Exemplar URLs

Worth asked us to list those URLs we use to demonstrate the use of blogs in pedagogy and research. As I thought about this, a number of good ones came to mind. But I decided to only list those that fit the categories Worth supplied (pedagogy and research), and which I find significant enough to subscribe to as RSS feeds.

(1) Cory Doctorow's famous "Boing Boing." Although it's too big for me to read evertything, and something of a "geek news" blog like "Slashdot," the fact that Doctorow is a working writer who uses his blog as a source of ideas and items that interest him, I felt I should include it.

http://boingboing.net/

(2) Johndan Johnson Eilola's "Datacloud" Blog. A Professor in the independent technical writing program at Clarkson University, and a Purdue Alumni, Eilola is probably the "Blue Sky" thinker of my field.

http://people.clarkson.edu/~johndan/datacloud/

(3) Clay Spinuzzi's blogs from the Computer Writing and Research Lab at the University of Texas. Spinuzzi' blog "Network, Technology, and Distributed Work" is a perfect model of a blog used for research purposes.

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/?q=blog/3

He also maintains a separate pedagogy blog.

http://pedagogy.cwrl.utexas.edu/

Found My Notes

Here's how my description of what I propose to accomplish should read:

Worth Weller, along with student Shannon Eichenauer, will demonstrate how blogs can be used as a collaborative learning and research tool to teach critical thinking, to develop and share multi-media projects, and to serve as an electronic portfolio.

CELT Presentation Format

I’m working from memory here, but I think the consensus was that Steve would open our presentation with a brief discussion about blogs, their pros and cons, and then let Stephen Pepple show his blogs and how they work with his classes.

Then I’ll introduce blogs as a collaborative learning and research tool, talk about assessment, and let Shannon Eichenauer show how her blogs enhance her critical thinking.

Then Sandy will wrap up explaining how Wikis can be used for classroom management and how blogs can be managed so as not to add yet another overwhelming assessment task.

If we have 55 minutes I propose we let Steve and (Stephen if available) have 15, me and Shannon 10, and Sandy 10, leaving 20 minutes for Q&A. I think if we aren’t able to draw 20 minutes of questions and comments then we haven’t done our job well.

Shannon has committed to being there, which frankly may be enough in the way of a student presence, unless Stephen is already on board. We’ll want to help our students know how to focus their comments.