“What is a blog miss?”
I am currently teaching a 12 Btech Applied Science class (who I had inherited after a lovely teacher had moved on with their career). Whose second assignment criteria was to create a blog based on the following:
Vocational context
“You are working as a volunteer for a national/international charity that provides support to people suffering the effects of armed conflicts, natural disasters, or epidemics. The charity runs long-term projects to tackle global health crises. Your role as a volunteer is to gather information regarding the causes and transmission of infectious diseases and the methods being used to combat the spread of these diseases to inform the charity’s publications, newsletters, and blogs. You will use your research to produce a range of public information materials to raise awareness of the charity’s work.”
The task involved.
- Produce a blog or newsletter evaluating the work of the national or international charity you are working for and the strategies they use in their efforts to control the spread of infectious diseases. Your blog or newsletter must evaluate the strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages of the methods used to limit the spread of one named disease.
- The charity intervenes in different ways depending on the type and severity of the disease outbreak. You must include an assessment of the various methods and interventions used to minimise the transmission and spread of infectious diseases. Vaccination programmes and their importance must be included in your assessment. Consider the implications of cost, compliance with prescribed treatment regimens, side effects of treatments and other factors that may influence outcomes. Present a conclusion about the effectiveness of the methods you have identified.
- To raise public awareness, you need to produce a leaflet explaining how infections can be transmitted through direct physical contact with an infected individual or animal and how disease is spread indirectly by vectors, contaminated food/water, air, contaminated surfaces, and droplet infection. For each mode of transmission explained, you must give an example of a named disease that can be spread via that method. Your leaflet could include photographic evidence taken from practical investigation into disease transmission.
As a complete class they did not meet the criteria for this assessment. I struggled to understand the reason behind why this was difficult to achieve as this being the start of the infection and response topic the content was not difficult in cognitive load or concepts.
This was not the issue. Although there was lack of detail and vague general descriptions for treatments and effectiveness of methods, and the general usual missing of content to reach the distinction criteria that often happens on that first submission. It was the actual presentation of the material.
They had no idea what a blog was. The concept of blogging was lost to them. How to write, how to layout, how to produce a stream of thought related to a concept and relate it to theory, ideas, and weave into the narrative the knowledge that was demanded to even reach the pass criteria.
I asked myself why was this a difficult task? So, upon that joyful moment of delivering the news that they had not met the criteria and a resubmission was due, the resounding response what, well when we were set this by the other teacher it wasn’t clear what a blog was. They had neither read nor been shown what a blog was.
At which point my question was ” How have you not read a blog?” “Do you not blog? or know anyone who blogs, follow anyone who produces a blog?”
The deathly silence that followed was mortifying.
I proceeded to pull up this blog, and lo and behold realised that I had not put keyboard to metaphorical paper since 2019. They were shocked to see that their mere science teacher had a voice and had produced no less than 57 blogs!
Now the question posed caused considerable conflict to me. Why do young people no longer blog?
Is this because social media has moved forward in the last 4 years that we are now in the era of the App! Those that have flourished such as Snap Chat, Be Real and Instagram, where a picture with a couple of words is now more expressive than sentences of joined up thought. Was it always the paradigm that a picture tells a thousand words? Or the Covid Crisis that stopped us from having anything meaning full to say, so the need to communicate those ideas and enter debate about them dried up, with the day-to-day mundanity of living on top of each other and the endless binging of streaming services while watching statistics rise, with the never-ending belief that the end will never come, prevented us committing anything to paper.
Hence, is it any wonder that the younger generation of our teenagers do not find the need to express themselves in the lengthy written prose to the world. When they can do it in a few words, in an instant for the world to see while receiving instant comments. likes and validation in return.
Now, I ponder how do we encourage the Art of Blogging to make a resurgence amongst the younger generation? Whom, I might have add, do have strong opinions that they are happy to express about the wider issues that face the world that they live in.
We know that young people have taken to the bigger stage. We have seen the likes of Greta Thunberg rise and encourage school age children to act, strike while she speaks to a global audience at the UN Climate Action Summit for climate change.
Greta Thunberg’s full speech to world leaders at UN Climate Action Summit
While in 2014, aged just 17, Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan became the Youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner – and the Youngest Nobel Prize laureate winner outright. for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. She herself, blogged for only 2 months in 2009 under a pseudonym, ‘Gul Makai’ (‘Cornflower’); however this resulted in her being shot in 2012 by fundamentalists nevertheless she did not give up her campaign to speak out for the rights of others.
Extract of a Diary of A Pakistan School Girl
Yet where are those strong and powerful voices of our up-and-coming go-getters who want to see and effect change? Is the fear of the cancel culture that is so rife in the media these days, that if you do put your ideas down for all to see that you will be vilified and ridiculed preventing them from trying? Subsequently is it easier to just make life look wonderful and colourful with a quick hashtag?
I believe there are bloggers out there that need to be encouraged. Perhaps now by the resubmission of their assignment some of these creative juices may have been ignited in these Year 12’s and a long-held desire maybe to experiment and write something more than four words over an image can and will bring back the ART OF BLOGGING!
stilllearning 