John and Jill: Some New Perspectives.

Over the last few days I've been searching around trying to find some other blogs that relate to what I consistently write about. (creativity, piracy, and intellectual property if you hadn't picked that up already)   I came across two blogs John Palfrey and jill/txt which deal with the issue of on campus internet usage by students.  Although they are not about exactly the same thing, they can still be compared quite nicely.

I'd like to start off by saying that both authors are educated and teach at the collegiate level.  Both do research in their fields and attend regular conferences and summits regarding their area of expertise.  In many ways they are similar, and thus, so are they're blogs in some respects.

John's blog, Laptop and Filtering Policies for Classrooms, is centered around the idea of what the rules or policies in schools of both higher and secondary learning should be regarding students and laptops in class.  He did an exercise with his class (which consisted of teachers and professors) where they split up into groups and discuss whether there should be  policy or not and who should control that policy.  John doesn't explicitly give his opinion.  Rather, he appeals to the logos of his readers and presents what the class groups came up with, letting the readers decide for themselves what they think.  His blog is run much like his classroom it seems, where he gives a little insight as to what the assignment is and then leaves it up to the class (and readers) reach their own conclusions.


Jill discusses her plans for a discussion/class assignment for her students where they will examine the  Norwegian policies of privacy for college students using the university wifi network.  She doesn't really go in depth as to the policies that are currently in place, but does post a few links to information and articles discussing the policies.  This is, in a way like John, where she posts the information and lets the reader/students do with it what they may.  She does briefly touch on he main point of the policy which bans universities from keeping identifying information about what students are doing on the internet at school, even if the students are downloading illegal files.  She, like John, gives the facts (using logos) and doesn't directly give her opinion, but instead, asks for feedback from her audience.  


These two blogs also differ in writing style.  John is very formal almost like he's writing a report.  Whereas Jill is pretty casual in the way she talks about her ideas for the lesson and also how she asks for feedback from her readers.  I'd also like to point out that this difference in tone and presentation is noticeable even in the addresses of their blogs.  Jill uses the name jill/txt which is very casual and youthful, almost like a screen name and John uses his full name, which is formal and gives off a more mature, professional vibe.