digital age draws a crowd of academics" by David Glenn

4.  How does active blogging effect the career of someone in higher education?  What factors influence the answers to this question?
See:  "Bloggers Need Not Apply "  http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=3fxq8f3ln9y7y3i88e2s9vkvm3w9m55w

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Discussion Activity - Sample List of Factors, Resources, ... that Influence THE ISSUE

TO BE DEVELOPED

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Case - St. Lawrence University:
A group of students set up a blog called "Take Back Our Campus" (meaning, taking back our campus from what they perceived as a takeover by right-wing, conservative types). The anonymous posters to this blog wrote a mixture of pieces criticizing what they perceived as troublesome trends on campus. But some of their blog entries targeted specific, named individuals (students, faculty, administrators). It was hard to tell whether all that the anonymous posters were saying about these individuals was true or not. But the students who were targeted felt very traumatized by these attacks. The presence of the blog was creating a hostile atmosphere on campus for those students who were targeted.

And so, in consultation with the university lawyer, the President of the university decided finally to treat this just like any other case of harassment. If harassing posters were placed around campus, targeting individuals or groups, those posters would be immediately removed. So the President decided to similarly remove campus access to the website.

This was (not surprisingly) a controversial move. Furthermore, his decision to do this entailed (also controversial) changes to the "Acceptable Use of Computing Resources" policy.

For more, see:

Article, "Cloaked in Cyberspace," Inside Higher Ed, May, 2005
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/05/13/lawrence

Archive from blog "Take Back Our Campus"
http://tboclives.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_tboclives_archive.html

Article, "University drops Internet lawsuit," Updated: 9/16/2005 10:33 AM
By: Heather Ly, News 10 Now Web Staff
http://news10now.com/content/all_news/?ArID=49542&SecID=83

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Please examine what we offer, adopt what you find useful, and let us know about improvements you recommend or additional requests. 
Click here to send email to gilbert@tltgroup.org.

Click here for other "Dangerous Discussions" topics/questions for faculty, administration, and staff
- (especially, about Teaching, Learning, and Technology) 

   
Set at 0 on 11/3/2005

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