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Thursday, October 31, 2002

My turn to catch up. Monday we looked at new literacy and the digital divide through a short handout and some in-class writing. Led to the liveliest discussion of the semester. I've seen the DD do that before--worth further examination, I think. Sense a "problem-based assignment" coming on.

Wed. was work day. I don't have any students who are completely lost (wait, there might be one). Many have exceeded my expectations, and certainly their own as well. As you might have noticed, I am pretty happy with this assignment/unit.

Friday will include 4 presentations, Monday of next week another 6, I think. Better start getting ready for the final unit. I feel like wrapping up the semester before Thanksgiving, not after it.


Tuesday, October 29, 2002

Leadership and communication. I would, but, I am planning on taking the 'normal' 120 and adding technology (class blog- web based readings) as well as different ways of teaching writing.. from The Alternative Elements of Style{something like that} book bought for Betsy's class. She mentioned, for a project, doing an entire syllabus based on the exercises in that book, and I thought HEY I could do that and kill two (or more) birds with one syllabus.. meaning, less brainstorming for me for 120 (less stress I should say), AND a cool project for Betsy's class. I know, I rule. If you have a few specific exercises/activities I could MOLD into the class, I would be happy to play.. I really want to concentrate on controversy and argument though. How persuasions are in our daily lives (your Elec. Comm. class has gotten me thinking completely differently about the media and tech! (as if that is a bad thing)).... etc.
Meanwhile, back at the computer cluster, slowly and slowly students are falling off the face of the earth! 10 showed for my 8am.. ok, 15ish... and some are so far ahead on projects- YIPPEE. My 9:30 is not as ambitious. How does that work? I think it really depends on the group vibe, less on time period and teacher. That's my theory, and I am sticking to it.
Kevin, I hope you decide to use your time more wisely.. my 9:30 is less into attendance than my 8.

Sunday, October 27, 2002

Let's see--where am I? Wednesday's class was loose--I asked students to update me on their projects, and gave them time to keep working. I know that one students' flash project is coming along nicely, I saw a draft of a web site or two, and a student working on mathematica is clearly doing something with that project. I tried to contact some stragglers with limited luck--I might finish with as few as 14 students.

Friday I was away--no sense of who showed up to do what (if anything).

Sybil, I would like some people to pilot elements of course on communication and leadership for the spring 120. Does that interest you? I'm not teaching 120 in the spring, though.

Tuesday's class is at 9:30, right? I'll plan on attending.

later

Oh, did you hear blogger got hacked? check your sites out.


Thursday, October 24, 2002

Yea, I am frustrated. Now, mainly because of a crappy crappy crappy ref'd football game last night. Oh well.
So, I'll be in the IACC 150c with my students on Tuesday... doing mid-presentations and then probably a revision exercise that I learned through an essay we read for Emily's presentation (grammar) in Comp/Rhet. I don't think they are revising... SO I need to show them the value of doing so and THEN force them to see that it will help them. Ok.. force is a strong word, but I have to open them to the possiblities. Plus, I am remembering that I didn't go over thesis statements mainly because THEY SHOULD KNOW ALL THAT BY NOW, and I covered FOCUSING.. focus focus focus. *calms down* Anyhoo, many are doing well on their projects.. I am really impressed with Tom and Chad's (might have to recruit Tom for my bisonBlog ideas)..
As far as the spread of grades.. I had 6 As and 6 Fs.. many Ds.. and then around 8 in the C and B ranges each. Length and lateness were big problems, but I stuck to my rules... was fairly lenient after penalizing for that (with the people that DIDN'T have those problems, that is).

For my 120 class, I am going to stay web-based and use Good Reasons... well, some of Good Reasons. Any ideas on how to break up the semester.. I like the idea of units like we did? I have a few books I am going to look at as I continue on this semester's journey..

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Qucik post to Ray Kurzweil's site and an essay about education in 2020

Thanks for the link, Sybil. Sorry to hear about your level of frustration--now I know what I sounded like earlier in the semester. I was pretty clearly out of wack back then. I've been sleeping better, caring less, and just moving through life in a more sane way of late.

I think I can visit your class 9:30 on Tuesday of next week--where will you be?

PhD... hmmm. I won't say don't do it, but definitely keep your options open. And if you do get one, keep your options open.

Monday, October 21, 2002

Kevin, Rheingold's links are on my syllabus site.. scroll down to last weeks dates, and he's there somewhere.

I hate grading.. assessing.. papers. Most disliked, easily procrastinated, 'job' connected to being an English instructor. Some students didn't even focus on the focus that was asked for in the assignment.. they just went off into tangents about what weblogs were and only their personal experience with them (no backup quotes or future possiblities or ORGANIZATION). Ugh. If ANY of them complain, I'll read the assignment, straight from my syllabus, AGAIN. Once again, Ugh. But, honestly, I am starting to let all those things filter out of me. I don't/can't care anymore if some don't GET it. I just can't. I highly doubt some of them will take my comments and use them in their revisions. And, I guess, I just have to be okay with that. Meanwhile, many of them seem to be enjoying doing their "stretch projects". ... Do you two MAYBE want to come in and see what they are doing (we have mid-presentation day on Oct. 29- next Tuesday) next Tuesday? I may be shooting myself in the head by having you both come in, but they may think it's neat that other teachers are interesting in what they have been up too. Then again, I have the early early early classes... 8 and 9:30 that day.. Well, we can blog about it. I still need Eunice to come in (and you two definitely anyway sometime) and then write me up a "Sybil is a good teacher because..." paper thingie.. or whatever I would need for doctorate school. Wait, do I WANT to do the PhD thing anymore? I question that on an hourly basis. Ok. 'Nuff from me.

Finally hauled out a "one pager" today. Actually, I used a two-pager. Wait, two one-pagers. A handout taking excerpts from Harvey Graff's book (1987) on the history of literacy (he talks about new literacy building on the old literacy), and a handout from Seymour Papert's testimony to the House of Represtatives (1995) on the need for radical educational reform. I asked the students to read these handouts and "position" themselves in relation to these two different views.

Everything went smoothly enough--I'll let you know how the in-class writing looks later.

Sybil, it looks like Rheingold's essay (chapter?) was a pretty big hit for you. What's the URL?--I need a reading about "online communities" for Unit 3.

If you two haven't check my weblog lately, I posted a couple of entries about these really great "Web Tool Newsletters" I found (courtesy of Kairosnews.org).

Saturday, October 19, 2002

Friday's class was a work day in 150c. Some came with proposals done and did some research on stretch, others worked on proposals. All seems to be going smoothly enough. One student just doesn't do Fridays--nothing personal, I'm sure.

Using text: motivation and necessity are key. Text is really efficient, but if ain't delivering what you are interested in, it is really boring. I've noticed that students seem to know lots of stuff, but seem to not want to share any of their information/knowledge. For example, on paper #1, many of them knew lots of things, had lots of experiences with blogging, but typically chose not to write about it. When students write cover letters, they don't want to say anything about themselves. I think that some of the psychological approaches to understanding writing would probably help explain some of this reticence: anxieties about writing stupid things, anxities about insulting the reader with too much information, and just really phenomenal anxieties / dislikes associated with writing. I guess I have a really hard time putting myself in those shoes. If it weren't for writing, I might not say anything at all.

Thursday, October 17, 2002

The blogging experience is NOT too textual.. okay.. it is a little too much for them sometimes.. but that's why they add music to their blogs and images! Man, I can't believe I am defending text being such a visual person myself. Maybe the computer screen is visual enough for me!? I am currently IN the computer lab WITH my students.. ok, I am out on the MACS and they are talking and learning and researching on those OTHER computers in 150c... some were having problems getting on the classblog, but now all is well. Imagine THIS: The MACS were allowing them to get onto blogger easier (with that invitation thingie) THAN the OTHER computers.. ha ha ha!!

Cindy, do you mean Wed. the 23rd? I could do that.

Wednesday's class was a brainstorming day--got them to list projects, then talk in small groups. I am requiring a proposal by Friday. I need to keep them on task with the stretch stuff.

I also showed them my summer vacation video--the Brooks/Birmingham trip to Lake Vermillion. They seemed to think it was pretty funny, and of course it might actually humanize me a tad. One student stuck around to tell me about his cool Hamlet video project from high school--our students are gravitating towards video in a big way, I suspect. The Blogging experience is way too textual!

Tuesday, October 15, 2002

kevinkevinkevin.. you should take your wife's class because, REALLY, what is an academic? so many definitions are getting torn apart in front of me.. I think you are an academic, yea, but not old and stuffy (will leave ex. of a certain prof out of blog)... you just.. are different. For goodnesssake, I look their age.. which helps and doesn't.

as far as our blog, yea, I am proud of them... didn't expect that to happen especially with a reading I was skeptical about in the first place.

today went fast in class. I got them to write up/create their project rubrics and summaries (some hadn't done them last week- imagine that!)... we talked about article presentations this Thursday, what I want from them next week (to blog about how their projects are going AND watch a movie), and I updated them on syllabus changes.. paper #3 changes, etc. I sorta want to try having them do MyStories for Paper #3 maybe.. maybe. ok. I need to eat something and nap. Just got a LOT of my own work done and brain is about to shut down.

keep having 'problems' with the same people. they don't show up and then ask what the heck is going on. and i am TOO FREAKING nice to tell them that "HEY, you SNOOZE you LOSE." be aggressive, got to be aggressive... [cheerleader mode]

to follow up on some earlier questions/comments:

cindy: I have this one:
We've Got Blog: How Weblogs Are Changing Our Culture by Editors of Perseus Publishing (Introduction), Rebecca Blood

haven't read the others--seen them advertised.

Your in-class activities sound great. You are the new queen of small-group participation as far as I can tell. I find that I am aware of good techniques, but I forget to deploy them. I fall back on old habits and assume that students will do good work. Gotta started getting smarter about in-class activities.

Sybil, your class blog is rockin'! Nice going. I can see that your persona liberates students in a way that my persona doesn't. Certainly one of the unpredictable aspects of teaching. I keep hoping that your charms and personalities (both you and Cindy) will rub off, but I am teflon. Ahh, heck, I'm just an academic, and I have to accept that. I've been one since I was 14--my favorite book (still one my favorites of all time) was _Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind_.

yeesh, I'm loosing ground to the blog. My own went neglected 5 days, this one about the same, I'm guessing.

Group presentations on Friday--good students did a good job, less good students did less good job. Making the later into the former is the golden chalice of teaching (does that make sense--my eyes are bleary).

Today was stay at home and write a zero draft day. Got a little over half in. sigh.

I am pretty convinced that many of my students are thinking pretty long and hard about learning and literacy. In other words, I am happy with the course conent in general, just not specific readings I have assigned, and specific tasks that I have not been able to get the students to follow through on. Many in the zero drafts acknowledge that what they are doing here is way different from high school-- I guess that is a start to something. Nothing against high school--U should be different, though.

Wed. we look at the stretch assignment in detail. I do think many are excited about this component.

Monday, October 14, 2002

KEBYL!!! Hee Hee Hee (I just laughed outloud in the empty Mac lab..) I didn't really 'introduce' it.. I just told them I was going to put one up.. and WHAM.. sure, some talk is about partying and all that.. but the Rheingold discussion was way more than I expected. I just wrote on our class blog what I am going to do tomorrow... so jump over there for more details. Lunch with you two definitely helped my spirits and helped me brainstorm too. Thanks Cindevin. :-)

Friday, October 11, 2002

So they couldn't figure out Mark Amerika (well, in class f2f), but on our class blog they are discussing Howard Rheingold's Chapter One more than I thought they would.. pretty interesting. May have to assign more of him. Cancelled classes yesterday, but e-mailed them a list of stuff for next Tuesday AND told them that my syllabus was overhauled a bit.

Thursday, October 10, 2002

Gave back papers in class--didn't get much of feel one way or the other for what students thought. Lots of Cs, a few Bs, one D. D wasn't there.

They were working with their small groups--similar to the class Cindy observed. One group talks and interacts easily, another group has four members who seem to have a hard time talking. A third group works pretty hard, but never in an animated way. The fourth group doesn't interact much f2f, but they do seem to sit together and write on their team blog.

I'd like to know more about how to jump start the quiet groups, the ones who have trouble communicating. Not my specialty. I have dug up some reasonable readings of late. Check this web page for details.

Tuesday, October 08, 2002

hey, this posting is always one entry behind.

Note to self: started following the breadcrumbs: Weblogg-ed linked the discussion thread of "Blogs: A Disruptive Technology..." where our FSU friend and Jeff Rice (cool studies guy) both disagreed with the piece in various ways. Registered to jump into the convo, but ran out of steam. Such interesting stuff happening, so hard to stay on top of it all.


Can't leave a job unfinished. "Blogs: A Disruptive Technology Comes of Age?" provides a fairly standard history of blogging, its democratic/revolutionary promise, and a list of actual uses in education:

* Student logs (writing with various intentions) and portfolios
* A place for students, parents, and community members to collaborate
* Peer coaching environment for faculty
* Classroom management tool, e.g., place for posting assignments
* Knowledge management tool for compiling research logs, reference tools, policies and forms

Links to a few journalism weblogs are included, but no actual assessment of weblogging is provided. The article then gets a little more techie than most, moving from the standard (Blogger, Pita) to Perl applications, RSS, and open source initiatives.

The article concludes by saying that the growth of blogging may actually portend something: "When technology becomes simple enough, and leverages a basic human need, like communication, it becomes ubiquitous."

Maybe. As excited as we writers have been about blogging, my almost 1/2 way point assessment is that students don't like to write much, and still prefer email and IM. In a
link I followed
, some bloggers talk about the time issue, and most say that they are simply putting writing they would do anyway online. Few of our students fit that profile. Even my most engaged student simply gave up blogging and said: I am happy to do the research, but I can't blog it too. Or something like that.

This piece has a nice collection of links worth following and reporting on! ; )






Any serious consideration of the contemporary shoe must begin with a consideration of hegemony, the weight of the world, and the tendency among the youth of today to hang their heads, rather than look people in the eye.

Maybe it is because they never read anything I assign.

Okay, it was really academic, really tough stuff in some ways. But I tried to give guidance. Oh, and we had a snafu, as is wont to happen with e-texts. My version was different from their version. My version was from a journal, PDF format; their version was a Word doc.

I do hate to give up, but next year, I must avoid the tough readings. Gotta find more accessible stuff. Maybe starting with Amerika's blog novel would be fun. Or maybe Rule of the Bone (throwing ya one, Cindy), followed by Amerika. Literature takes over comp, again.

Lunch on wednesday--great. Union, great. My 1 pm class meets in the GDC. Cindy, where is your 11 am?

Sunday, October 06, 2002

Oh- Let's meet in the Union. Wanna do lunch together on Wed then?

Don't give up Kevin. (I know you won't.)
Because JUST when you think you are going to lose the game, the other team throws a ball... that lands RIGHT in the hands of one of YOUR players... INTERCEPTION!!! Those are the most beautiful feelings in the world. My brother's team, well my hometown's team (the Wahpeton Huskies: "Don't bet against us"), beat Fargo South Friday. It was awesome.

Ok- On Tuesday I am having them bring in 5 ideas for their stretch projects... they will announce them in class.. also I am having them read Mark Amerika's blog novel for that day too.. AND I had them write another Creative Minute Paper.. only directions: Be Funny. They all smiled.

They also all smiled when I wrote: Hemorrhoid cream, who knew? on the board...

ALSO- I am sending (via e-mail) you both my draft of what to give to the Spectrum. Should probably e-mail it on Monday to appropriate person, so look at it, critize, and send back. It's only 714 words. Can't go higher than that probably.

Wed at noon could work--Cindy and I could meet you some where after I visit her class, Sybil.

Too tired to make a proper link. Check: http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=6774 about blogging in edu.

Many students now seem convinced that blogging is pretty useful, and many seem excited about Unit 2 projects.

Your idea for U3 sounds good, Sybil. I will probably stick to a boring old paper, but I'll keep thinking about trying something different.

I'm working at making them better PC-Rats: do better research this time around. Check out my list of keywords for searching : http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/kbrooks/110/keywords.html. I don't want to give up on teaching them to be better students, better web searchers, more web savvy, just yet.




Thursday, October 03, 2002

Kevin Kevin Kevin... we did go KIND of ZOOM with the blogging.. but some still don't understand my enthusiasm.. my joy.. so I am in agony. Why can't everyone think the stuff I am into is COOL? Must be a lot like my obsessions with Macs and VWs. I will just have to deal. What I have learned from ours: Next semester I am definitely going to do a group blog.. and let them do personal ones ONLY if they want to. I MAY try to set aside time to set up a group one now.. but TIME is a bugger.. a blogging bugger!! hee hee.

My students were in 150c this morning.. the server went down and I freaked, but all turned out ok. Many got project ideas.. I have a few collaborating and some doing webpages to understand them. One is an assistant for the Boys BBall Team and is going to put one together for that. Very cool. Tom, the popular blogger, is teaching is partner how to put together webpages and then their paper will be about how Tom let go of doing everything (since he likes to do that- sounds like me) and how Chad learned from him.. I thought that was a great idea.

For my Unit Two- I am really going to let them FLY and find something that is passionate for them.. research based, personal, etc.. many are liking that idea and I am going to continue with readings here and there as well as blogging.

With Unit Three.. I want to do a huge collaboration project with them. Mainly so it can count for me in Betsy's class, but basically I have always wanted to put together a huge hypertext of multiple voices. Our topic would be Self in the Technology Age or something close to that... students in academics, etc. Not sure on details yet, but feedback would be great. Essentially, they would put a hypertext of their own up on the web and I would link between them.. and they could too.

How about next Wednesday around 1pm.. or should we all do lunch that day before Kevin has class??

Wednesday, October 02, 2002

Sybil, I told Betsy that I didn't think it was fair that your grad class just went Zoooooom! with the whole blogging thing. Where was the agony? Where was the anger? Why don't we all get to teach only grad classes all the time?

I was surprisingly positive after I finished with conferences. A good number of students finally saw some potential with weblogs when they had to get down to writing the paper. They visited friends weblogs, and lo and behold, a number of relevant sources filtered for them. I have got to learn to be patient! I have got to remember that I am not asking my students to do an easy and transparent thing, and then I need to enjoy the "aahh ha" moment when the light bulb goes on.


I introduced Unit 2 in class today. I realized 45 minutes before class that the essay "Reinventing Adolescent Literacy" is no longer online--I just about lost my lunch. Collected myself, ran to the copier (please don't tell!!!), and made 16 copies of the thing (9 pages long--yikes).

The piece is academic, but really informative. I'm thinking that students are actually starting to see connections. The piece echoes Levinson's "Needed: A New Literacy", but also gets in to specific issues like dealing with marginalized students and whether or not to teach critical literacy. It also argues that students need to be doing the kinds of things we are asking them to do, so I want to say "I told you so." I'll let you know on Friday how discussion goes. Oh, Cindy, I guess you will be there -- IACC 150C.

For Monday I am using a piece called "A New Communication Order" by Ilana Snyder (found on Infotrac. Long and academic, but again, lays out issues nicely and defines "new literacy" in complex ways. I am trying to do a better job of collaborative learning--student teaching with these essays and this unit.

We all need to get together and do one on one discussing about where to lead the class... what to changed or rearrange about the next few units. k? Sometime next week??

Tuesday, October 01, 2002

Hmph. Well, this will be a pre-blogging for my classes tomorrow. I should have time post-class, but I am finally on the web (had 74 new e-mails) after a long weekend to MYSELF.
+ I am starting to need ideas for the toolkit thing. I think, though, that my students and I will brainstorm together tomorrow with that. I think that if they want to research literacy in their fields (what language/terminologies do interior designers use) OR actual skills like CAD in architecture, etc. What are other examples you two are giving them?
+We are also reading a few "articles" from the www.alistapart.com site.. good lists on their of why to write, how to write on the web.. cross fingers for a good discussion on those items tomorrow.
+Plus we'll do proofreading for paper #1. I didn't plan writing conferences for this first one. I am HOPING that they used each other and their blog teams. This was probably a bad idea.. I will find out right? Then again, I want to try out grading conferences instead... gee.. I am brainstorming as I type... stay with me.
+Do you both have the paper due this week? I may give them until Friday. Maybe. Maybe.
+My students automatically knew they could use themselves in the paper. I don't know what I did.. telepathy again? Who knows.
+We have a team/group blog for Betsy's 758 class... I am spreading the blogging disease in the grad school...
+Going to FF on Friday to show blogs to middle schoolers was SO FUN. They ooh'd and ah'd a lot and wanted to know EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE. Kids rule. How can we bottle that energy for our use? hmmm..

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