Since Feeling is First

I've moved!

2007-01-08T13:03:00.000-05:00

I have combined several blogs into one for my own sanity! Please visit me here:
compos(t)ing

another tool for student collaboration: stu.dicio.us

2006-08-10T23:07:00.000-04:00

This ed tech post
tells about stu.dicio.us. What is it? A web based tool that students can use to store their class notes and share them with other students. It also has a to-do list area. I tried it--it is amazingly easy to use! This could be a good tool that helps students to take more ownership of their learning in a way similar to using linked blogs. It is harder to get students to take ownership than one might realize, and tools that assist the process can mean the diference between success and failure.

successful blogging and good citations too!

2006-07-14T19:37:00.000-04:00

A new post in one of my favorite blogs ("blog of proximal development") that really resonates with what I have been finding as well. He describes how the blogging in his class really took off, moving to a new level of connectivity and learning. He believes in the same basic ideas that I do about "the conversation of mankind" and constructing knowledge. I will be working on an article for the Writing Lab Newsetter about why this can be such an important experience for writing tutors to have. Our tutor training courses should give students as much experience of true collaboration as possible so that they can be the kind of tutors who make "better writers, not better papers." One interesting difference between our strategies: I used several different tools to support collaboration: collaborative quizzes, research blogs (linked to each other), group writing workshops, and the wiki project. He does everything with blogs, it seems. It is interesting to think of pros and cons of the different approaches.

example of research/learning blogs and student product

2006-07-05T11:22:00.000-04:00

This class website shows both process and product for this class on gaming and education. The content is interesting and the student work impressive. You can see the students research-in-progress in their blogs and then their final product as a .pdf doc. BUT: I see from the blogs many of the struggles I see with my own student blogs. They aren't posting as much of their process as I would like to see, or using the blog as extensively as they could. I also don't see them using the blogs for peer interaction. I keep thinking of my students last semester telling me how they liked popping into each others' blogs just for inspiration, and not necessarily leaving comments. I keep looking for the best ways to get students to use blogs for learning.

what the future has to say for itself...

2006-07-04T19:47:00.000-04:00

I'm back to work after a great trip in France with the family. Catching up on my reading, I watched this interesting video from the Educa conference. (It is entry 3 on the page I linked to). What is partcularly well done about this interview is the focus on HOW students use technology as opposed to what technology tools they use. The video is kind of long, but it is worth it to go all the way to the end to hear the conference organizer talk about what he takes away from what the students said. He concludes that what the students coming to university are looking for is constant and better communication. We are already a wireless campus, but I wonder if more students are bringing laptops so that they can take advantage of that?
I was also interested to hear the students say that they don't really want their teachers IMing with them because they want a separation between themselves and their teachers--they want the teacher to remain friendly but a little distant, someone they can respect. They don't want teachers seeing their profiles and away messages. But they do like to get the IM addressses of others in their classes so that they can "virtually" work togoether on homework, ask quick questions, etc. The need for speed was another theme of their remarks. They want to get things done quickly so they have more time for fun... Sounds to me like what is missing is a sense of their work being real and inherently important. Teachers need to hear that as well, and take note. They had no understanding that there were good reasons to learn to use a library for instance--they thought teachers were just "afraid" and "ignorant of what is on the internet." It is our fault for not doing a better job with explaining the why's to students, I think.

educause session on social software

2006-06-09T16:33:00.000-04:00

I am considering attending this session which will be taught by Barbara Ganley and Bryan Alexander. It sounds as if we would both learn more about the softwares and also look at strategic uses as well as introducing the concepts to faculty. I wonder if others from UR are planning to go to Educause this year? I know in the past we have sent a contingent, but haven't heard any noises about this yet...

social technology and learning

2006-06-03T22:56:00.000-04:00

I would love to attend the conference where this talk was presented: The first UK edublogging conference
I will see what I can do about getting to the second conference!
The talk I have linked to resonates with me for its education philos0phy as well as the transformation in classrooms that happens when real collaboration and student-centered learning takes hold.
This is the first time I have read anything by Barbara Ganley, but now I want to read more. I love her concept of the "motherblog" where all the class blogs are aggregated.

blogs/discussion boards/wikis

2006-05-22T13:55:00.000-04:00

This is a chart I used with my group on Teaching with Technology Day. Our session was called "Cultivating Conversations worth Having" and I started with this quote from Ken Bruffee:
“…any effort to understand conversation requires us to understand the nature of community life that generates and maintains conversation. Furthermore, any effort to understand and cultivate in ourselves the kind of thought we value most requires us to understand and cultivate the kinds of community life that establish and maintain conversation that is the origin of that kind of thought. To think well as individuals we must learn to think well collectively—that is, we must learn to converse well.”
Kenneth A. Bruffee, Collaborative Learning and the Conversation of Mankind

I really believe that the social technologies enable collaborative learning in ways we couldn't have imagined before. And those ways are not readily obvious just from the tools themselves. When I first started using discussion boards, I was trying to get traditional class discsussions "arguments" going outside of class. Many theorists talk about this as the first stage of technology adoption--using new tools for old jobs. I quickly found this was not a great way to use them. I watched the ways that students DID use the tools. They would write on the boards and think aloud. They would read others thoughts. They would make some intial responses, but not much.

At first I viewed this as a failure. They weren't really discussing. But then I began to see that it was a great gift. They were offering windows into their own minds in these spaces. What could I do with these windows? I felt like those early medical researchers who put the windows into the cow bellies so they could watch digestion! I could watch my students digest ideas while they were still mid process. AND their fellow students could also watch this digestion. I started to think about what that might do for our "face time."

Now I use social softwares in ways that capitalize on this idea. I used discussion boards for group processing: there is a new one each week where the class decides what the most important things were that we discussed during the face time. What things did we leave unanswered? What is coming next? They keep individual blogs when they do research, but all their blogs are linked so they can pop in and see what everyone is up to!

Conversation with other faculty members in the session revealed that many faculty have been trying these socail softwares (except the wiki--that is still on the horizon for most) and are still at the stage where their experiences have been relatively unsatisfactory. Many haven't yet reached "stage 2"--seeing how the tool can do new things. I am only just getting there myself!

Here are the rest of my notes from the session:
Some Examples:

My class’s wiki project this semester:
http://learning.richmond.edu/twiki/bin/view/HSWritingCenters/WebHome
(you can also see it on wikipedia under “writing center”)

link to one research blog (all the rest are linked there):
http://meganbresearch.blogspot.com/

a class (group) blog: an attempt to help freshman in a 103 class keep track of what we were doing and take more responsibility for what we were doing as a class
http://plasticplate.blogspot.com/

blogs for students abroad:
http://keillor.richmond.edu/blojsom/blog/bombay/
(many countries have lots of internet cafes—this is becoming a really interesting way to create community with our students when they are away for the semester/year and to bring the study abroad experience to Richmond in a new way!)

How does this create community?

1.My students said the research blogs, linked together, (plus the wiki and blackboard tools) made the group project do-able and enjoyable and not frustrating. Part of what they liked was that they allowed for easy cooperation—anywhere, anytime-- but still allowed for individual evaluation! There is an electronic “paper trail.” It helps them feel held accountable. Even just something as simple as knowing your journal will be date and time stamped forces you to keep up, and then you get more out of the class. (Note: THEY recognized this-- and reported it.) They told me they dropped in on each others’ blogs a lot, though they usually did not leave comments.

2. When it comes right down to it, this kind of work is writing! And writing is thinking. They thought more. And they thought regularly and reflectively. And they looked at what other people thought..

Which leads us to the other kind of conversation worth having: metacognition (thinking about thinking) conversation with yourself (or your “other self”). Journaling. Journaling online, whether on the net or in a blackboard space allows for accountability and interaction. If students know they are being time stamped, it keeps them from trying to create a journal at the end of the semester, which does not have nearly the learning benefits of keeping a weekly log.
http://caitlinapprentice.blogspot.com/2006/05/final-post.html

This thinking and “seeing each others thinking” outside of class made our in-class conversations amazingly rich and fruitful.

A Few Resources:
http://www.tltgroup.org/blogs.htm
Resource page on blogs and wikis in higher education

Web 2.0: A New Wave
of Innovation for Teaching and Learning?
http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0621.asp

Social Software in Academia
http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm06/eqm0627.asp

I am interested in hearing about your experiences as you try to use these tools to accomplish your own teaching goals. Call me (x6038) or email (tdolson@richmond.edu) to have coffee tell me more!

results this semester

2006-05-04T22:56:00.000-04:00

The success of the blogs was dramatically different this semester. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to do some detailed analysis of what I saw, but I'll start with an overview. There was one major difference with the research blogs this time: the students were working on a group project. To make the blogs more useful to them, I had them all link to each others' blogs. Their final project was far and away the best group project I have ever seen from a class. These kids really inspired me! I had individual exit interviews with all of them and I asked them "What do you think made your group project go so well?" I got lots of interesting comments, and many said they used the blogs a lot--not just for their own reflection and research, but to pop in and see waht others were doing. sometimes this helped them get started or get inspired. Sometimes it helped increase group cohesiveness and communication so that work didn't get duplicated. It made group work easier. And not one one of them said they had a bad group experience--that is amazing. All of them reported having bad group experiences in the past. I plan to explore more about this as well as I look over their work from the semester. what I believe I am seeing is this: I put lots of tools in place to build community: collaborative quizzes, theory discussions over breakfast, group work with the videos, peer reviewing papers, group spaces in blackboard, etc. Then I let them go. The students picked up those tools, used them, and really internalized the concepts of the class. It was a case of the right tools for the job. George Siemens would say that I have stumbled upon Connectivism, I think.

New semester, new adventures

2006-01-23T21:25:00.000-05:00

You know the old "good news/bad news" thing. Here's mine: Good News? I am teaching Composition Theory this semester with handpicked, upper level students! Bad News? It meets from 7:50 AM til 9:05 Am, Monday and Wednesday. Those of you who know me are probably fallen to the floor in disbelief. No, I am not teaching it virtually, from my bed. I am actually getting up, exercising and showering before class so that I can be coherent. Fortunately, I lean toward collaborative classrooms anyway so I try not to talk too much...
I have decided to use Mondays for discussion of readings and Wednesday for application activities. I didn't feel like the group metacognition blog worked well last semester, but I did think the research blogs worked well for those who used them. So this class will also do research blogs, and they will also do their own reflection blogs. The reflections are very specific--one each time they serve an apprenticeship hour in the Writing Center. They are more like traditional logs/journals that way, except they come with a date and time stamp, so they can't delay making the entries until the end of the semester. That is actually an important feature. Those kinds of reflections are so much more effective if they write their experiences down right away. The details matter! I am considering having them read each others' and commenting, but I am not sold on that idea yet. I am also considering having them use this blog and their experiences as the basis for their creative project/paper.
I am bringing back an old friend this time too--the discussion board. They post quiz questions on the readings there, and I chose from them for our Monday reading quiz. (It is a group quiz, where they get to practice the conversation of mankind, as Brufee calls it.) They also write a once a week reflection explaining what we talked about on Monday and how we applied the ideas on Wednesday. Interesting things are already bubbling up there.
And finally, the adventure: a wiki. They are researching high school writing centers and creating a resource for high school teachers who might be interested in starting a center at their schools. We are going to give a presentation to local K-12 people about it, and the wiki will be a lasting (and growing?) resource. It would make me so happy to see more writing in high schools, and more good talking about writing!
So that's the plan. Three different kinds of technology tools, all enabling different kinds of conversations. One of my students wrote in his first reflection:
"Ok. I won't lie. I really expected that we would be doing a lot more writing in this class. DON'T GET ME WRONG... this is a GOOD thing. With most of my classes I have a lot of writing, so this class focusing more on teaching writing is something that I was inwardly hoping for." I have to laugh; by the end of this semester he is going to realize he has never written so much in his life!

Reflections, Part 1

2005-12-23T21:56:00.000-05:00

The semester is over for my students (I have more grading to finish but have decided to take a break for Christmas ;) ) I find myself reflecting on the semester even though the final numbers aren't in. Today I read the latest entries in a blog I sometimes read: Blog of Proximal Development and was downright jealous to see that he is getting real community going with his bloggers. After reading the entries about getting readers to respond in a readerly (not nit-picking) way to other writers, I thought "Ahh, a teacher doing good peer response--how it warms my heart!" But the entries about the students growing dependent on their blogs and the comments and connections around content--even printing them to study for a test-- I was perplexed. How did he do that?? I must study futher...
Using the blogs in 2 ways this semester helped me to see the flexibility of the tool. The research blogs had a slow start, but in the end, many students said they finally figured out they were useful and not busy work. Several said they would use this tool when doing research in the future. Those involved 2 important parts: the link to the source they were reading and a reflection about what they were learning and how (or if) they might use the source and what they would do next. I did occassionally comment in order to inspire or redirect, but not often enough.
The second one, the group blog, was meant to help them process what we were doing in class. Again, it took pressure from me to get them to participate, including a schedule assigning responsibility for the primary post. Comment posts were rare on this blog. And they certainly didn't use it as I had hoped they would, to reflect on the class after each meeting. BUT: students noticed that when they were responsible for posting, they saw the class in a new light and picked up more detail. It is not a class where I lecture. Most classes consist of an activity and a circle discussion. One student said toward the end of the semester "I have finally figured out that we are supposed to apply what we do in class to the writing projects we are working on outside of class." I think they learn things and get ideas from their time in class that they do apply in their writing, but they rarely do it in a conscious way. I just see the insights from class discussions work their way into new drafts of papers. So next time, I think I will have a primary post which summarizes class, and then 2 or 3 assigned "commenters" who will answer the question: How can I apply what we did today to the writing project I am working on?
That is an insight I would not have gotten if I hadn't been working with blogs in this class.

getting students to use class blog more

2005-11-01T18:01:00.000-05:00

I discovered that Blogger doesn't allow for multiple email notifications of updates. It does support RSS feeds, but as I noted before, not many of my students are currently using a news reader. In some ways, I am back to square one. I did find out that Blojsom does support multiple email notification, so next semester I will definitely switch to Blojsom. But that means I will need good handouts that explain how to use it since it is not as intuitive to use. There are other blog software options, but I would like to use the one supported by our ATS.
And still the question lingers: how do I get the students to be engaged in the class and help them understand what is due and when. I did midterm evaluation today and asked the students to tell me what is working well for them and what is not. In the "not" column is a feeling that they are not clear what is due and when. There is frustration with shifting due dates. This is one of the problems that I had hoped the blog would help with. We do work on multiple projects at a time with staggered due dates, so it is inherently confusing. I have considered changing this format, but for various reasons, I haven't. I may consider it again for next semester. But for now, I try to walk that narrow line between sticking to due dates that don't make sense given what happens or how we progress in class, and confusing some people by changing due dates. I have tried to keep the major portfolio due dates stable and shift the small "class participation" activities so that they reflect what is actually going on in class. That is what I hoped the blog would help with--the daily activities that support our large projects. SO--again--how to improve blog use? I will try forwarding to them the blog updates as I get them in my email. And I will try to encourage those who are feeling frustrated to use the blog more and see if that helps. And I will keep thinking about how to reduce their frustration so they can concentrate on their writing.

reflecting on how the class blog is going

2005-10-07T12:11:00.000-04:00

It is tough. We are all busy. A class blog is only as useful as we all make it. Perhaps I should post that on our class blog! But I am thinking out loud here first. Both blog posters neglected to post this week. Leona was already a techie and so she seems to use it frequently. But I can't tell if they are looking and not posting, or not looking at all. KevinC has mentioned before that he knows how to look at statistics for his blog. I wonder if you have to do any special set-up things for that (probably). But what might be more effective is for the students to each receive an email every time it is updated, in the same way that I receive updates when they post to their research blogs. They did this by entering my email address under settings/email. But what would happen if I had them each go to that spot and enter their own emails? We could try it. Or, I could have them set up RSS feeds for themselves, but: 1. here is yet another technology they would have to learn and use (a newsreader) and 2. those are also only as useful as you make them by checking them. Since I expect them to check email frequently already, they are more accustomed to receiving news about the class that way. I think an email update would be ideal, so I'll see what I can find out about that.
On a teaching note, it is the classic issue: how do I get studednts to get engaged and motivated. Almost all posted only the 5 required research blog posts and lots of them were lame--doing it just to be done and not doing it to make progress for themselves. Why is this? I had hoped that they would find it useful and continue using it as they progress on their project. Maybe that is the problem: they are focusing on their Subsoil essays this week so that they can finish the portfolio for Tuesday. Maybe I'll see the isearch work pick up again next week. I am ever the optimist : )

another teacher using a class blog

2005-10-03T21:42:00.000-04:00

This is a nice example of students using a class blog for summary and more. Like Plastic Plates, the students are taking turns posting after each class. But they have real enthusiasm for this activity, and have even created competition to outdo each other. I think it is great for the student doing the posting, causing them to be involved in a whole new way with what is going on in class that day. When other students read and comment they are reviewing what went on in class, and maybe even making new connections. Linked from this blog, I read this interesting summary of what blogging can do for brains. Written by physicians who specialize in learning and learning disabilities, it has interesting things to say about how we deal with text (vs. images) and the advantages of combining solitary thinking with community. So, if real rigor comes from having high standards for learning, I think using technology like blogs can create more rigor. I guess my fear is that some UR professors might prejudge blogs as foolish pop culture toys. Maybe it is just anticipation of the lunch on rigor weighing on me. But for professors who are ready to focus on what students learn and how they learn, I can see how blogs could be a great tool.

other blogs on campus and my first trial of Blojsom

2005-09-23T16:56:00.000-04:00

I discovered that there have been some people on campus trying out blogs. Barbara Sholley used them last spring and Kathy Hewitt-Smith is using them in a Quest class in which they will blog here first and then travel to Bombay and continue the blog there! I'm not sure how Dr. Sholley used them, but plan to talk to her to find out what she did and how it went.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Kevin and Sue have been posting to a new ATS blog
that uses Blojsom. I have done a little posting there too, and am starting a test blog to see how I like it. First impression: it is more complicated than Blogger for a non-tech person. There are cryptic, one letter buttons that toggle on and off, though you are not told that they toggle on and off. I still haven't complettely figured out how to put links in the text where I want them because you have to click the link button, type in or paste the url, then type the name for the link, then click link again. And I think you can only do this as you are typing or something--I couldn't seem to go and add in a link in the middle of a line of text. BUT it is nice to be able to see what the post will look like when it is posted while I am still in the edit mode, and it would be nice to have help from our own ATS people when I need training or help. So- I plan to keep at it.

Blog talk in Richmond

2005-09-18T22:39:00.000-04:00

At the James River Writer's Festival next week, there will be a panel about blogs. Here is (part of) an article from Style Weekly this week:
Writing on the Wall
James River Writers Conference addresses the blog and other matters of writing.
by Valley Haggard
September 14, 2005
There is no avoiding them, from the coffee shop down the street to your own back yard. People are no longer hiding their beast beneath the surface, but are brimming with ulterior motives, turns of phrase and plays on words clever enough to titillate the toughest imagination. Poets, authors, screenwriters, editors, agents, bloggers and literary types of every ilk are infiltrating the streets of Richmond and will multiply come the end of September, when the James River Writers hosts its annual conference. For the first time, the conference will address bloggers and the industry of Internet publication. A diverse panel of established and up-and-coming bloggers will form the panel “Everyone’s Blogging — Should You?” moderated by Caroline Kettlewell, local author of “Electric Dreams” and a JRW board member. She plans to address such questions as: Is this the wave of the future, or is it just people mouthing off into cyberspace? Does blogging have legitimacy, or is it just a rash young thing? And, what is the evolving purpose and function of blogging?

Ron Hogan, creator of Beatrice.com, an online format for author interviews, books and the publishing industry since 1995, and author of the soon-to-be-released “The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane,” receives more than 100,000 visits to his blog per month. But Hogan promises that the Internet is no competition for the printing press.

“The printed word isn’t in danger of disappearing anytime soon — certainly not at the level of the book,” Hogan says. “The idea that the Internet will kill the printed word is about as accurate as the idea that TV will kill radio or that cable will kill the networks or that home video will kill the cineplex.”

Hogan believes that literary blogs fill a niche for people who are looking for a meaningful discussion of literature but are unable to find it in the mainstream media. “This is especially true for genres like mystery and science fiction or, at the more literary end, poetry and literature-in-translation that gets very little, if any, mainstream coverage,” he says.

While the bloggers make their debut, the JRW Conference embarks on its third year Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 at the Library of Virginia.

speaking of blogs...

2005-09-18T22:12:00.000-04:00

The technical glitches seem to have been worked out. I am beginning to look at the students' research blogs and comment. This is the exciting part for me about the blog; I can really get involved with their research work while they are still doing it and still have time to change. As for Plastic Plate, the class blog, the students are still not taking advantage of it as much as I wish they would. But it takes time for new technologies to become "everyday." We now have a list of who will summarize the class each day.That should help.
And on top of the new technology, I think the idea of creating community for themselves, of helping each other with this class, THAT is a new idea for many of them. One of the students said to me "I am surprised that we are using blogs for this class. I thought blogs were bad." When I pressed her about what she meant by "bad" she said in her high school they weren't supposed to read them or write them. There is a persistent sense among my students that blogs are personal and personal is not "academic" or "rigorous" (and therefore not good--where have I heard that before??) I am trying to show them the variety of blogs out there. I am trying to show them that blogs are just tools--fairly flexible tools--and it's all in how we use them. We ARE using them in academic ways.
We had a really interesting discussion about the definition of "academic" in class on Thursday as we worked on the Academic Essay--Close Analysis of a Story. That word cuts two ways--we mean by it "serious, in depth, rigorous" but there is also the expression that something can be "purely academic" meaning NOT important or not applicable to real life. As they adjust to college life, it is interesting for them to question assumptions old and new.

some weird glitches

2005-09-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

I am trying different fixes to see if we can solve problems. It is the way of the (electronic) world. One of my students has created a new blog for his research blog and when he went to post the first time he opened the blog to see an old established blog that was named exactly what his was! It was listed on his dashboard, looking new and empty, but every time he tried to post it went to the other blog. I asked him to notify Blogger and start another blog with a totally different name!
I have one student who I invited to be a member on Plastic Plates who can't seem to join. My screen in settings shows that her invitation is still pending, but when she tries to accept, it rejects her. So I deleted her invitation and re-invited her. We'll see if that works.

doing more reading about blogs and education

2005-09-12T13:59:00.000-04:00

There are lots more resources than I realized already out there about using blogs in education. Here are a few:
LORE: An E-Journal for Teachers of Writing has a special issue on Academic Blogging
KairosNews has so much to offer that I hardly know where to link. Start on this page and navigate for days!

Our own ATS blog is interesting to look at because it is using a different blog software, and it can do more stuff, which is important,or so they tell me.

It was at their blog that I started to understand about the different options that are available for writing to your blog because I went to check out Ecto, as recommended by Sue. When MacAddict said "Think of the difference between emailing with a Web mail system like Yahoo and emailing with a desktop client like Apple Mail, and you'll get the idea." The lightbulb went on for me!

Where are my students?

2005-09-05T16:37:00.000-04:00

I thought I would have seen some commenting in Plastic Plate by now, but so far, none since class last week. I have suggested that they should/could in an email, and I have put more info for their current project, (suggestions, clarifications) on the blog. How do I know if they are using it? How do I get them to start taking it over?? I guess I'll just post that question there and see who answers.
In class tomorrow I am going to show them more about different kinds of blogs and get them prepared to make their own research blog. I have to have them use the template I have going, or else choose one which already has a button for rss feed in place. I had better work on that some tonight, come to think of it... They have to set them up properly so I can do an rss feed thing to save my own sanity when I am trying to keep up with 18 blogs, plus these two!

a fellow comp blogger

2005-09-01T13:12:00.000-04:00

Feeling really is first! After the last cathartic blog post, I am ready--back to technology and teaching. This link is to a blog being kept by a class taught by Alisa Cooper. She has been generous in sharing her insights with me about blogging and wikis and which tech tool fits what teaching/learning need. I plan to keep following her work.

sadness vs. routine

2005-09-01T12:12:00.000-04:00

It has been a 2 funeral week for me, a double shot to the gut, all against the backdrop of the horrific reports of devastation in the gulf coast states. I keep accidentally putting myself in the place of the mom who lost her 15 year old son and feeling that crushing pain and fear--and then I shake my head to clear it, say a quick prayer, and get back to work.
I struggle with how we are to run our classes. I mean, we have this nice schedule all set out in black and white, of what we will do every day. And I hold students accountable for having what they need for class every day or they lose a participation point. And I have almost never cancelled a class, which is a point of pride for me. But I wonder if it should be. I can think of a time when I was so nauseous and dizzy from the flu but didn't want to miss class since students were doing presentations. I was there, but how accurate and fair were the grades? I had a student lose his father unexpectedly one semester, and he told me that one of his professors told him he wouldn't cut the guy any slack, that the best way to get over the tragedy was to feel the pressure of deadlines and be forced to work through it. It didn't actually work that way, of course. I read a lot of Parker Palmer
But I do feel a little relieved to be back in my office, working on projects and in a routine, getting ready for class this afternoon (peanut day--always a lot of fun). I read a lot of Parker Palmer and try to create humane classrooms. I guess my guideline for myself is this: Students want to be challenged and to produce work they can be proud of. Rules and routines facilitate this and so are good--and all of them can be eased or go out the window completely when they are interfering in life and learning more than they are helping. A time to sow, a time to reap, and everything in its own time. So I have a strict policy of flexibility decided on a case by case basis. How's that?

beginnings are messy

2005-08-31T10:58:00.000-04:00

First day of class was fun. I wanted to have more time to talk about writing, but I think it is really important to spend the time in "getting to know ya" activities early on. I realized there are some glitches in the materials I have on Blackboard. This has never happened before, but something about the way my new Mac translated some fonts caused the documents posted in Bb to show wingdings in Jepson g-20. I KNEW I should have gone over and looked at things on the PC's there! It seems so often that I know how I should do things right, but lack the time to do it. No matter--the students highlighted and changed fonts where necessary. It didn't seem to freak them. I wonder if their computers in their dorms are reading the mystery font well... I probably should just change the offending lines. I think to do that I'll have to take my laptop over to Jepson and look at the docs on both machines at once and figure out which font is a problem.
I wrote the first blog post on plastic plates today, and will do the next one as a demo at the end of class on Thursday. I need to prepare a handout for them about getting to Blogger and into Plastic Plates. In a few minutes I'll add them all as group members so they can write posts and not just comments. Starting next week, we'll have a schedule of post-ers and the students will take over the posting. I would like to take them through creating their own blogs (for research ) on Thursday of next week. By then I think they'll feel familiar enough with it to get started.
As usual, there are problems with getting books. Other students seem to have grabbed my section's books that are packaged with MyCompLab. As they figure out they have the wrong one, they'll return them, but meanwhile my students have to keep checking in at the bookstore, which is a pain. Is there a better way? I hate using the MyComplab Package for this reason, but Exchange is the best software I have seen for doing peer comments. It is the only one with the right pedagogy of leaving ownership of the text with the author. And I love the grammar quizzes and exercises that are interactive and they can do on their own. So I am sticking with MyCompLab for this semester, but always looking for something that is less a pain for students. I'll ask the students at the end of this semester what they think...

Techno-genius

2005-08-28T16:57:00.000-04:00

Feeling pretty good about myself since I was able to make links appear in my sidebar. Never you mind that the font isn't right for the title yet. It was a tough job getting the links to appear. I finally decided that the code was there in the template, but not in the right place (?) so I copied it and pasted it just before what I could see was the code for the "Blogger" button and it worked. It took some more fiddling around to figure out that I had to paste in the link I wanted over EDIT ME and also make a name for it in the second part of the line. Then I copied the whole template and pasted it over the template on Plastic Plate.
Now to figure out RSS feed. Well maybe tommorrow...

Now I am struggling

2005-08-28T15:23:00.000-04:00

I figured out how to protect the posts from spam (easy enough in the Settings, then Comments, then selct "yes" for the question : "Show word verification for comments?" But I got an email from My Guru Kevin saying he wanted to get an RSS feed and where was my RSS feed link? I went to look and found that, in fact, the template I have chosen doesn't have a links section at all. In Settings it says that I have Atom feed, but where? how? Then I found (in a help screen) that I could add a links section by copy/pasting the code for it to insert on my template page. Tried this, but still don't see links on my blog. So I signed up this blog for Feed Burner(?) but still don't see anything on the blog! I considered changing my template to a template that has a links section, but I have yet to find a template that has Links AND Recent Posts AND Archives. I like the recent posts listing because I want students to make titles for their posts (and I like creating titles). Why? 1.fosters creativity 2.forces summary and "nutshelling" 3. gives a hint about content so that if a reader is looking for something they just saw recently, this helps them.

Back to the drawing board...

2005-08-27T21:53:00.000-04:00

I have Firefox on my work machine now and am getting ready for the first day of class on Tuesday. I guess I should go and try to look at this blog from the machines in Jepson G-20, our class lab, since I have no idea what glitches will await me there for looking at, creating and revising blogs with Windows machines. I am also directing students here from our Blackboard site to see what I am up to. Welcome students!

Mozilla Firefox

2005-08-27T15:01:00.000-04:00

It is true--with Firefox as my browser I get all kinds of little buttons up there in the bar: bold b, italic i, the link on earth,and the 2 Ihad already seen when in Safari--spellcheck and picture add.
Students take note: you'll need to be working in Firefox.

the answer is...

2005-08-27T00:38:00.000-04:00

This is where I found the answer, but since I don't see the link button up there, I am guessing I am going to have to download Mozilla to get one. I'll have to try that tomorrow.

a fool's load

2005-08-26T23:49:00.000-04:00

We have an expression in our house for whenever someone picks up all 5 plates and 3 glasses and the butter all at once: we call it a "fool's load" because your just know that fool is going to drop that stuff; he's trying to carry too much. I was a classic example of this at the NINFD conference I attended in June. Walking through the crowded room, late and carrying a fool's load, I managed to bounce a donut off the head of a surprised Japanese woman (who kindly forgave me later).

I fear I am carrying a fool's load again as I start a new semester at UR, newly full-time developing faculty and teaching my one section of ENG 103 and managing my household of 5 (+pets)... And yet I have been wanting to play with blogging and so here I go! I emailed my friend Ria who works at Clemson and has 4 kids to say I was afraid I was going to drop a plate, so to speak. I asked her how she manages. She replied "Use plastic plates." Now THAT is wisdom!

The first thing I learned was how to delete the spam "comment" that had found its way here. No thank you, my husband is a banker and if I want a mortgage I'll ask him!
Next I'm going to learn how to make links so that I can show you what NINFD is...

A Place to start

2004-12-16T16:45:00.000-05:00

I have to thank my old friend e.e. for the quote I used to name this spot.