I think there are reasons blogs *can* be progressive (leaving aside any grand "progress" narratives). In their most innocuous application, they merely provide a way for students to hand in work electronically -- i.e., as a replacement for email. But when they incorporate some of the values often found among bloggers, I think they can lead to progressive uses: 1. They allow a person to orient her own learning and better set the agenda of that learning, rather than centering it on the prof, the class-time, or the class-place. 2. They make the university and academic communication among faculty, students, and the public more transparent, potentially drawing in a more diverse set of opinions, experiences, and objectives. 3. They encourage not only engagement in the university by a wider community, but engagement in the community by students. When students recognize their work is serving more than just the professor (including their peers and others), they take a more active role in participating in those wider groups. Sure, these ideals are not always (or even often) actualized, but blogs at least invite the possibility. Alex -- // // Alexander Halavais // Graduate Director of Informatics // University at Buffalo School of Informatics // http://alex.halavais.net //