My new thoughts on blogging

Last summer, when I wrote a proposal to incorporate blogs into the TE 448 course, I wasn't sure where the project would lead. Since I was pretty new to blogging myself, I knew that I was going to have to learn along with all of you and draw heavily on the expertise of the class. Thank you for making the project so successful!

Part of my identity and practice as a teacher is to analyze student work and consider student feedback as I teach. Sometimes I do this more formally in action research projects, and sometimes I just think of it as part of good teaching. Usually I try to share what I've learned with the class in some way, although this is the first time I've gone "public" with my reflections! (And, since I, like all of you, will need a portfolio when I begin my job search, this record of my thinking will come in handy!)

I've spent today summarizing results of our end of the semester feedback activity, rereading your blogs (especially from the day we did a completely on-line discussion), thinking about how we seemed to use them for different purposes, reflecting on the discussions we had throughout the semester, rereading the correspondences from different authors, looking at our "public" site for final projects, and even revisiting the post-its that are stuck to the wall by my desk that say things like "How can I encourage more commenting???".

Here's what I'm planning for next semester:

• Sharing your feedback with the new TE 448 instructor who is planning on continuing to use blogs. I'll talk to her about whether she might offer more or a different structure that would encourage more focus and commenting. For example, I wonder if only subscribing to your group's blogs would have focused conversation. Or, maybe a schedule? The tension for me here is that this feels less authentic. I usually think of blogging as writing that one does as the spirit moves you!

• Developing a community, class blog for TE 348 next semester, decreasing the number of required posts, and making a rough schedule for posting/commenting. I'm hoping that this will focus discussion and make the project more manageable. Since TE 348 is a prerequisite for TE 448, I'm also thinking about this as a kind of scaffolding that might make individual blogs in TE 448 more manageable.

Here are my new questions:

• Will having a community blog focus on-line discussion so that people feel that others are reading and responding to their ideas?
• Will the change shift the interaction patterns? For example, will there be more student-student interactions, rather than student-instructor-student interactions? Or will students think of the blog as "my space"? (Ha, ha... You know what I mean!)
  
• Will there be something lost in the process? For example, I hope that students from this semester continue to write on their blogs. (HINT, HINT) Will students feel less ownership and/or stop blogging after the semester is done?
  
• How will the work load change for me as an instructor? Will it feel more manageable?
  

I'm sure that this newest experiment will raise new questions and innovations! For anyone who would like to see how it goes, you are welcome to read and comment on the TE 348, SS08 blog!

Your thoughts on blogging

As promised, I'm going to post a couple of more times! For anyone who is interested, these are the results of the feedback on blogging you gave me on the last day of class. Although I've added comments here and there, my next post will say a little bit about how I will use it to think about next semester!

Responses to end of semester feedback:
47 responses
(if numbers don't add up, it is because some people wrote more than one answer per question)

How much experience/knowledge of blogging did we have before the semester?

• No experience with blogs before the class (29)
  
• Heard of blogs and/or had read someone else's blog (10)
  
• Quite a bit of experience--they had their own personal blogs or had used them in a class (8)
  

This makes me even more excited that you reported you felt comfortable with blogs at the end of the semester and also makes me appreciate how much you all collaborated with each other.

How comfortable do we feel now?

• Wow. Everyone said that they feel comfortable reading and managing their blogs! Three people did say that they were careful about what they posted since blogs are so public. Many people said that they knew what they wanted to keep learning--sometimes these responses were technical, sometimes they were more about becoming familiar with other blogs and the genre in general.
  

I hope you all keep blogging and "learning along the way". I'm still subscribed to all of your blogs, so you may hear from me!

Will you continue to use blogs? If so, in what capacity?

• Yes, they will continue to use blogs in these ways: (35)
  
• Incorporating them in their classrooms (20). Two of those students mentioned bookclubs specifically.
  
• Reading and sharing ideas (general) (7)
  
• Communicating with parents (5); other teachers (4); and with friends (4)
  
• Finding books/researching (3)
• Adding to a professional portfolio (1)

• In the future as teachers, but weren't planning on doing it soon. (3)
  
• Maybe, but didn't elaborate (3)
  
• No. (6) Although everyone said they would do it if assigned for another class! Several people said it was because they didn't enjoy blogging and that it took too much time.

I hope I hear about how this goes! One topic we didn't talk about is that you may be working in communities where blogging is common and you may work with people who are new to the technology.

What was gained by including blogs in the class?

• Wider range of ideas were shared in the class. (39) People talked about four factors that we gained with the blogs: people had time to think about ideas before responding, we had more time to communicate since we weren't bounded by the class session, and that it was easier for shy people to get in on the conversation. The number of people who said that blogs enriched participation convinces me that they were valuable in the class. At the same time, I need to think about creating a classroom community in which more people feel comfortable participating!
  
• Good preparation for teaching (4)
  
• Project helped them work through a fear of technology. (2) Me too! :-)
  
• Blogging felt "safer" than face to face conversation when talking about serious subjects. (2)
  
• Each of the following was positive: development of artifact, access to information, gained a new literacy skill, found resources, and served as a record of the course. (1 each)
  
• Nothing was gained (1)
  

What was difficult and/or potentially lost?

• Nothing was hard (14)
  
• Remembering to read or post was hard (8)
• Number of blogs was unwieldy (7); several people said that it meant that people weren't responding to each other enough because of this. I agree. I hope the restructuring at the end of the semester helped with this.
  
• Blogs can't be substitute for face to face discussion (6)
  
• Coming up with ideas to write about was difficult (5) You know I struggled with this! You all had so many good ideas in class, which I wanted you to see as legitimate to write about!
  
• Workload/time (4)
  
• Technology was confusing (2)
• Blogging sometimes felt forced, so we didn't get depth (2)
• Fear (1)
  

Would you recommend continuing to use blogs as part of the course?

• Yes, continue using blogs (42)
  
• No, don't use blogs (3)
• Undecided (1)
• Make it optional, maybe for extra credit (1)

If so, are there any changes you think I should make?

• Develop a clear schedule of when people should post (7)
  
• Use prompts (6)
• Require a different mix of posts/comments (3)
• Require more posts (2)
• Require fewer posts (2)
  
• Clarify grading (2): What counts as "a post with substance" To clarify, I meant a focused idea, not necessarily length or elaboration. I emphasized this because I saw some responses like "I agree" without any elaboration. My posts on this blog aren't always a good example of brevity and focus!
  
• Talk about the fact that the general public doesn't have this as part of their lives; require responses; don't require responses; talk more about how to write shorter posts; build in reading author blogs; provide time in class; have a class blog. (1 person each)
  

Maus I Discussion

For anyone who wants a break from studying on Monday and wants to continue thinking about Maus:

Schuler Comic Book Discussion Group Meeting
(Eastwood store)
Monday. December 10. 7:30 p.m.
Join us for a meeting of our monthly Comic Discussion Group, exploring and investigating the publishing industry’s biggest boom medium - comics and graphic novels! This month’s title is Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman, completing our discussion of the Big Three comics that changed the comics industry in the mid-80s.

I talked to the woman who is organizing the event. She was very knowledgeable and excited about graphic novels. She also said that she was planning on having the group read American Born Chinese next!

Since I can't seem to leave a bookstore without a couple of purchases, I picked up The Invention of Hugo Cabret and The Arrival. I promise I'll finish working on the final projects before I open them up.

Hearing on Autism Services

Melanie asked me to post this so that more people would see it:

Hi,

I have worked with some children with autism and have seen many families who don't get insurance covered for diagnosis and treatments for those on the Autism Spectrum. There was a press conference scheduled today at the Capitol in Lansing. There is a hearing on December 13 at 9am in front of the Health Policy Committee at the Capitol to get the bills about the insurance coverage for families passed. You can find more information on their website: http://autisminsurancemichigan.blogspot.com/.
On this website there's an email address that you can send a letter about your experiences with families who have children with autism and let them know how a lack of access to Autism Services has impacted these families. This website also provides the address, time, and more information about the bill.

Please attend this hearing on the December 13, 2007 to support these families!! We need as much support as possible!

Melanie

Responses from authors

We've had two responses from authors this week: David Levithan replied to a question about Boy Meets Boy from a student in Monday's section and Sarah Littman responded to our class questions about Confessions of a Closet Catholic!

Since both of the responses were sent as emails, I'm not going to post them here. Rather, I'm going to put them up on Angel.

It's really exciting for me to hear authors respond to questions posed by the class!

Trillium Poetry Reading

Come to Trillium this Thursday evening to read and/or hear poetry with other College of Education faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates!

6:30 pm
Thursday, December 6th

252 Erickson Hall

Food will be served. (And you'll see 252 transformed into a very different type of space!)

Final session (and beyond!)

It is Tuesday and I've realized that I may have confused people in the Wednesday session by putting this up too early. For Wednesday (section 001), all you have to do is post your final projects posts (3-5 reviews, 1 professional review, and 1 post reflecting on your project). I will go over the final post and public post in class on Wednesday.

I will say this in class, but thank you for a wonderful semester! Talking to you about books and reading your writing has helped me think of the books we've read and the ideas we've explored in new ways!

Please keep in touch. I'm always happy to talk about a new book or think about a classroom challenge! (I'm still subscribed to your blogs, so if you keep writing, I'll keep reading and responding!)

A final checklist: Everything is due by Monday or Wednesday of next week.

• Hand in blog log. If you don't have it in class, drop it by Erickson 357 (and drop me an email so that I know to expect it)
• On your blog you should have:
• Final project: 3 fiction reviews, 1 professional resource review, 1 post in which you reflect on an aspect of your project as a whole
• Final course post: Find some time in the upcoming week to reread your questioning the text papers, look over the course syllabus, and page through the course readings. Then write a short reflection that highlights how your thinking about diverse literature has changed over the semester. What have you learned? How has your reading/understanding of diverse literature changed over the semester? Do you have new questions/concerns? Where will you go from here? Focus on whichever prompt(s) make sense for you! (This is not a course paper. The idea is to highlight, in a concise manner, a few key points!)
• "Public post" for final project:
  
• In the next couple of days you will receive an email on your MSU account inviting you to be a contributor to the "Issues of Diversity in Children's and Adolescent Literature" blog. Respond as directed to this email.
• Post one or more of your final project posts to this blog. Remember to follow the model for a full citation and labels for the posts.
• Future classes will build on your work, so keep your eyes open!

I know this is a lot to do at a busy time of the year. Email if you have questions. (I'm also around to meet in person!)