using blogging in the classroom to improve student writing
DESCRIPTION
Note: This was presented at the Student Success in Writing Conference in Savannah, GA in February 2013. As such, the slides do not fully cover the material presented, so if you are interested contact [email protected] In the digital age, opportunities for using new media to enhance and encourage student writing are tremendous. Blogging, for one, has become a popular form of classroom assignment with many cited benefits. These include giving students a broader audience for their writing, allowing them to be more creative in their composition, and enabling them to participate in an ongoing conversation about their work. Students’ motivation to improve their writing also increases due to their desire to benefit their now larger group of readers. But while these benefits certainly are desirable, many of the methods are not so clear-cut. Since blogging is at its core a platform for writing, not a genre, how does one design effective blogging assignments that foster students’ creativity and a culture of community? What different blogging models might be best for different types of courses? What role should the instructor play and what learning outcomes should blogging have in conjunction with other class assignments? Using a semester of student blogging in LIBR 1101, a first-year course in research and information literacy, as a case study, this presentation explores many of these popular benefits of blogging as well as best practices when organizing a blogging assignment. When used effectively, blogging can help students distill and clarify ideas and serve as a valuable supplement to formal writing assignments. In addition, a more student-centered approach to the writing assignments was found to increase student creativity and engagement.TRANSCRIPT
Fostering Creativity and Community: Blogging
Assignments to Improve Student Writing
Andrew WalshUniversity of West Georgia
Student Success in Writing ConferenceSavannah, GA, Feb. 8 2013
They now have a worldwide forum instead of an audience of one. They see themselves as writers—real writers.(Christen)
“Blogging is informal … The writing suffers … The mind suffers … When your graduates are the only new hires in their office that can write in honest-to-goodness proper English at length, it will pay off in spades.” (Chronicle)
Different blogging models
Characteristics of an effective blogging assignment
Prompts, instructor role, assessment
LIBR 1101: Academic Research and the Library
Main Talking Points
Blog as platform, not genre
So, how do we best integrate blogging into our classes?
Different Blogging Models
(Galarza)
Structure – Hub-and-spoke vs. Centralized class blog
Rhythm – Free-for-all vs. Checkpoint vs. Weekly vs. Two-pronged
Role – First-readers vs. Respondents vs. Searchers
Different Blogging Models
(Sample, D’Arcus)
Blogger.com (Google)
Hub-and-spoke structure
Weekly rhythm
Benefits of individual blogs
LIBR 1101 Model
A supplement to traditional assignments NOT a replacement
Learning Objectives of Blogging?
Student-centered vs. Instructor-centered
The Paradox of Prompts
Levels of formality?
Characteristics of an Effective Blogging Assignment
Open-ended questions Higher-level thinking categories
Interest Relevance Attitudes/Opinions Analysis Conceptual Connections
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Good Blogging Prompts
(Cuseo)
“One word to describe your reading, write about why you chose that word.
Rewrite a passage from a different character’s point of view.
Difficult texts: find a passage that encompasses the central idea and paraphrase.
Explain for an eighth-grader, write a letter, write for other audiences.”
Creative Blogging
(Owens et. al)
“Explore style and voice in a way they can’t (or feel they can’t) in more formal academic papers.”
“Consider questions of accountability and audience.” (Sample)
Build a positive digital footprint.
Improve longer form argumentation and recognize that collaborative exercises can be relevant to that process.
Learning Objectives of Blogging
Role of the instructor?
How Should Blogging Be Graded?
Teaching students how to comment
If you build it, will they come? Involve participants from outside of class Website analytics
Fostering Community
“Bibliography.” Television Authorship. Media Studies 152. Pomona College. Online Cuseo, Joe. “The One Minute Paper.” On Course Workshop. Online Galarza, Alex. “Develop and Implement a Course Blog.” Inside Higher Ed. Online Garfield, Bob and Ta-Nehisi Coates. “How to Create an Engaging Comments Section.”
On the Media. Dec. 30, 2011. Online Ellison, Nicole and Yuehua Wu. "Blogging In The Classroom: A Preliminary
Exploration Of Student Attitudes And Impact On Comprehension." Journal Of Educational Multimedia And Hypermedia. 17.1 (2008): 99-122. ERIC. Web. 5 Feb. 2013.
Koumpilova, Mila. “They're learning to write, and they've got readers.” St. Paul Pioneer Press. March 27, 2011. Online
McClurken, Jeff and Mulie Meloni. “‘How are you going to grade this?’: Evaluating Classroom Blogs.” ProfHacker. The Chronicle of Higher Education. June 21, 2010. Online
Owens, Trevor et. al. Towards a Better Blogging Assignment. THATCamp CHNM 2012. Online
Sample, Mark. “A Better Blogging Assignment.” Profhacker. The Chronicle of Higher Education. July 3, 2012. Online
Sawmiller, Alison. "Classroom Blogging: What Is The Role In Science Learning?." Clearing House 83.2 (2010): 44. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 5 Feb. 2013.
References
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdickert/http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissawall/http://www.flickr.com/photos/alamodestuff/4351730264/http://www.flickr.com/photos/borealnz/3306646403/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajc1/3693303191/http://www.flickr.com/photos/pablox/2312596915/
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