teaching digital composition with blogs
TRANSCRIPT
Teaching Digital Composition with Blogs
Krista KennedyDept. of Writing Studies
Why teach with blogs?
How does all this improve student writing?
Why should you go to all this trouble?
The Lofty Pursuit of
Multimodal Literacy
Network Literacy
Network literacy is “writing in a distributed, collaborative environment. Weblogs are the first native web genre. Serial, unstable, networked...”
“Bringing network literacy to the classroom means jolting students out of the conventional individualistic, closed writing of essays only ever seen by their professor.”
From Jill Walker's talk at Brown,
http://huminf.uib.no/~jill/archives/blog_theorising talk_at_brown.html
The blog is your playground.
Web 2.0 is your erector set.
Both are tools to teach them to compose...
and share what they make.
• Sparklit
• Flickr
• Second Life
• Meez (avatars)
• Comic Life
• Tabblo
• YouTube
• Odeo (podcasting)
The podosphere blues
Also...
college is about the public exchange of ideas.
Blogs are a space to write in public.
Public Writing =
Public Responsibility
Public Writing =
Real Participation in the Network
In order to accomplish all that...
You have to know exactly what you want.
Class news? Individual reflective journal? Responses to assigned reading? Building a learning community? Filter for media coverage of course topics? Building network literacy? Engaging the larger blogosphere? Portfolio for all writing done in the course?
How will goals drive your superstructure?
1. How many blogs?
Individual blog by instructor Individual student blogsSmall group blogsClass blog
Instructor Blog
• Alternative Course Management System• Class announcements
• Lecture notes
• Syllabi, policies
(Take note: This can be an excellent CV peripheral for you.)
Problems
Preserves traditional classroom hierarchy
Monologic
Individual Blogs• Promotes ownership of work• Encourages reflection
• Unconstrained by community norms
• Demands some technological responsibility
Problems
Makes community more difficult
Demands a certain sort of personality
Requires more time for assessment
Small Group Blogs
Encourage collaborative reflection Are conducive to peer review
Are a good communication tool for group projects
Problems
Usual collaboration issues
Overfamiliarity
Sometimes better served by a wiki
Often better served by a wiki
The Class Blog
Greater sense of community
Promotes ongoing discussion
Frequent post turnover
More conducive to comments
Easier assessment
Nearly automatic tech support
Problems
Individual voices can be subsumed
Lack of individual ownership
Universal Issue:
Forced Blogging
1. Building community is never a waste of time.
2. You must model the behavior you want to see.
2a. You must be a functional part of the community.
3. Provide clear motivation.
4. Offer prompts.
5. Offer incentives.
5. Bring the blog into the classroom.
6. Force options. Be dangerous.
Sirc, Geoff. English Composition as a Happening. Utah State UP, 2002.
Instructor responsibilities
People will find your blog.
Search engines Blog indexes
Uthink “Recently Updated Blogs” listing
Technorati
Blo.gs, weblogs.com
Referral logs
Links, trackbacks
Personal referrals IRL
FERPA compliance
Remind students of privacy issues
Use pseudonyms
Approve comments
Assessment
Provide specific criteria and rubrics in the syllabus.