One of the things I noticed at this year’s faculty academy was number of thoughtful questions about blogging as pedagogy that came up. Here is a list of the ones I remember:
* How can we catalyze the process of blogging in our courses? Are there ways to jumpstart the process? (Sue)
* How can we structure the use of blogs in a course-context so that students genuinely engage with blogging?
* How can we engage more than just the vocal few in blogging substantively? (Barbara).
* How can we produce ownership in a class blog? (Laura)
* How can we get students to link reflectively with other students’ posts?
* How do we get students to comment on each others’ blogs in substantive ways?
*How can an instructor fairly evaluate blog posts?
*How can a teacher create a design for the class blog to support the intent of the course? (Barbara)
Anyone care to postulate answers?
Published on
June 3, 2007 in
FA07.
Alan Levine’s keynote address provided a very intriguing introduction to a range of recent technologies, most of which I’d heard of but none of which I was really familiar with. His conception of the art of teaching as Mashup/remix/reinterpretation of existing material really struck a chord with me. Still, I have to agree with Laura that the best quote of the presentation was when Alan said “You can’t figure this stuff out from the outside.” Perhaps it’s my particular learning style, but more often than not my attention doesn’t get captured by hearing or reading about some new tech tool. I have to see it in action.
Gardner had tried to talk me into trying twitter, but it was only when I saw the tweets (i.e. twitter posts) popping up on Alan’s screen during the presentation that I decided I had to give it a try.
What is twitter, you ask? It’s been described as micro-blogging, participating in a sort of on-line conversation with a network of friends where the posts are limited to 140 characters. The basic protocol is to briefly describe what you’re doing. As I write this, lblanken just tweeted, “playing with splashr,” and shauser said, “Just watched the history mashup [that Jim had referred to earlier in the twitterstream]. Not only did I laugh but, I learned stuff too haha.”
Twitter requires much less effort than blogging. If blogging is informal writing, twitter is informal thinking. The beauty of it for me is that following the twitterstream it’s possible to feel connected with your colleagues, even with a minimum of attention. It’s oddly compelling.
It’s also proven to be a great way to maintain the rush I felt from the Faculty Academy.
A couple of students, Joe and Shannon, attended this year’s Faculty Academy, and generally hung out with the DTLT ‘Team’ and our outside speakers.
Yesterday I heard that Joe was taking a course this summer with Angela, one of the faculty members of the team. It reminded me of something I’ve noticed over time. For about ten years, I have taken a group of students to present their research at a regional economics conference. That experience seems to change the dynamics of the subsequent student-teacher relationship.
The change begins when students commit to attending the conference. To be eligible, they submit a research paper. However ‘complete’ their research papers, we always revise them during the Spring semester prior to the conference. This work is done neither for grade nor credit, simply because it’s what is necessary to make the paper conference-ready. It seems to me that during this process, I become more a mentor than a (traditional) teacher. The relationship seems more collegial than hierarchical.
The conference is a tremendous experience in which we get to know each other far deeper than is typical with students and teachers. Part of this is spending several intense days together. But I think an important part is when students see the teacher acting as a professional in his or her field, and when the students are accepted as similar albeit journeyman professionals.
What is particularly interesting is to see the extent to which the changed relationship persists when we return from the conference Some of the students are in my courses–or they take one next semester. In those classes, the students seem less concerned by grades and more interested in learning. They seem to relate to me as a helpful expert, less as the person responsible for their grade.
Has anyone else had this experience with students? If so, how might we build this into our courses more generally?
Published on
May 17, 2007 in
FA07.
Very intriguing introduction to a range of recent technologies, most of which I’d heard of but none of which I’m really familiar with. The best quote of the presentation (Thanks, Laura.) was:
Alan: You can’t figure this stuff out from the outside.
Gardner has tried to talk me into trying twitter, but it was only when I saw the posts popping up on the screen during the presentation that I felt compelled to give it a try, and in fact I signed up before the session was over.
Alan reiterated a point he made yesterday, that teaching is (or can be) a type of mashup or remix when we provide our interpretation of existing material.
One quibble: I didn’t take enough notes, so I’d love to see a list of the links he used in his presentation.
Published on
May 16, 2007 in
FA07.
* How can we catalyze the process of blogging in our courses? Are there ways to jumpstart the process?
* How can we structure the use of blogs in a course-context so that students genuinely engage with blogging?
* How does an instructor fairly evaluate blog posts?
* How do we get students to comment on each others’ blogs in substantive ways?
* How can we get reluctant students to participate in blogging?
* How do we produce ownership in a class blog?
Published on
May 16, 2007 in
FA07.
How do we link all the FA blog posts on a given session, e.g. Barbara Ganley’s. Shouldn’t there be a way to look at all of the posts on Session 1 without scrolling thru all the posts for all the sessions?
Published on
May 16, 2007 in
FA07.
Steve Greenlaw
Barbara Ganley’s Argument for Blogging as an Intrinsic Element in Liberal Education
“Slow Blogging” – writing to learn in the blog medium. Drawing connections between things in one’s classes, things in one’s life, things in the world.
Blogging as a way to break down the walls between different courses.
Combining the formal and the informal, the personal and the scholarly.
“Slow blogging is both pleasurable and perilous.”
“Students don’t see their posts as messages in a bottle–they’re writing to real people.”
“We will shape the course as it shapes us.â€
Superb address, I can’t possibly do it justice here. You’ll just have to wait until the recorded versions are available.
Published on
May 16, 2007 in
FA07.
Steve Greenlaw
Opening Session: Panel Discussion by the IT Fellows
I had heard the final presentations of this year’s IT Fellows, so I was familiar with much of what the panel presented today. I’d love to hear what others think about it though.
For me, the most interesting discussion came near the end when the participants responded to a question about assessment of their projects.
What I didn’t hear and think would be fascinating for a venue like the ELI would be the backstory to the first year of the IT Fellows Program–How did the program work? How did the community of IT Fellows develop. What went well? What went less well? What surprises were there? I wonder how the Program per se will be assessed. This is, of course, a bigger issue than assessing the individual projects. My take on this program was that it was an attempt to try a novel way to interest new faculty in incorporating instructional technology into their teaching. My sense, as an outsider, was that this worked very well, at least for a the first cohort of fellows.
Published on
May 15, 2007 in
FA07.
Steve Greenlaw
One more day until the Faculty Academy. If this post seems a little shallow, it might be because it’s a test of the FA broadcasting system. More soon!
Recent Comments