This year I am using blogs in all my classes. One of the classes is another section of a class I taught last semester. I had to make a decision whether to start with a new class blog or whether to keep the old one.
Some advantageous of having a new blog are: the students can create their own work; they can feel a complete sense of ownership; they have a clean slate, not a slate already created by others;
Some disadvantages of having a new blog are: not learning what others have done; not building on what others have done; and having to re-invent the wheel/materials.; and my not having to enter the old essential material.
I’ve decided to build on the previous course’s blog. Students can read the previous class’ chapter summaries and add new material. They are adding new material to the blog that go beyond where last semester’s students went. For example, this semester’s class is adding business letter examples from the web so that we have real examples to react to. Since I do not have to recopy all the essential material I had in the old blog to recreate a new one, I can add new sections for the students. I can create more sections that provide more scaffolding.
Do you create new blogs or build on the old ones for the same class?
As a student at Lehigh University, I have used blogs for a few of my classes. One class, Journalism, the Environment, and the Public, required each student to blog throughout the semester as a way to compile research for the final paper. Students constantly complained because the final paper was essentially spread over 14 weeks. However, when time to write the final paper came, most of the essay was already written on the blog. Students were relieved to say the least.
Alternatively, for an IR theories course a group blog was used throughout the semester. Seven or eight students blogged twice per week on the same blog, the first time in response to the weekly readings, the second as a “discussion” post as a way to respond to class discussion or blog discussion. Students were actively engaged in the blog and class discussion. The blog offered a place for more in-depth analysis. I loved the blogging so much that I am currently putting together a paper on IR theories and multiple perspectives with a fellow blogger and the professor.
Look, students can have their own blog very easily. The point of blogging for a class is all about seeing other students works, other perspectives. Make a group blog and a requirement for students to respond to another student’s post and virtual interaction will happen.
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo