Mar 07 2012
Welcome, Course Developing Bloggers!
What are we doing? Why are we here?
Learning objectives for blog assignments in our workshop:
- To use social media to reflect on learning and to connect with a real audience
- Posting your blog entries is one part of what you’ll do here, but commenting on others’ posts is just as important. Who knows? You may also see comments from visiting readers, such as colleagues here at OSU, colleagues from other campuses, authors we’re discussing, or tween pop star Justin Bieber. (Well, it could happen … this is a public blog!)
- To gain experience with a common social media tool and try something that you might use in your class
- To share artifacts created for your courses
- Collaboration = Inspiration!
- To learn from each other’s reflections and creations
- Two heads are better than one!
How often do you need to blog?
- Participants will need to post two original blog entries during this six-week professional development. However, you are welcome and encouraged to post and comment on each other’s posts more often.
What are these categories and tags all about?
- Categories have been created for you and are based on the learning outcomes for our training. (Each category name is an abbreviation of a learning outcome.) Each post you write should relate to at least one of our class categories. Placing posts within categories is an organizational strategy, but it’s also a form of metacognitive reflection.
- Tags are up to you. Try to come up with at least three tags for each post. Tagging a blog post is kind of like creating an index; it helps you and others find information in the blog.
How long do blog posts need to be?
- Use as many words as you need to get your idea across. Keep in mind that blogs are not dissertations. Most blog posts are between 100 and 500 words. This one is about 300, which makes this a good place to stop!
Hi Karen and Shannon!
I love the look of this blog, and I want to use blogs in my courses this summer. What do you think is a better venue for discussion? A class blog or the discussion board thread?
Thanks,
Kathy
Okay, so I posted my first entry before I read the Wk instructions, but I think my question still applies. One of the biggest challenges I’ve found as an online instructor is the lack of authentic discussion. There is often very little student to student/student to instructor interaction, and most of what I’ve found is that it’s a brief discussion board post with 3 replies. One of the things I’m hoping to get out of this class is to be able to create that open discussion forum that is truly generative and creative where real learning takes place.
;-D
Kathy
Kathy, this is a great question! We’ll be tackling the subject of online discussions in week 5 of this workshop. You are correct — it can be challenging to get authentic discussion happening online, but it’s great that this is your goal! Factors such as posting requirements, types of questions posed, and facilitation all affect the quality of online discussions. If you’d like a sneak peek, you might want to check out this tutorial: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/dce/training/shannon/Online_Discussions/player.html
Hi Everyone!
I don’t have my credentials yet, so I’m posting my blog entry as a reply…
I’ve taught several online courses, and I have to say the development process and support was nothing like what is here at OSU. I met with Shannon this week, and it honestly took about 20 minutes for me to realize that I was actually being supported! The tools available us are pretty amazing. I sure hope my learning is reflective of the support offered.
I’ve also taken online courses, and Kathy is right: it is hard to get genuine discussion going. It seemed, at times, like the course was “fired and forgotten” by the instructor. I do think it will be easy for my situation to not fall into that trap. Spoken Word poetry relies on energy, and I just don’t see that energy flagging as the course goes on. I guess that is because I’m the instructor, though. I’m not sure if I could do, say, a math course online–but that may be because I’m not a math instructor. Say, will we be able to be “enrolled” in a course or two just to lurk and observe? I think that would be an amazing opportunity. Oh, hey, because I have a giant ego, and because I want to be a bit interactive, here is a reading of a poem of mine I read at Cave Canem. Enjoy! (the chew is actually mint, not tobacco)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8CVnSMZaJ0
Hi Everyone,
Last term when I taught an online class, I was also not sure how the response will be from students. I asked them to introduce themselves and they will get easy 10 points if they do that. Every student did introduce themselves and earned 10 points. To have the discussion going, I told them, every week they will be getting 10 points if they post/ask questions or some interesting observations/thoughts from weekly readings and respond to other student comments. It worked really well for me last term.
Seema, you’ve identified one of the things about online students that used to bug me, but which I learned to accept and even embrace. Students will perform for points!
This is so different from discussions on campus, isn’t it?
Tim, I loved your poem! A hat in one hand and a gun in the other — what a great line that is. And your performance–WOW! After speaking with you the other day, I’m not sure I would have been able to identify your voice if there hadn’t been a video to go along with the audio here. Thanks for sharing this — I think your students will really enjoy seeing your readings.
I think blogging is a great tool to help students market their knowledge, skills, interests and expertise. As an assignment for our class, we require our students to engage in social media such as blogging and LinkedIn. It allows them to become active participates in their field and community.
Dear All
If I look at the question posed, “Comparing and Contrasting F2F and Online Teaching and Learning.” and review some of the blogs and replies above, it seems easy for people to go off topic. This is one of my concerns regarding blogging. How do you keep people on track, without being rude? It could be onerous on the examiner and the student learners to have to sift through a lot of chatter. One tool we use in Science is the Logic Model which helps identify topics, defines actions taken, records results of those actions and then measures the impacts. Perhaps this is something we could apply to blogging?
Thanks
Clive
Hi Shannon
In reviewing my comment above, it appears that there is a problem with the time recording on the blog. I send my reply through at 10.15 am but it is being recorded as 5.14 pm. It also appears that one you your comments was submitted at 10.53 pm. Is this correct/ intentional? If an instructor were to set a deadline for an assignment this would affect submission times significantly and some students might not comply with the deadline?
Thanks
Clive
Hi Clive,
It looks like I hadn’t set the time zone in the blog properly when I first set it up. The times should be accurate now.
In Blackboard, assignment submissions are time and date stamped automatically, but you are correct: If you are using the blog tool outside of Blackboard, and if specific times/dates were important in your grading scheme, then you would definitely want to double-check this setting and test it out.
Another thing to think about is including Pacific Time in your instructions when you write up assignment due dates/times. You may well have students from all over the world, so be sure to include this notation in your assignment directions.
Hi Everybody,
Last term after i trained a web-based class, I had been also unsure the way the response is going to be from students. I requested these to introduce themselves and they’ll get easy 10 points when they do this. Every student did introduce themselves and gained 10 points. To achieve the discussion going, I said excitedly, each week they’ll be getting 10 points when they publish/request questions or some interesting findings/ideas from weekly blood pressure measurements and react to other student comments. It labored very well for me personally last term.
Thanks. You’re right.
You already know that your right about blogging it is a very important process for any business owner to have and operate…