Teaching Blogs

Using Blogging as a Teaching Tool, Paula Petrik
Paula discussed her highly structured use of blogs in a Hist 120 class (45 students). Her focus was to improve writing and enable collaborative learning. Each of these activities was assessed with rubrics provided. She listed the following outcomes of her integration of blogs into the course:

• std writing improved
• std community developed
• evinced pride in Web presence
• deterred plagiarism
• critical skills noted via use of commenting features

Paula noted and discussed the increased amount of faculty assessment of writing assignments required, but thinks the results are worth it. Students each paid $25 to use a TypePad blog tool for the semester. See her Web site: http://www.archiva.net

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Steve Klein, a Communication/Journalism faculty, provided a broader view on blogging that suggested the social networking aspects of this tool or "social software". He emphasized that blogging is a low tech, easy way for faculty to engage students outside of class and promote student publishing. He discusssed his uses of blogs and blog-like tools such as are found in GMU's Townhall conferencing suite, for class assignments and activities. He left us to wonder about a social future in which the Media is a collective yet vetted result of all citizens publishling their views to the WWW. See video: http://epic.chalksidewalk.com/