Comments on: 4Cs: Evaluating Academic Weblogs

By: Brad Blackstone

Brad Blackstone — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:35:06 +0000

For an overview of ESL/EFL student attitudes toward blogging in university writing course, see the following article*

http://nus.edu/celc/publications/RETL62/01to20blackstone.pdf

By: Committed To Effective Communication

Committed To Effective Communication — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:13:19 +0000

Reading Cues From Eye Movement: Building Rapport for Effective Communication…

Effective communication is achieved when all parties involved are satisfied in achieving their objectives from the conversation….

By: vitia » Blog Archive » In the Clickstream, Part 2

vitia » Blog Archive » In the Clickstream, Part 2 — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:23:54 +0000

[...] (To be continued) Acknowledgments: The ideas about what database composition might look like are directly derived from the stuff Derek Mueller’s been working on and talking about for a long time before I came to them, and of course the idea of deploying strackbacks and spingbacks — secure trackbacks, secure pingbacks — in student writing come from Derek’s amazing CCCC presentation a couple years back. [...]

By: joanna

joanna — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 04:28:30 +0000

Well, not exactly, Mike. I think internalizing is a GOOD thing–but that it going to happen with the instructor’s familiarity and comfort with blogging. To be honest, as much as I’d like to have a much more clearly articulated pedagogical blue print for using blogs this semester, I know that some of it is going to be “seat of the pants” pedagogy, which I need to go through in order to understand and then question what I’m doing. Internalizing means understanding to me–and I tend to be the kind of thinker/teacher/computer nerd who has to try it out first to “get” it. The clearer and more experienced I become, the sharper and more critical my approach becomes. But yes, there are those who jump in without thinking and then can’t figure out why it isn’t working. And, since we’re all relatively new at this, we’re also discovering the “train wrecks” along with the successes.

The “train wreck” experience is one that I try to avoid at all costs, so I am going to have one class blog and see how commenting about a common reading with each other, the author (I hope), me and anyone else who want to drop in, goes. My pedagogical goals are two: to provide developmental readers who meet as a class for just 2 and a half hours a week the space/place to extend their thinking and discussion of what we’re reading; and to give students who may be used to filling out worksheets more demanding tasks (well, I”m already doing that)and a taste of this kind of communication format.
You can imagine that it is going to be very basic and that there may be some shy people in the mix. I may have them work as groups and do group posts if I find that their nervousness is inhibiting their contributions. But beyond that (and my vow to “give points” for posting), I’m going to relax and see what happens. In a few weeks, I’ll decide how I want the experience to end, but I need to see what happens first.

By: Dennis G. Jerz

Dennis G. Jerz — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 04:05:05 +0000

An academic conference is a form of publication, and I think you ought to feel free to offer your opinions on your blog.

I was very happy with the talks given by those on the panel, and I’m glad you found my presentation useful.

I like Joanna’s observation that we haven’t found the “AHA!” point yet, but I’d adjust that observation to suggest that we’re at the “I know it when I see it” stage, but we still haven’t systemized how to get students there, how to get them to appreciate the power that we can percieve, and that the 5% of SHU bloggers obviously perceives in blogging. We’ll get there.

And yes, Mike, the “bloginators” who put a lot of effort into their blogs and who therefore smile and nod while they and the other committed bloggers summarize for the benefit of the rest of the class what they just blogged about the night before can lead to some uncomfortable class dynamics. Blogs can be a great tool to integrate class discussions with out-of-class experience, but for a disinterested or struggling student, blogs can be just one more way to feel alienated from the intellectual environment. I’m not sure what to do at this point, but it’s good to see more people thinking along the lines of, “Okay, so we’ve got blogs. Now what?”

By: Daisy

Daisy — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 19:44:14 +0000

I haven’t read this entire post yet but from the last 2 comments I can see that this rings true for the general use of blogs in my First Year Comp. program, which is why my research so far has shown the blogs of online students and service learning students are more reflective. The pedagogical purpose behind those courses is much more specific, perhaps those courses are still in the pilot stage at my university and have been created with the dedication of a select few instructors. This is what I plan to present on at MLA and I hope to run my ideas past you all in the coming weeks and months.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 19:21:56 +0000

Absolutely, Katherine: as my recent posts may indicate, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about antidotes to the uncritical discourse around weblogs that says, “Look! They’re like interactive online journals! And they’re public! Cool!” Obviously, things are more complicated, and I think some teachers who have (as Joanna says) internalized the potential may be trying to insert blogging practices into their classrooms first and tack on pedagogical purposes later — which is a teacherly train wreck waiting to happen.

By: joanna

joanna — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 15:48:01 +0000

Katharine–I’m with you on there needing to be a clear purpose behind assigning blogs–I’m remembering the time when word processing was supposed to lead to better writing. Well, it does, sometimes, but other times it leads to more legible writing, and I think that as email has become part o our students’ daily lives, there is no “specialness” in word processing like there was back in the 80’s. I’d hate for that to happen to blogging–especially since we are just beginning to see what it can do in terms of comp, rhet and so forth.
One of the comments at the 4C’s that I heard several times was that we haven’t yet nailed the full potential of blogging in the classroom–haven’t gotten to the AHA! point yet, moving beyond journals into the construction of something of which we can say “Now THAT was a blog!” I wonder how many of us who use blogs have internalized the potential ourselves–I know that I’m beginning to, and after this semester of experiencing my students using blogs, I’ll be more aware.

By: Collin vs. Blog

Collin vs. Blog — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 05:57:41 +0000

My Friday panels

One of the disadvantages of getting noticed is that, with the solidification of blogging as a Topic™, I found myself duplicating the experiences of other CCCC bloggers. In other words, I went to the Wednesday night session (A.15: Public, Private,…

By: Katherine

Katherine — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 01:07:59 +0000

Wow! Great summary/reflection/analysis of the panel. Thanks. I agree with Jones. Teachers do need to theorize the pedagogical purposes of assigning blogs–just as they do with any kind of assignment.

One of the things that concerns me about the interest in teacher-assigned blogs is the potential for teachers to follow the trend without thoroughly considering the purposes of such an assignment. It’s along the lines of your point that “Computer technology does not a good teacher make, nor its absence a bad teacher.” For an assignment to succeed–any assignment, with or without the use of computer technologies–it must have a clear purpose IMHO!