Blogging Pedagogy

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).

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

Here (Lectures on tape) is a piece about the scary possible repercussions of having lectures recorded. Is it now necessary to teach as if your every word might be broadcast?

“Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing” is a new project to compile a free Creative Commons rhetoric and composition textbook meant for undergraduates. They are calling for chapter proposals (Writing Spaces) to be submitted by April 10th. If anybody is looking for a publication, this might be a good opportunity.

Here are some more musings about the complex relationships between professors, students, and the internet in college classrooms.

Michael Wesch has an essay on Academic Commons examining the effects of what he calls the social revolution of Web 2.0 on teaching and how to restructure the college classroom to respond effectively. He criticizes the model of the professor as the source of knowledge and education as the pursuit of knowledge. Instead, he champions a greater focus on analysis and discussion. I am skeptical regarding the novelty of his ideas - has the changing internet really led to revolutionary calls to end "regurgitative" education?

The Atlantic last month had two articles that I used in my 306 class. The first is called “The End of White America” by Hua Hsu and the second is called “American Girl: Michelle Obama” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Both articles speak to the changing racial make-up of America, with President Obama’s election serving as a convenient occasion for reflection.

Our first interview on the fall CWRL assignments is with Jim Brown. His assignment can be found here. Jim’s “Mapping Home” assignment asks students to use Google maps to create a map of important landmarks in their lives.

Q: How would you use this assignment for The Blind Side?

A: I think a version of this mapping assignment could be used to talk
about the geography of Memphis. Students could build their own map of

If you use your class website a lot, you might wan to take a look at the Topoi page that Mark Marino has put together for the USC writing program (www.pageflakes.com/markcmarino) This page is full of interactive tools for pre-writing. The widgets are meant to be copied and used on your own site to help your students. Here is Marino's post discussing the Topoi page: http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2008/08/23/widget-based-education/

The Topoi - www.pageflakes.com/markcmarino
Writer Response Theory (Marino's blog)- http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/