Traction
This is a private group blog designed to provide a space for teens in Huron County to use technology and the arts to explore who they are, find their voices, and build connections.
This is a private group blog designed to provide a space for teens in Huron County to use technology and the arts to explore who they are, find their voices, and build connections.
Blogging for Education 
This blog was only recently created (March 2012?) and does not seem to have had much success at this point as most of the entries are written by the blog creators. The blog structure, however, does invite creativity as it allows free expression to teens categorized in a number of styles such as poetry, fiction, multimedia, etc. The open nature of the blog also invites communication on any topic, especially those that are relevant to teens. Once some brave teens are willing to be creative, I think collaboration and further communication will grow. I guess the critical thinking may be combined with or be a requirement for some of the creativity that could be expressed in expressing oneself in these various ways. If responses to posts elicit discussion on human expression, this definitely could involve critical thinking skills to determine what exactly the post is trying to say. Would be helpful if there was a little more material in the blog to do a thorough analysis.
I’m with you Tim when you say more material would make a thorough analysis possible. As you noted the blog is structured to encourage creativity, and is likely to include collaboration and critical thinking as teens begin sharing. I wonder if the creator has taken a “build it and they will come” sort of attitude. Do you think it’s reasonable to expect the teens the blog was designed for to participate without some prompting? Does active participation in a blog compare to active participation in an online course, requiring a skilled mentor to lead the way or some form of extrinsic motivation?
Claire
Claire, you have asked a very good question. What motivates anyone to post something or comment on a post in a blog? Daniel Pink refers to three things that motivate people – autonomy, mastery and purpose. Unless teenagers who have artistic, creative writing talents can exhibit these three things when posting to Traction, it won’t become all that it could be. Promoting a site such as this will also be a key factor. Advertising in locations and ways that will provide exposure for this site will at least help teenagers become aware of this location for their creative, collaborative endeavours.
Helen
Yes Claire, I think it will require some motivating factors such as a teacher assigning a class a required entry into the blog. This may be enough to get the ball rolling and it could take off from there (think facebook and myspace for example). Teenagers are interesting in this sense, however. It seems like unless something like this is created by them, for them, it does not seem to catch on as well, even if it is identical to what they may have created on their own. In a way. it is one more thing that they may see as providing restrictions to choice even though the choices of expression are quite varied in Traction. I don’t think active participation in a blog such as this is comparable to active participation in an online course. It is different in two respects: 1) the online course usually provides external motivation in the form of marks or a set number of required postings. 2)The online course limits and guides the topics being discussed and these topics are connected to some body of knowledge whereas a blog like Traction seeks to have people speak of themselves and their experiences in any way they prefer. The motivations to participate are clearly different in both these cases.
Hi Tim, Claire, Helen,
I believe this blogging site could become more popular if it were introduced to various high schools within their English class programs/classes: e.g. categories for blogs could focus on or include: Literature, creative writing, poetry, slamming, short stories, journalistic commentaries, storytelling etc.. You are rifght Helen, these teens will only blog if they feel they can develop autonomy, mastery and purpose, so perhaps giving this blogging site a bit more purpose coul help.
Encouraging students/classes from different schools to blog within a category of choice on a weekly basis might be motivating. This form of ‘guided’ blog could also provide opportunities for teens to explore various writing forms e.g. poetry, journalistic writing etc. that they have never tried before. Students and teachers could be encouraged to respond to each other’s writing/or various modes of expression and further push the creative collaborative endeavours.
Marie-France
Maybe I am just feeling tied to this because of its fairly close proximity to myself but I feel this website could grow into something vibrant and wonderful with a new cohort of students in September? Or an artistic camp in June/July/August? I know my 17 y/o son is quite fed-up with school at this point in the school year. So, my comments below are based on potential – i.e. what I think this blog could become…
Collaboration – The “Rant” section encourages thoughts and feelings which, as we know, will likely resonate with teens and their peers. Creating this outlet for students will promote socializing and help develop a group mentality.
Creativity – Well, the website clearly states that it is “a place for discovery, laughter, acceptance, and creativity” so I would have to give it full marks for stating this – it is a new venture and it does take time to catch on and take off…
Critical thinking – Different outlets (Creative non-fiction, Fiction, Poetry, Multi-Media) are set up to encourage students to contribute their opinions and to read the contributions of others.
Communication – The blog is simple, “easy on the eye”, well-designed, and does have an intuitive format and flow of information. I am not sure if it allows for document sharing but I have confidence that it does…
This is certainly a blog that I would be interested in checking in on once in a while to see how it’s going.
Ronna
Hi Ronna,
I really appreciate the point you made of uniting Communication with design/interface. While many blogs can have formidable content, diligently researched and eloquently written, they may yet fail to communicate effectively because of layout issues.
Questions for those of you who have visited Connect-a-Blog and felt overwhelmed at the amount of text, links, colours and varied fonts: How do Connect-a-Blog and Traction compare at a communication level in terms of 1) Content and 2) Layout? Do both blogs, based on content only, have the same communicative potential? Feel free to note the strengths of each one and the ways in which each might be improved to promote better communication.
May