Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Welcome to the EN 102 Blog!

This may well be my first and last posting here.  I don't know.  It seemed so cold and empty without at least one posting, I thought I should break the ice. 

I recently read a piece of scholarship about "backchannel" communication and its potential ties to education.  It was about the possibility of tying things like Facebook, Twitter, blogging, Youtube, etc, and bringing them into the process of learning.  This is an idea that some instructors aren't comfortable with . . .

And yet, I've been trying to find ways to use blogging as a part of my 102 classes for three semesters now.  This is my third attempt-- and inspired by this article, I am employing a strategy that is completely new.  Instead of giving you specific writing assignments for your blogs, I am having you all write together in a single, collaborative blog.  And moreover, I am not telling you what to write.  I am only grading this based on your degree of participation.  You will be required to write here-- but what you write, and how you use this space, I am going to leave entirely up to you. 

It seems like it might be a good space for you all to communicate with each other, to work out interesting ideas for your research, to write in response to each other, or even to bring in outside interests or content that might be fun for others, or which could be linked to your ongoing research.  You can embed images, youtube videos, and anything you want.  But be aware, you are also legally responsible for what you write here in this public and shared space, and you need to appropriately cite, link, and give credit for any text, art work, images, or video that may be copyrighted. 

I am excited to see what happens here, and I look forward to seeing what kind of creativity you might bring to what you share here. 

-Adam

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