Worth Weller on his use of blogs

Here's a link to Worth's April 1 presentation on using blogs in his
writing class. Gail

Fwd: [POD] Blog Rubrics

This writer, again to the POD listserv, puts forward a rubric for one
educational use of a blog. Don't forget to take a look at Worth's
description below (post dated February 27) of how he uses a blog in his
writing classes. Gail

Kurtis Scaletta kurtis@umn.edu> 05/10/05 11:28 AM >>>
Enough people have responded that I'll try sending this to the group.

As I feared, attachments don't work with the listserv, and my message
was rejected. You can get the file here:

http://dmc.umn.edu/kurtis/pod/blog_rubrics.doc.

One person asked to share them, "especially if they're good." I
hesitate to make that claim, but hopefully these can generate discussion, and your feedback would help me improve them. :-)

A word or two about the assignments that accompany these rubrics: the
two most common forms of blog are (to use the labels made popular in
blogging circles by Rebecca Blood) "filters" (the annotated links that comprised
the first blogs) and "notebooks" (the internet diaries that have overtaken
the form). I see both of these as having educational value, so I've got an
example of each, the "webliography" and the reflective learning
journal. In each case, the assignments show unstructured vs. structured
assignments, and give context to the rubric that follows. I've generally suggested that the less structured assignments are likely to fail, particularly with
undergraduates, but this may have more to do with how well the students are
prepared for the assignment than how the assignment is described. For
example, a filter-style blog would require students to know how to do
critical reading of the media, and class time could be given to developing
that skill -- just telling them to be critical won't help. Also, with
the notebook style blogs I tend to waffle a bit because of the tension
between giving students a personal writing space and then imposing rules on it
(this is a quandary for which I have no answer but it's one I find interesting and worth debating).

Now, about the rubrics. I've tried to keep the rubrics fairly general.
The descriptions are especially general, and could be bolstered with
specific content to each assignment. I think the dimensions of the rubric
(research, engagement, participation, writing) are the right ones to assess, but
how those are operationalized is debatable. By the way, the ordering of these
are no accident -- I consider research to be the most important aspect
of the "filter" style blog, and "engagement" to be the most important
aspect of the "notebook" style blog. In the latter case, I want the interactions
and connections to be stressed so that the difference between blogs and
private journals are explicit.

I look forward to your feedback.

Best,

- Kurtis
--
Kurtis Scaletta
Digital Media Center
University of Minnesota
212 Walter Library
(612) 624-1323
http://dmc.umn.edu
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~kurtis

Fwd: [POD] Educational Blogging: The Time is Now

Here's a post on Educational blogging from the Professional Organization
Developers listserv from last May. I thought it would be of interest to
those of you whose interest was piqued by Alan November's visit October
10 in honor of the Division of Continuing Studies 30th anniversary.
Gail

Ronald.Ayers@UTSA.EDU> 05/05/05 2:02 AMTo all,
Recently, there has been an explosion of interest in blogging,
including educational blogging. Having joined the blogosphere myself,
permit me to briefly discuss the significance to the teaching and
learning community of this high level of interest .
First, the number of Americans who read at least one blog each day has
risen rapidly in recent months to about one-third of the population.
There are 9 million people who author blogs and that number is
increasing rapidly, too. Corporate CEOs are blogging (GM's Fastlane
Blog, for example) and so are college and university administrators,
students, and faculty. For example, seven freshmen students at Clemson
University are blogging right on the school's homepage. There are
several companies that provide free blog creation tools and hosting, so
it's easy to start blogging. RSS Aggregators are making it much easier
for readers to keep up with their favorite blogs and other web sites.
As a blogger, I can tell you that blogging has sharpened my writing
skills, clarified my thinking about issues, improved my research
capabilities, and brought significant improvements to my teaching. To
put the last point in perspective, I had already won me three teaching
awards. During the course of creating my three blogs I have learned more
by blogging than from any other single activity I have undertaken in my
entire career. One downside is that blogging can be extremely time
consuming. A second downside is that when a blogger allows anonymous
comments, as I do, the criticism can be difficult to take. Bloggers need
a thick skin. In short, authoring a blog is not for everyone.
Socrates Technological University (http://socratestech.blogspot.com),
my original blog, covers my thoughts and discoveries on a spectrum of
issues in teaching and learning using technology. There are numerous
links to teaching and learning innovations, ideas, articles, and
resources, with more added daily. Some posts are quick takes on an
issue. Many others are longer and/or multipart (see the multipart
discussion of creating fractal depth in online groups, for example).
I've recently begun to bestow a Blue Ribbon Award to teaching and
learning centers that provide especially useful resources to
instructors. Log in to Socrates Tech and see if your center has won an
award. If not, and you think you deserve one, then nominate your center
by emailing me. This summer I will also begin to post occasional items
written in newsletter style (rather than the more informal blog style),
that include references to the literature. When I directed my
university's center, I was always looking for stories for our monthly
newsletter, so I hope these postings will be picked up by the teaching
and learning community and included in center newsletters and/or web
sites. A teaching and learning center can use any item taken from any of
the blogs I've created, so long as attribution is given to the source.
The Royal Economics Academy (http://economicsacademy.blogspot.com) is a
blog about effective economics instruction. The postings are a mix of
items that provide insights into improving teaching in general and items
that target the teaching of economics specifically. I am also bestowing
an Award of Excellence to departments of economics that provide links to
valuable teaching tools.
Both the Royal Academy and Socrates Tech provide links to Teaching and
Learning Centers. If you would like your center linked on either blog,
just send me an email and I'll have it done in the next day or two.
Reciprocating by linking my blogs on your center's links page would be
appreciated. New centers are being added to my pages almost every day. I
also have linked a number of educational blogs that faculty might find
useful. For example, I have a link to the Becker-Posner blog, which is
authored by a Nobel-prize winning professor from the University of
Chicago, and a link to the Freakonomics blog, authored by a young
economist who is touted as a future Nobel winner (the book,
Freakonomics, is #3 on Amazon.com). Again, I am adding additional links
to blogs created by highly regarded educators almost every day. Any blog
about teaching or any serious faculty blog on any subject is eligible
for inclusion. One of the side benefits of blogging is that I have been
able to hold interesting, informative email discussions about my
postings with some of the most honored educators in the world. If I had
not started blogging, this intellectual stimulation would not be
possible. I will also be featuring guest bloggers from time to time on
all of my blogs. Educators who post insight comments to my postings
deserve the opportunity to post a guest blog, if they would like to do
so.
EconOpinion (http://econopinion.blogspot.com) is a commentary on
everyday economic life. The postings are grounded in my 25 years of
experience as an economist and as a textbook author. They are written to
engage the interest of non-economists. For example, one of my recent
postings is about the dismal level of economic literacy in America. Two
earlier posts focused on the effort to keep horses from being killed in
the movies.
I typically visit 300 to 400 teaching and learning center web sites
every year in the course of my research. I have not seen on center
schedules a workshop teaching the faculty how to blog nor have I
observed links to educational blogs. I would like to see faculty members
learn more about blogging. A Google search for the term educational
blogs resulted in 3,800,000 hits. The number of hits is a strong
indicator of the level of interest in educational blogging. However, I
estimate there are probably fewer than 1,000 actual blogs useful to
readers in higher education. Yet the blogs that are active garner a lot
of attention. For example, a colleague saw a link to my blog on
insidsidehighered.com and became a regular reader. Student blogging to
enhance learning is another subject. If you would like to know more
about blogging, either by faculty or by students, I have many additional
thoughts. What are yours?
Ron
Ronald M. Ayers, Your Partner In Teaching Excellence

Creator of EconoOpinion <http://econopinion.blogspot.com> The Royal Economics Academy <http://economicsacademy.blogspot.com> Socrates Technological University <http://socratestech.blogspot.com>