In a lecture room, the space is set out in such a way that the lecturer is in control. The seat's face the front, the lecturer can operate the equipment and the rooms are institutional, advising the students that it is time for serious work. The discourse of a lecture means that the lecturer decides on the topics of discussion.
By contrast, the blogs and forums are on a topic of our choice, and the hypertext and cyber dashboard can be personalised to give students a sense of individuality often lacking in a lecture room. The blogs are done over a week so that the student is put in control of their time management. In this sense, the blogs and forums seem to have little authority and the student is put in charge of their own learning.
Speech/Writing
Although grammer rules are not as strict on the blog, we tend to stick to them loosely, putting question marks after questions, and starting new paragraphs for our musings. In this sense, the blogs and forums have predominantly written features. In other ways, the forums tend to follow certain rules of conversation, the colloquialisms and the communicative nature, and it has been described as an "online conversation". I think that online media attempts to encapsulate the more convienient characteristics of both, and there are of course are features, such as the photographs, hyperlinks etc. that are only characteristics of 'new' media.
"I think that online media attempts to encapsulate the more convenient characteristics of both."
ReplyDeleteI would definitely agree with this. There is, I would say, a balancing act between proper grammar & structured writing and casual, conversation like writing.