{ The Comp Blog }

Introductory list found on my teaching blog. Will/can add to as we go along.

I can feel the springs in my mattress. Getting a new one with the move. Besides my crabby-ness due to that AND moving, I am excited to teach and to find good, cool things for this proposal as far as a reading list goes. I have readings for 'unit one' of Kevin's idea- obviously since my theory paper contained lots of "cool studies" in that area- so now I will find ones for the continuing questions... technology with composition.. technology affecting us... how should we teach/write in the technology age?.... The blogging articles I HAVE are positive so perhaps I should find the ones that I didn't use (there were about three really negative ones) so the students have both sides to look at as they blog. I will blog as I research blogs. wow.

Kevin- why didn't you tell me it was your bday? Happy Belated Birthday!

I will post something on here or on my blog or site today. I hope to impress you both.. as well as myself.

Read the previous post first.

Unit 2 would be a kinder, gentler, version of what I had been imagining for the whole course a while back.

Unit 3 would be a reflection or rebutall, and perhaps more of chance to do the personal narrative than the first two units. I would start the unit with Gergen's "Self in the Information Age" and maybe one other similar article (a similar style article that takes a different view than Gergen), and then ask students to write a reflection/response/rebuttal to this piece or pieces.


If we decide to use somewhat different syllabi, we do at least seem to be in the same ball park. We will just need to make sure we can agree on the proposal. I have a draft of that which I will try to send out tomorrow.

After talking to you yesterday Sybil, I began trying to "scale back" a bit. Here is what I imagine for a course outline:

Unit 1:
Weblogs: what's the use?
Pose this question as a legitimate, open question--teachers aren't sure what to make of web logs, we need student feedback.
Answer this question by reading journalism about web logs, trying weblogging (journal and filter), reading other web logs, reading the one academic article on web logs that I have found (search Infotracs if you didn't get that article as an email message), and talking with each other about the uses and misuses of web logs.

Unit 2:
Assembling a 21st century literacy toolkit.
I would like to use Unit 1 as a "model" for more independent research in this unit. Blogs are one possible tool; in this unit I would like students to design their own "toolkit." I think we could suggest categories (hardware--palmpilots, laptops, cell phones, etc.; software--Word, Dreamweaver, iMovie, Flash, more profession/discipline specific tools (e.g. CAD) search engine(s).

I would suggest assembling the toolkit on the blog or on a web site, and then writing a short paper that explains why these tools will be important.

I'm going to post before I lose this.

Following up on the portfolios:

http://www.kzoo.edu/pfolio/outstanding.html

Take a look at some sample. Might make this component more concrete.

I am starting to feel like the little kid playing with the big kids. Oh well. You both are amazing. Hopefully osmosis is taking place as I read all of your things and STUFF and I am becoming smarter by the minute. Kevin, I wouldn't mind creating a list (you bring up a good question as to why we like them) of good web sites and pages for them to view since during my stunt teaching this summer, I'd like my own students to just go OUT there and LOOK. I'll start them off with my blogs I think. My organization skills take over and I want to categorize the list.. blog places, cool sites, awesome personal web pages, flash sites, etc....

Have either of you heard of International Literacy Day?
http://www.reading.org/meetings/ild/
Maybe we can get our classes to actually organize a little something for September 9th--the monday following ILD (sept. 8).

Another long post to follow. I'm generating a lot of ideas, but having a little trouble giving this course some shape. Help appreciated. And maybe we don't need the details so much as the big picture. We do need a reading list: was that on my list of thing to do?
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Problem One: How should we write in a digital era? Or, what writing/reading/research skills are needed to survive in the 21st century?

Product: "MySurvivalKit" or "MyToolbox" (why is everything "my-X"?)

1. Blogging rather than journaling--brainstorming in public.
Readings: Blood; Blog, blog, blah.; students choose blogs to read. Find some readings on the value of journaling, brainstorming, collaborating, etc.

Writing: set up blog and journal; respond to readings, keeping notes.
summarize a reading(s). Should we bring summaries into blogging, or use "summary" as an example of print-based writing? Or, put summaries in the "done" bin--the electronic portfolio?

Freewrite on a regular basis in class--first ten minutes. After 2 weeks--what's the difference/advantage/disadvantage of blogging and freewriting?

or, maybe a more general assignment--what do you see as the potential of blogs (can range from none to considerable)? Refer to secondary materials and blogs you have reviewed. (due second or 3rd week?), as well as draw on personal experience. Introduce differences between voice, style, content, conventions of this academic paper and blogging.

2. Writing as research.
Find readings on information literacy; on search engines; on libraries!! Boolean searches. What have they learned in University Studies 189?

Things to do:
Blog teams--test a variety of search engines on a few terms related to "writing" and "research." Get students to generate some search terms--I think they have trouble with this. Dayna did some research into searching--let's check with her. Have a course blog where the group can summarize their findings and link to the team's blog. This summary could be a graded assignment (along the lines of a review).

How to read a web page. Let's compile a list of these, and then work with students to determine how we would determine which is a good "how to read a web page" page. Use this exercise as a model for the following:

What are the good "tip" sites for writing? Distinguish academic writing and professional writing (and maybe other kinds of writing--creative, grant writing, resume writing). Compile a list that you think will get you through college and into a career. Why are they good? Groups can work on these. Let's be sure to mix in the resources available in our library, in the tri-college, etc. Can include Smarthinking.com and sites where students can buy papers!

What are the good resource pages for the major you are interested in? Or good resources for a hobby/interest? Why are they good? Individuals might need to work on these. Could also work on library resources. [save for later? do databases next? transition into this one from databases?]

Maybe we could do these two things in the context of "listmania." Everybody puts together lists (amazon, David Letterman, other people)--why are lists so popular in the digital era? How are lists a form of personal expression? A primitive database? Maybe this should be saved for problem 2.

Databases and websites: what's the difference? [Anybody bored out of their tree, yet?]
Can they begin to find some answers to the question: what should they know about writing in the digital era? We might need to point them towards some specific discussion of this issue.

How else can they answer that question other than on the web, and via library? Interviews? Listservs? Surfing the course offerings of other universities--that would fit into using search engines, I suppose.

Cool writing on the web: what do students like? what can we show them that we think they might like? Here's a chance to do something with hypertext, with flash, but maybe still with databases--they can be pretty cool in their own right (the Shakespearean curse generator? the haiku generator). where can they submit writing online?

What do we do with all of this reasearch? T = Tale. Do we leave it open to them--design a web page that specifically answers the question? Write a fairly traditional academic paper / argument: "based on extensive research i/we believe that writing should be taught as it has always been taught: poorly." Write a guidebook or manual. Use flash files to illustrate concepts? Individual or collaborative? MyToolKit@school thingy.

I am betting a LOT of the problems Kevin is having is due to the Mac realm because I don't have that either.

As far as Blogger is concerned.. I don't know if they have blogrings (communities we could belong to like Xanga has), AND unlike Xanga, Blogger doesn't appear to have a comments area where people can just respond at whim. Do you like how I advertise Xanga? :-) That is my input.

Kevin, just give me a few things you want me to do for the proposal. I'd pick one, but all of them seem relatively "simple" to put together. I am writing up objectives for my NWtech college class right now... so maybe that one would work for me... but I am open to other 'assignments'.. I will be looking for cool stuff on the web for my own class so I will do that on the side.

That McLuhan blog information is awesome!!!.. may have to steal that for my paper. :-)

ePortfolios sound great too!! I love all these Mac sound-alikes.. iBook... iSeek.. ePortfolios..

Okay, I now have the full menu bar--although the link icon is still no where to be seen. Thanks CN (if only your middle initial were "N"...).

How do we get somebody to come read our blog? I can see that the whole public nature of our blog is less than public. Sybil, did people just start coming to your xanga blog? Did you have to go places, find bloggers, bring them back? Do we even have a space for others to leave comments?

Don't write long blogs online. I just lost a big chunk of time and text. Oh well, gotta learn.

My other blog: McLuhan Blog

Got it!!! Cindy, you need to go to "team" and set me and Sybil up as administrators--assuming blogger can handle more than one administrator. Then we will get to see the full tool bar. When I was on my other blog, I wasn't getting a tool bar there, but I just went and presto--in business.

Checked out your students blogs, CN. A couple of them have jumped in feet first. Others have only a toe in. Saw one reporting considerable excitement.

As far as I can tell, I simply am not getting a toolbar, hence my problems. No notes in "help" about how to get a toolbar. Help!!

Oh, by the way, I feel totally stupid using these blogs. I can't find the link button Cindy told us about, I can't figure out how to customize this site (or the McLuhan blog I started to create), I think blogger help docs are useless, and overall, I think blogger's interface sucks. I must be missing something. Cindy, you going to give me a tutorial some day?

Otherwise, blogging still seems cool, in a utilitarian way.

Let me throw something else into the mix: electronic portfolios. I know Cindy is scared of developing "a program" around our class, and of course that makes sense. What I think we can do for "the program" however, is try out some tools--blogging, and maybe electronic portfolios. Our e-focus makes e-portfolios a pretty natural fit, I think.

Here are 3 links--the concept is pretty straight forward.

http://aahe.ital.utexas.edu/electronicportfolios/
http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios.html
http://www.ash.udel.edu/ash/teacher/portfolio.html

Of course now we need to figure out what we are going to do in the course. How are the readings going this summer, Cindy?

I suggested to Sybil that we could try 2 problems: (1) what do "you" need to know about writing in the digital age? and (2) how is the digital age writing you?

I'll keep trying to fill in some assignments.

here's a to-do list. claim your prize!

describe the course
identify outcomes/goals (have them match stated goals of program)
come up with assignments
come up with a rough calendar
draft Institutional Review Board request (IRB) so we can study the class (Kevin)
develop assessment goals (focus on Blogging and maybe E-Portfolios)
look for cool stuff on the web

please add.

Wow. You both have been doing so much work!! And you've been BLOGGING too! Yippee! Cindy, I may steal some of your ideas from your blog as far as assignments, etc. Hope you don't mind- they just look really GOOD and fun. I found out yesterday that all my students this summer through Northwest Tech have to have a laptop in their program AND every room has internet hookup, etc. Cool huh? So they could blog IN CLASS. I am thrilled. I really wish I could do more research on these blogs, but it'll have to wait until after I have thoroughly planned this class. Hope you two don't mind. I am so impressed, really...

I would like to start doing a better job of teaching search strategies, the ins and outs of search engines, etc. Here is a start on a list. If anybody is browsing, look for a good article or two on search engines--how they work, what they look for, who designs them, etc.

http://www.searchability.com/
A guide to specialized search engines. This might be the place to start!

http://www.findsounds.com/
The premier search engine for sound effects that are 2MB or smaller.

http://femina.cybergrrl.com/
A search engine for finding resources by and about women that filters out pornographic and offensive material.

http://hippias.evansville.edu/
Limited area search of philosophy on the internet.

http://www.ixquick.com/
A meta-search engine (claiming to be the most powerful on the web!). Has an MP3 search option.

I'm going to copy and paste a large chunk of text from Word. This is brainstorming that Cindy did a while ago:

Kevin: do you see students using Dreamweaver for these projects? Or do we let them use any other software or online service they wish? I built my 120 assignment this semester on Dreamweaver, but, if individual students were already proficient in some other software or were using something like gurl.com or whatever, I told them to use that.

I’m just brainstorming.
Description: a version of English 110 founded on electronic literacy theories and emphasizing personal, critical, and creative writing on the web. Students will construct their own autobiographical web sites; explore personal identity in a variety of online assigments; and practice thinking critically about the language and grammar of the internet.

Goals (I’m brainstorming—let me know how these jive with what you have in mind? Make more specific and concrete?) to help students build literacy skills for effective communication in emerging technologies; to help them actively reflect on, and practice proficiency in, the grammars of the web; to help them actively explore new self-representations; to help them enter into dialogue with others who are exploring new self-representations; to help students "become aware of the complexities and contradictions within their own discourse and. . .experiences…" (Selfe and Devoss); to help them practice collaboration and teamwork skills which are often necessary for online communication and for the contemporary "relational" workplace; to foster both critical and creative thinking; to assist in their transition to new spaces for dialogue and the exploration of identity. Also: to help teachers themselves learn about these new spaces and to develop appropriate pedagogies for helping students.


Playing around with class plans. Mystory as focus of whole semester? I can see doing this for the whole term (rather than just a unit). Assignments within mystory to possibly include the stuff you mentioned in email:

ÿ personal journaling
ÿ assorted small assignments ("dense moments"; "wide imaging"; etc.)
ÿ weblog
ÿ essay comparing personal homepages, weblogs, or mystories (I think this is important. Get them reflecting and analyzing)
ÿ reading journal, to include individual as well as collaborative or dialogic responses to readings
ÿ essay reflecting on the role of writing in self-formation (end of term?)

Or instead do a homepage which links off to mystory and all/some of the other stuff? How do you see the plan for this thing?

Mandatory (?) readings: DeVoss and Selfe, Blood, maybe Gergen and Vivian.

Optional (?) additional readings to be chosen by teacher. (I’d probably use Bone. Girl, Interuppted. Other stuff. I don’t know. We can be compiling a list of recommendations?)

Damn, I wrote a bunch of stuff then lost it. My post window is cramped and I just noticed the post and post and publish buttons now. Do you two have a similar interface problem?