I know you are looking forward to Blogging Palooza on January 6th, right? To get us into the blogging mood let’s read Integrating, Evaluating, and Managing Blogging in the Classroom and ponder some issues you would like to discuss after reading the article. Please leave your comments, questions, and observations below by clicking “Leave a comment” link. See you on Friday, January 6th!
I enjoyed reading the brief article because it got me thinking about how I might use blogs in my upcoming classes.
I thought the article tallied well with my first experience, as did the “thoughts from a first time blogger” article she tagged in her post. I guess my question would be about ways to make the course blog a more dynamic space, especially since I am seeing it as a potential replacement for a research assignment in my course. So any suggestions would be appreciated.
It was helpful to be provided with this article and its imbedded link to another one prior to our meeting. I am looking forward to discovering how to best utilize blogging for some of my courses.
I’ve used blogs before in class and thought the article hit on some of the main mistakes/concerns I had with my first attempt. Those included a lack of student buy-in and the issue many students have in understanding what is a quality comment/response. I am interested to see how I can expand my horizons & come up with unique course-related projects. I also want to ensure I am not doing more work than the students in supporting these assignments…this has been my folly in the past.
I thought the comment about incorporating parts of the blog discussion into live classroom discussion was a potentially helpful one. If the digital blog conversation is totally separated from the live classroom it seems there would be a much greater chance of the blog being “forgotten” as the author mentioned or considered irrelevant by the students.
I also found the discussion of grading blogging content interesting as it raised questions of the purpose of the blog. Should it be an informal conversational space? A formal polished presentation space? Perhaps either in different contexts? I’d be interested in hearing the groups opinions on that one.