The Fragmentation Blog: Applying Constructionism to the Teaching of Literature

Using Internet facilities to integrate constructionist activities in the English Literature syllabus makes the learning experience more effective in several ways. These activities entail a high degree of involvement of all students throughout the project, a heightened quality of the groups’ work and achievement, and a wide-range and long-lasting learning effect on all participants. The Fragmentation Blog is an instance of such effectiveness. Teachers guided a mixed-ability class of students in their last year of high school towards the production of a class blog on the theme of “fragmentation” in modern and contemporary English literature. The multi-disciplinary activity, making students co-operate in small groups to give a personal interpretation of their studies and to present their work outside the classroom, corresponds to Papert’s principles of constructionism, and has the features recommended by Herrington, Oliver and Reeves about “authentic learning”. The overall outcome was positively surprising and is encouraging enough to pursue the continuation and expansion of this kind of teaching practice.