Emerging Technologies Consulting

Julie Meloni, a longtime blog friend of mine, writes a post at my new favorite blog, Prof. Hacker, on integrating blogging into a course.  She offers great advice, with links to even more help, including examples of assignments and evaluation strategies.  Some people have assumed that using blogs is like making digital versions of short paper assignments.  It’s usually not.  And using a blog for that can be overkill.  I’ve mostly used blogs as a form of online class discussion, with the expectation that the discussions will be slightly more thoughtful (because students have had time to think) than what happens in the short amount of time in the classroom.  I look for interaction among the students and encourage that kind of interaction by counting comments in my evaluation.  Basically, what tends to happen is that some students quite readily come up with original content and enjoy posting it.  Others either have difficulty coming up with the ideas or have the ideas but are reluctant to post it.  These students often end up commenting on other students’ posts, often adding quite significantly to the discussion.  Just as in the blog world, there are more readers than writers, it’s okay to let this happen in a class blog too.  Because I see the blog as helping to build a class community, I’ve always opted for a group blog.  It’s easier as a teacher to keep up with.  I simply follow the feed and read material that’s interesting.  I tell my students that as well, so they know that they’re trying to attract my attention.

One thing Julie didn’t mention was the issue of making the blog public vs. private.  I have always made the blog public.  In fact, the first time I taught the course, the goal was to gain a readership for the blog.  The students got very creative about this and put posters around campus with the link, included the link in their IM away messages and email signatures.  We also encouraged them to read and link to other blogs and even to comment on them.  In other words, we wanted them to appreciate how the blogosphere really worked.  I think it’s important for students to feel like they’re writing for an audience besides the professor or even their fellow students.  They are often more careful in their writing and try to make better, more evidence-based arguments.  I can imagine, however, some situations where you’d want a private blog.  Now that the blogosphere is so huge, though, unless your students are doing the kind of legwork mine did, the likelihood of your blog attracting much attention.

Blogging with my classes has really made them quite memorable for me and I hope for my students, and it was interesting enough to me that I wrote my dissertation on it.  My first blog class is archived here.  The only other class that remains online is this past spring’s Gender and Technology course, which was a great course to teach.  I’d definitely say to anyone that bloggins is something worth trying with your class.