Blogging Pedagogy

(reposted from sleeping alone and starting out early)

If we're going to think seriously about how to use blogs as tools for teaching and learning, it seems to me that it may be useful to differentiate between crafting a successful blogpost, developing a successful blog, and being a skilled blogger.

I'm hoping to crowdsource some brainstorming about the pedagogical potential of blogging on learning. Lately, in my work with Dan Hickey's 21st Century Assessment Project, I've been thinking tons about how integrating blogging in the writing classroom might build a rich new media learning environment that focuses on a wide range of literacy practices. I've started a provisional list below but am hoping that others (most importantly for me, people who have worked with blogs in their classrooms) can offer ideas for additions to this list.

As this will be my final blog before leaving UT, I thought I'd interview myself just so I could say good-bye. I have thoroughly benefited from reading through each lesson plan, and from each interview response -- I hope that these interviews have proved helpful to all of you as well. I especially hope that any new AI out there struggling through their first semester in 306 finds comfort and helpful ideas through these blogs -- I chose the plans to highlight, and the questions to ask, with you in mind.

Ty Alyea's lesson plan involves using discussion boards to facilitate classroom conversation. Ty takes on the challenges of discussion boards, and presents strategies to pull students away from simply answering a discussion question, and instead push them towards placing their ideas within the academic conversation established by the other posts. Read on for Ty's adventures in using this assignment.

Q. How did your students respond to the assignment?

This week's interviewee is Lena Khor, discussing her lesson plan that involves asking her students to "appeal to all the senses" by creating a multi-media argument pertaining to their chosen 306 controversy. It's a very creative addition to the usual 306 fare. Read on for her comments on student reactions to this assignment.

Q. How did your students respond to the assignment?

Liz's lesson plan covers 3 class periods, and takes students through the process of revision as a group. The lesson serves two purposes: First, it takes the students through a practice rhetorical analysis, allowing common mistakes to come to light and be discussed before the Unit II essay. And second, it demonstrates honing a paper through revision. In the end, the students produce a coherent sample paper as a group. Read on for Liz's comments on her experiences using this assignment.

This post (Technology Source) offers a ton of interesting ideas about what would constitute a better grammar checker and what sort of technology would help composition teachers better manage the huge amounts of student writing that they deal with. There are links to all the software mentioned - from NativeMinds to turnitin.com (although some of the links appear to be not functioning).

Layne's lesson plan focuses on helping students understand rhetorical appeals through use of political ads and charts. Assignment focused on the 2008 Elections, but could be easily adapted to current mayoral elections or any other political ad.

Q. How did your students respond to the assignment?

I’m going to show this (Rhetorica post) to my class as part of my description of their paper assignment for unit three. I like the clear description of the purpose of an open letter.

Check out Elaine Childs’s article in the Kairos Praxis Wiki about using Facebook to teach rhetoric: Elaine Childs