My freshman blog project can be found here, though it’s nothing to write home about. It *is* a beginning, though, and I’m happy to have made that first step.
What’s worked:
- everyone has a blog
- everyone has finished the first assignment
- everyone has made comments on their peers’ blogs
- most have posted their second post (intro paragraph for that essay)
- I did see that some were looking at other student intro paragraphs to help them write that comparison essay
Why I feel it’s floundering:
- it’s not an organic part of the class (it feels like an awkward appendage)
- I need to have some kind of internet introduction to have everyone up to par
- I can’t find the time to make writing in the blog even a weekly thing right now
- this is a scapegoat, but IE 5.2/mac doesn’t make adding links to a blog entry easy (the “link” quicktag doesn’t appear in the admin screen)
- I haven’t seen anyone log into their blog to write an entry out of their own will, something I’d love to have happen
- writing a blog outside of my class hasn’t happened yet, either; all entries have only been written because they’ve done it in class
Next year, I:
- need to make sure everyone knows certain terms (URL, login screen, username, password, post, blog, link, etc.)
- should create an HTML primer (or just find one online) and run through that with my students (I wonder if I can work that in with the syntax unit, creating different colors for each of the words, so the labeling exercises are done with colors instead of writing “Pres. PP” or “RC” above the words; this could teach them how to link to things if I have a set of links for each word, phrase, or clause, it could teach them any of the other basic items they should know)
- will plan my time so that blogging becomes a bi-weekly thing *at least*; this will include
- booking computer lab time
- showing how to do things on the projector in the classroom
- allowing for some students to blog while others are writing an opener in a more traditional fashion (you know, paper and pen…)
- entering scores for completing the work quickly (something I have not done so far for the freshmen, though I do know that they all will get the points once I sit down to enter them)
- take class time to explain the assignment for the first several instead of just assuming that the post on my blog with an explanation of the assignment says it all (even though I spend hours and hours on the wording, assuring that it does, actually, say it all!)
- I’m sure more will come to me
My freshman blog project isn’t going as well as I want it to. I want blogging to just be a natural part of what we do. When I say, “write a blog for assignment #2 by Friday,” I want that to be enough instruction. Clearly, it isn’t.
I need to allow for more structured time on the computers, time for the students to work on the entries in class while I’m watching and there to help. Also, it’s structured time for them to complete that assignment. If I leave them to their own devices at this point, the things I want completed do not happen. Moving them into the computer lab is partially a psychological thing for them. It represents that what we are about to do is important and being in a lab specifically devoted to them completing that task ensures that it will be finished.
Having them post links to their two comments, respond to comments on their blog, and post the intro paragraph of the latest essay (allow with a paragraph of set up on what the assignment is and a paragraph debriefing how the went about completing the assignment) was too much for them. I went overboard with that. Instead, I should have a day where we go into the lab and just do the maintanance bit, clean up the extra comments, respond to what others say. Those finished early could always write an extra blog entry that doesn’t directly answer an assignment, but is more like practice of what to write in a blog or just a reflection on what they are doing in school.
My trouble is that I’m down to the wire. I didn’t plan my time very well (I spent far too long on the comparison essay and reading the fiction we did) and we have about 9 weeks in which to finish Romeo and Juliet AND To Kill A Mockingbird, two fairly heavy stories that freshmen traditionally have a hard time with, so I can’t skimp on the instruction there.
2 comments
2. Todd says:
Is it a safe assumption that “uni” means “university”? That’s where I can see WebCT coming in. Doesn’t WebCT have something like blogging built into its system? Even a message board can operate like a blog, in some respects. Do you have to go outside WebCT to get that function? To keep the amount of times students have to log in/out of things is a concern, so it all feels more like one fluid and cohesive process.
I’m thinking of tranforming the double-entry journals that my students have kept every year for the last 4 years into a blogging experience. Instead of writing in a spiral-bound notebook to be turned in every 2 weeks, they’ll write an entry in their blog and respond to another peer’s entry each week. I usually have the journals as a very narrowly defined writing space. Making it a blog will help me keep the writing possibilities wide open. I think it will also let the students feel a bit more free to write what they are thinking.
The trouble with all of this is that it’s just a matter of time until the powers that be at the district level shut down access to all of these tools. Your paper on using LiveJournal wouldn’t be viable in my district; the district firewall has blocked LiveJournal and MySpace, so no one can use either site on campus.
You mentioned literature students finding and learning that “blogging is a true creative outlet.” Let’s see if we get any closer to that goal this year. Keep me posted on how the year goes for you, what you do differently or similarly to last year, and how your paper comes along.
1. Michael Griffith says:
[9/10/2005 - 10:29 am]
All sounds very familiar. have been running blogs for a year with 3 uni groups (1st, 2nd and 3rd years). The first years are doing best because this is what they thought uni was all about… but 2nd and 3rd year is push push push all the way home… I am about to give a paper on the use of LiveJournal within the framework of WebCT…. why I think blogging adds a personalised dimension to Online Education Giants like WebCT…. why also I think that Literature students should learn/find that blogging is a true creative outlet…. will be trying it all again next year… thanks for your experience….
MG