Transcript About Blogs
More Blogs Last meeting □ We talked about: □ What blogs are □ A few class uses □ Some available blog tools □ Finding and reading blogs and how to tell if they are worth your time Getting Started with Blogs □ Get ideas for your class – browse the web for syllabi that incorporate blogs □ Consider introducing guidelines for Blog Netiquette http://blogs.writingproject.org/blogwrite138/stories/storyReader$420 □ And Cake Eater Chronicles – Blog Netiquette (just because it’s entertaining : - ) http://cakeeaterchronicles.mu.nu/archives/075109.php Getting Started with Blogs Oh, by the way, □ You need blogging software □ On-campus or internet hosted □ If internet-hosted, will you tell your students what Blogging site to use or will they find their own as a first activity? An Example □ Communication and Consciousness Course http://calvin.linfield.edu/~jmiller/255syllabus.htm □ “Communication and Consciousness Blog: For this assignment, you will be asked to go to “www.blogger.com” to set up a personal blog for this class…” Getting Started with Blogs □ Think about how you will have your students make the link to their blog available to you and their classmates □ Tip: take the time to make all student blogs available through YOUR blog Examples: http://www.therockblog.com/ http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec296/blogs/index.html Ideas □ 100 Best First Lines from Novels http://namckeand.blogspot.com/2006/02/some-ideas-for-writing.html □ Blogs for philosophical debate □ “The blog medium softens students’ resistance to using the philosophical “I” in their writing…the ease of using “I” -- and meaning it - makes students more confident that they are capable of having their own views.” http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/blogs-philosophy □ Political Analysis http://www.unc.edu/~dlupton/english11/2004/08/unit-two-assignment-public-issues.html □ Blog Review Assignment http://huminf.uib.no/~jill/archives/blogs_and_teaching/blog_review_assignment.html □ “As I introduced the blogs, I told them that part of the power of having their own blog was that it could help them share the things they care about, and it could connect them with other people with the same interests.” Random Thoughts http://namckeand.blogspot.com/2006/02/helping-student-bloggers-get-it.html Tips □ The “build it and they will come” approach usually doesn’t work – really. □ Grade on: frequency, subject matter, and content □ Have students support their thoughts and opinions with links to external web resources □ Finally, have your students not only write blogs, but find, read and even link to blogs maintained by experts in the field and to their classmates Encourage Blog Activity □ □ Use class discussion to start students “thinking”, then have them reflect further and post their thoughts. Integrate key thoughts and excerpts from student posts into the next class From “USING THE BLOG TO EXTEND THE CLASSROOM” http://www.emerson.edu/itg/tools/upload/itg_Blogs_Extending_the_Classroom.pdf Assessing □ Weblog Criteria Rubric http://members.tripod.com/the_english_dept/crit2.html □ Blogging Rubric http://www.mchron.net/site/edublog_comments.php?id=P3346_0_13_0 □ Assessing Student Weblogs (More quantitative) http://www.emerson.edu/itg/tools/upload/itg_Blogs_Assessing_Student_Weblogs.pdf □ Student Examples □ http://community.uwsp.edu/blogs/fort una_jason/default.aspx □ http://community.uwsp.edu/blogs/ge esey_emily/default.aspx □ http://community.uwsp.edu/blogs/mu ch_heidi/default.aspx