The Blogging Chronicles With Professor Isidra Person-Lynn: What I Discovered Using Blogging!

By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D., Publisher & Producer

This is the third interview with Professor Isidra Person-Lynn of West Los Angeles College on the subject of Edutainment & Convergence. Specifically, we focused on blogging; however, I was quick to point out how edutainment methods and convergence technology can be utilized effectively in the classroom from a learner-centered perspective. This is the reason that I put the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergei Brin in this post. They discovered what would become Google while working on their dissertation at Stanford and trying to find a better search vehicle. This is the power of critical thinking and discovery.In this interview, I explained what I discovered about my students in terms of what they think, how they, and why they had developed these thoughts. Overall, I found my students to be pretty good critical thinkers once they were taught how to think critically by asking them questions and more importantly getting them to ask critical questions. I even tackled the controversial area of allowing texting in my class. My answer may horrify some educators, but I have found with my classes that this was never a problem because I set up texting rules and my class was so interesting that my students hardly ever texted.

Professor Isidra Person-Lynn:

What have you discovered on your students' blogs?

Me: I have discovered that students were more gifted than even I thought, and I am an optimist. The critical thinking

 was quite evident once I got them emotionally involved in discussing issues like texting in class (which I allow because they are writing and because I want them to tell whoever they are  texting what we are doing in class including parents and guess what they hardly ever text in class which is ironic and this is a pattern), legal and illegal downloading, the corrupt behavior of some media executives,and the relationships between media consolidation and the banking scandal as a result of the Telecomm Act of 1996 and if you read the posts you will see that they are really into the discussion.

I may have to add actual debates next. I also discovered that I got continuous feedback about the direction of the class. They were quite honest online and were receptive to fair critiques because we developed trust when I began implementing what they wanted within my lesson plan.

In fact, the last four classes were executive produced by me, and largely produced by the students after I gave my 10 minute open on what we would be doing. They wrote and blocked out the skits, did the casting, and made presentations and we were still done early so I dismissed class so that folks could work on their blogs.

I also discovered that most students can tell a good story when you make it "real" or authentic for them based on their life histories. At the end of the day, I work for my students and they are my customers and my extended family, so I am going to nuture them through things like spelling issues, slang and structure issues in time. Since this was an introductory course, I was most interested in getting them to critically think and provide cogent analysis in writing. This is the foundation for the writing, and commucation in general, because once a students discovers her voice or his voice, she or he is free and the scholarship will follow!

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