I know it is going to be quite a controversial topic, especially because you are reading it on a blog. Also, I do not want to contradict myself writing this on a blog page. But , I think it is an excellent page to convey my message against blogging, given that it's aimed for catching your attention bloggers !!
It is well known that blogs are useful tool for communication; Also, they are good to express comments or state impressions about trending or catchy topics. Moreover, blogs are useful to create discussion among communities, and... what else?
Nothing else, because blogs just gather and recycle information which already exist. Moreover, 98 % of the blog's entries are taken from already existing sources. So, there is nothing new under the sun.
Apart from that, blogging is an awful tool for learning. And the question is simple: What can you learn about other people's comments or opinions? Not too much, bloggers are not considered to be trustworthy sources; because, they are not experts on what they state; also, neither the ones who agree or support their ideas can ensure blog as a valid source. Remember that bloggers just edit taken information their own way !
Just to conclude, most of blogs aren't even well written, bloggers may not be precise and accurate enough to express ideas efficiently. Also, they can even make silly grammar mistakes, so careful with what you read !!!
jajaj but you could say the same with facebook, twitter etc, -in terms of grammar-. In fact, people always critice me for my writing style, and I just say: hey! it doesn't mean anything to me, facebook is an informal mean of communication, at least for me.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I agree with you in the fact that blogs are just copy and paste information, but the thing is that you can promote discussion. Perhaps the same happens with twitter, nowadays everybody give their opinion through these webpages, because is the only way we can do it. We are able to "raise" our voice in this way, since we don't have other option; we don't owned a tv station, we aren't politics to say what we want out loud, because we are just common people.
I disagree with you. Well, I know that the information provided for each entry is taken from pre-existing webpages; however, all these entries have a question where we, as readers, should contribute with our opinion. I consider blogs very useful, because we can discuss what we haven't had the chance to comment, talk, and debate. We are supposed to develope our critical thinking, so how are we going to do it if we don't practice it? How are we going to think beyond reality? Besides, doing this we can analize our world, actions, events, people, etc. And that's good! As Dominique said, "we are able to raise our voice." We have to be thinkers; we have to questions things. At least for me, that is important for our society, to built a better society in every aspect.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you in this one, Osvaldo. I think blogs are a very good, interesting tool for learning. We can learn from other's opinion; for instance, learn how to tolerate and take into account other's opinions. Plus, since we are english language learners and future english teachers, we can absolutely learn from other classmates' mistakes, such as grammar, coherence and cohesion mistakes, and not only by their mistakes, also by the way they express their ideas, the vocabulary and grammar structure they use. We must develop our critical thinking, otherwise everyone will have the same opinion, and if we are not able to do this in class, this is a good space to practice.
ReplyDeleteBesides, I don't think it is just a "copy-paste" thing. It requires a cognitive process known as "paraphrasing", and it is not an easy thing if we want to do it accurately.
haha I can't agree or disagree with you on this one. I just want to tell you how great it is to use a blog to express your opinion! And saying that blogs use "recycle information" is a very interesting point of view. But! I think you may have made a mistake when questioning what can we learn from other people's ideas or comments; there is so much to learn! Reading or listening different ideas help you to strengthen or change (for good) your own! Maybe blogs are not 100% trustworthy when you want objective information, but they're useful as a tool for exchanging thoughts and comments.
ReplyDeleteSorry my friend, but I don´t agree with you this time. I think we can learn a lot from blogs. Indeed, we are using them to practice our argumentation, do you remember? that´s the reason why we are using it. Besides, thanks to blogs we can learn lots of vocabulary, new information that we can share in a conversations, and some other facts that we can use in a debate for example.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I would say that blogs are so useful that you should use them to teach your students when you become a teacher. For example, my mentor teacher (from the school where I´m doing my practice) uses blogs to practice writing with their students and he says that blogs are a very good way to motivate students to write, because some students love to receive questions and replyes. Anyway, congrats for your entry, you have 5 replyes so far, and I guess that was one of your aims xD
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ReplyDeleteI do agree with you when saying that this is a controversial topic to talk about. Unfortunately, I also have to say that I am not completely sure this is the best place to judge this type of social network, because we are using it right now, to expand on a topic and give our opinion about it. It is kind of offensive trying to classify this webpage as useless for our learning. Maybe in general, people are allowed to express whatever they want ,but particularly now, we are encouraged to participate in this social community to improve our argumentation skills, not only for a grade, but also to be better professionals in the near future; with a solid opinion and serious at the same time.
ReplyDeleteApart from that, today we have the opportunity to change the way people used to write on these walls, why not pushing ourselves, to increase our abilities, if we are writing here; and now for a quite significant reason.
Please, do not take it personal, it is just something I think about this topic. Therefore, I do believe it is very clever the fact you chose it. You have got a good number of replies, so you achieved your goal.