Education and Activism

More unintentional federal irony

2007-10-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

This photo has been circulating through some of the education forums I belong to. It's a pretty accurate depiction of the true results of No Child Left Behind. Here's a question - is it also an accurate depiction of the true intent behind No Child Left Behind?

The Big Poets Anonymous K-Zoo Announcement

2007-10-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

Poets Anonymous Kalamazoo is growing! Starting in November, PAKZOO will begin to produce up to SIX SHOWS EVERY MONTH in venues all across Kalamazoo and beyond. No longer will PAKZOO be confined to one venue, or one kind of show. PAKZOO is dedicating itself to providing a greater diversity in audiences, hosts, talent, and tastes than has ever been attempted before in Kalamazoo. Now whether you prefer the competitive, raucous circus of poetry that is poetry slam, the intimate, open community of an open mic, or something in between, you'll find a home in the PAKZOO event lineup. Get a taste of what's to come on Monday, October 29th, at Papa Pete's from 8:00 to 10:00 P.M. We are calling it a Halloween Dress Rehearsal, so bring out those costumes a couple days early and get your money's worth out of them. Upcoming Poets Anonymous K-Zoo Events:

Tuesday, October 23 (8:00 to 11:00 P.M.) – Kraftbrau Brewery – Open Mic and Poetry Slam with special feature, Greg Bliss
Monday, October 29 (8:00 to 10:00 P.M.) – Papa Pete's – Halloween Dress Rehearsal Poetry Slam and Open Mic
Monday, November 5 (8:00 to 10:00 P.M.) – Papa Pete's – Open Mic Poetry Show hosted by Steve Ashby
Wednesday, November 7 (8:00 to 10:00) – Dino's Coffee Lounge – Open Mic and Poetry Slam hosted by Todd Bannon
Monday, November 12 (8:00 to 10:00 P.M.) – Papa Pete's – Open Mic Poetry Show (host TBA)
Tuesday, November 13 (8:00 to 11:00 P.M.) – Kraftbrau Brewery – Open Mic and Poetry Slam with special feature, Rob C.
Monday, November 19 (8:00 to 10:00 P.M.) – Papa Pete's – Open Mic Poetry Show (host TBA)
Monday, November 26 (8:00 to 10:00 P.M.) – Papa Pete's – Open Mic Poetry Show (host TBA)
Tuesday, November 27 (8:00 to 11:00 P.M.) – Kraftbrau Brewery – Closing the Bar Show – Free night of poetry and memories.

Don't forget to check out the PAKZOO website: www.pakzoo.org. We've just added a new calendar function, so you can keep up with our myriad events.

Campus Poetry Society

2007-10-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

We are starting up a new WMU Registered Student Organization called Campus Poetry Society.If you're interested in performance poetry or slam poetry, you should check it out.

The official Campus Poetry Societry website is here: http://www.pakzoo.org/cps

If you are a WMU student and want to join, e-mail me at tabannon@gmail.com and I will register you. I will need your full name and your wmu e-mail address.

You may still join as a non-voting member even if you are not a WMU student. Please e-mail me with your contact information.

We are not officially recognized as an RSO yet, pending approval of our constitution. Eventually, you should be able to find us on the "Search Organizations" page of the Student Organization Administration Program. Search for us as Campus Poetry Society or CPS. You may access RSO functionality at the WMU Registered Student Organization page: www.rso.wmich.edu/.

Virtual Worlds and Teach Presentations and Workshops at WMU

2007-05-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

Virtual Worlds and Teaching
Experiences, Results, and Possibilities
Presentations and workshops offered for the WMU community by participants in the Virtual Reality in Teaching and Learning Presidential Innovation Grant.

Presentations
Learn about the virtual world projects! WMU faculty and doctoral students will describe their experiences using virtual worlds in their teaching during the 2006-7 school year. Although presentations will focus on literature teaching, they will be of interest across disciplines.

May 29, Tuesday
10:00-11:30
Sangren Hall, Dean's Conference Room, 3rd Floor
Allen Webb, Introduction
Gwen Tarbox, Judith Ortiz Cofer
Linda Dick, Pied Piper
Todd Bannon, Charles Dickens
Joe Haughey, “Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Tim Heacock, “The Tempest”

June 6, Wednesday
3:00-5:00
Sprau Tower, 10th Floor
Allen Webb, Things Fall Apart
Cynthia Klekar, Moll Flanders
Todd Kuchta, Mrs. Dalloway
Steve Feffer, Angels in America
Casey Mckittrick, Native Son
Gretchen Voskuil, Of Mice and Men

Workshops
Design your own virtual world!
Experienced faculty as well as student technology support will be available to help you design and develop a virtual world you would like to use in your teaching and/or scholarship.

May 29, Tuesday
3:00-5:00
1215 Wood Hall

June 6, Wednesday
3:00-5:001215 Wood Hall

Questions: allen.webb@wmich.edu

TED | Talks | Richard Baraniuk: Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning (video)

2007-04-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone from class will be keeping up on our blogs, but I plan to continue using this one for my thoughts on education.

My friend sent me a link to this video about the end of textbooks. I think this is pretty relevant to our conversations this semester. It's all about using open source tools to bring content from authors to students. I like the idea of on demand publishing that gets rid of the middleman. It brings cost down and significantly reduces the turn around time. I am most interested in how students could customize exactly what they're going to be reading.

It's an 18 minute video, so have some spare time if you want to watch it.

Richard Baraniuk: Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning

Your PAKZOO 2007 Poetry Slam Team

2007-04-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

What a phenomenal night! Absolutely fabulous. We had a great open mic including two unexpected musical performances and two poems by Kinetic Affect. We had a great crowd, a high energy level, and pumped poets. In other words, the stage was set for a perfect slam tourney finals night.

The two rounds tonight were added to the two semifinal rounds. The poets themselves voted for the format prior to semis starting. I think they chose wisely. There were some surprise performances tonight, but ultimately the poets who were most consistent over the three weeks came out on top.

I've just gotten through double checking my spreadsheet math to make sure everyone's scores are in the right place and added correctly. The following scores are final and official.

Oliver Lewis: 28, 29.7, 27, 28.3 = 113
Mark Kopiwoda: 26.7, 25.3, 28.2, 29.8 = 110
Garrick Oxley: 26.8, 29.1, 27.3, 26.3 = 109.5
Leah Olson: 28, 29.4, 24.9, 25.7 = 108
Jonah Frick: 25.4, 26.6, 27.5, 25.9 = 105.4
Darren Ledbetter: 22, 23.4, 23.5, 23.1 = 92
Brandon Dellario: 20.9, 18.7, 19.5, 24.8 = 83.9

The team is: Oliver Lewis, Mark Kopiwoda, Garrick Oxley (non-competing*), Leah Olson, and Jonah Frick. Darren Ledbetter and Brandon Dellario are alternates.

*Unfortunately, Garrick is not old enough to attend NPS. He will still be an official team member, and will perform at all other events.

Once again, congratulations to all competing poets tonight. I was very impressed.

(Cross-posted from my blog at www.pakzoo.org.)

Help! I need to design a class

2007-04-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

I have seven days to design a class and build a syllabus for it. My debate is exactly what the class will be about. Some ideas:

Poetry Slam: Writing and Performance.
Teaching Poetry Slam: Using poetry slam in the English classroom.
Encouraging Student Activism: Integrating activism into the secondary classroom.
Other ideas

Obviously, the first option is creative writing, whereas the other two are for future teachers. They have to be housed in the English Department, so I need to frame them as English classes.

The first two classes having to do with poetry slam would be fairly easy to build. I am very vague on what the third class would look like. However, this is tightly tied to my dissertation research, so it's pretty applicable.

Suggestions? Advice? Mild chiding?

Actors, writers, and directors needed

2007-04-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

The following is an ad from X-Performance Group. Please see my commentary below:

Needed: Actors, writers, directors and spaces on Avenue of the Arts for the next edition of 24 Hour Theatre - Saturday, May 12, 2007.

This will be the 19th production of 24 Hour Theatre, which has been performed at least twice a year in galleries and warehouses since 1999.

This production will be organized by local underground performers X-Performance Group and Space vs Time in partnership with the Dwelling Place, which founded the Avenue of the Arts several years ago.

The unique 24 Hour Theatre experience consists of five original one-act plays that are written, directed, and performed within a twenty-four hour period.

This time, the plays will be performed in five apartments and storefronts along the Avenue of the Arts, which runs along Division Avenue from Weston to Wealthy in Downtown Grand Rapids. Like the popular Arts Walks, the audience will travel from space to space, enjoying all of the artistic talent in this town.

24 Hour Theatre actually begins the day before at 8 pm with five writers gathering to get direction from the show's producer, Rachel Finan. Then fortified by plenty of coffee and lots of donuts, they write their plays until 6 am Saturday morning. Directors for each play arrive an hour later and to talk with the writers, who then go to sleep. The actors arrive at 8 am and then they rehearse with the directors until 7 pm. The audience shows up at 8 pm and the show starts at 8:30 pm.

Nearly 100 plays with 350 characters have been performed through this exhausting process. "We get a lot of support from the local theatre community," said Ms. Finan. "Despite what they say, they are energized by the less-experienced performers and they like being able to play different characters."

24 Hour Theatre will begin at the Martineau Apartments at 106 Division Avenue South. Doors will open at 7 pm and the plays will begin at 8 pm. Tickets are $7 and available at the door. For more information, or to participate in this event contact Rachel Finan at yoroc111@aol.com or go to www.spacevstime.com.

I have participated in 24 hour theatre at various times as an actor, a writer, and a director. It is a great experience for the experienced and inexperienced alike. If you are looking for a unique experience that will stretch your abilities and your test your limits, I suggest you give it a try. You should contact Rachel directly if you are intrested, but please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the experience.

PAKZOO Finals

2007-04-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

Slam Destiny

Poets Anonymous K-Zoo
April Slam Tournament Finals

Sunday, April 22nd

8:00 – 10:00 PM

The four finals winners qualify for the
2007 Poets Anonymous K-Zoo National Poetry Slam team
to compete in Austin, Texas August 7th-11th

Ravenwood Coffee

773 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo, MI 49007
(269) 341-4200

$5; All Ages Welcome

For more info, contact:

Todd Bannon
tabannon@gmail.com

www.pakzoo.org

2007-03-02T10:42:00.000-08:00

The April Slam Tourney is coming...

Are you qualified?

Poets Anonymous K-Zoo
Open Mic and Poetry Slam

THIS WEEK:

Final Qualifying Slam for the 2007 Tourney
Top two finishers win cash prizes and are qualified for the April slam tourney.

Sunday, March 4
8:00 – 10:00 PM

(Free Slam Workshop at 7:00)

Ravenwood Coffee
773 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo , MI 49007

$3; All Ages Welcome

Slam Night at the Fights

2007-03-02T10:15:00.000-08:00

CURTIS ISAAC’S EASTSIDE BOXING CLUB

In partnership with

POETS ANONYMOUS K-ZOO

PRESENTS

“SLAM NIGHT AT THE FIGHTS”

SATURDAY
MARCH 3, 2007

C.E.C. GYM (OLD CENTRAL H.S.)
714 SOUTH WESTNEDGE
KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN

AMATEUR BOXING AT ITS BEST

SLAM POETRY COMPETITION
DURING INTERMISSION

TICKETS: $10.00 ADMISSION
(COMPETING POETS ARE FREE)
DOORS OPEN AT: 7:00 PM
FIGHTS START AT: 7:30 PM

Sanctioned by USA Boxing, Inc.

Students Talking about Books

2007-02-28T14:23:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if this will work or not. I'm having trouble editing the eduactivism website, so I'm hoping the pasted link will work here.

Students Talking about Books: Mules and Men Edition

P.S. I got the mp3 to work on my Encouraging Student Activism website now. You can go at it either way.

It's not really a podcast, though. I need to set it up so someone could subscribe to it.

If I was a professor, I'd be on the Wall of Shame too

2007-02-27T16:38:00.000-08:00

I took a political compass quiz at Political Compass. I already knew the outcome before I saw it. Most of these quizzes are pretty simplistic. More importantly, they measure ideology over real-life decision making. However, this one is better than most.

For some reason, the graph does not display as a gif, so I have to reproduce it here differently:

My score:
Your political compass
Economic: Left/Right: -7.63

Social: Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.54

Where economic scores are negative on the left and positive on the right, and social scores are negative for libertarian and positive for authoritarian.

As a grad student, I am sure I am below the radar of the College Republicans, or else I might make their Wall of Shame, as our colleague has. (See Western Herald article below.)

College Republicans have caused a stir on campus with their Hall of Shame

I am interested in an instructor's positioning in the classroom. I think most people would advocate for instructor neutrality in the classroom. A teacher is in a position of power and students might feel the need to mirror his politics. While I agree that teachers should not be in the business of creating political clones (something the Right wing fears is happening in American universities), I am not convinced that teachers should remain neutral.

Like it or not, classrooms are public spheres and as such, they are charged with the same politics as the world outside. Teacher neutrality is the same as complicity in the hegemonic status quo. Is it not then the duty of instructors to ensure that alternative viewpoints are heard?

In the literature class I am teaching, I am hoping the alternative viewpoints can be found in the texts I select: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood; Mules and Men; I, Rigoberta: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. These are not my voices, but they are voices outside of the hegemonic power structure. They are voices that students need to hear.

Ultimately, I want my students to gain the ability to think critically, to analyze the world around them. This can be a painful process, especially when their belief systems are similar to the institutions they are analyzing. With pain comes anger. That anger is often misdirected.

I can deal with that, even if that earns me a spot on the Wall of Shame.

Podcasting Brain Freeze

2007-02-23T11:21:00.000-08:00

I'm really excited about the potential for podcasting. It's yet another tool I'm considering for my ENGL 4790 students next semester.

In the meantime, I am still considering what I'm going to do for my demo podcast this week. I have student conferences on Monday, so I'm considering interviewing them and putting that on a podcast. I could ask them questions about conferencing in general, the writing process, or texts we've read this semester. Hmm... I'll have to think about that. Alternatively, I could do a solo podcast on an educational technology topic.

All this thinking about podcasting made me decide that I really should be podcasting my poetry shows at Ravenwood. I went to Guitar World to purchase something that would enable me to record directly from the microphone to the computer. I have a cheap little 4 channel Crate PA system and the inputs are somewhat limited. They tried to sell me a $200 solution, which would make sense if I was in a band. However, for spoken word, it seemed overkill. Instead I purchased two cords that split the signal from the mic cable and then divert one of the signals to my computer. For $30 I can now get direct recording to the computer that I can easily turn into a podcast.

I can also use one of the wires to connect the mic directly into my computer when I'm not using the PA system. I guess I can return the WMU microphone I borrowed.

Tying it all together

2007-02-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

I need to continue a thought I started in the Nicenet threaded discussion on 5970. Hmmm. I wonder if I can link directly to that thread here:

Conferencing Topic: How is 5970 going?

Here's the deal: I want to incorporate everything I'm learning in 5970 in my classrooms, but I know that it would both be near impossible and possibly stupid to attempt to do so. It's fine in the context of this course to sample all these technologies, because we are participating in meta-education: we are learning technology so that we can use the technology in our own classrooms. It's not like Allen is expecting us to experience each of the technologies we are learning each week. (At least I hope not.) I just don't think it's a good idea to try to do the same thing in our classes.

I think the first thing I would have to do is decide is what I want the central technology of my classroom to be: a class website? student blogs? a class wiki? a threaded discussion site? Then I would have to match up my objectives of the course with the tools that technology offers. If there are gaps, then I would add a new technology to fill in those gaps. No gaps? Then there is no need for a new technology.

The answer to this question is probably different depending on if you are talking about K-6, 7-12, or college. You need different tool sets when you have students most of the day every day versus part of the day every day versus only a few hours a week.

Above all, student buy-in is essential to creating a meaningful experience. If I decide that my students need to both participate actively (daily) in threaded discussion and keep their blog up to date (weekly?), then I need to demonstrate how those two activities are accomplishing two very different tasks. If I can't demonstrate this, then I should seriously considering using one technology and not the other.

Finally, I think it is important to get student feedback throughout the semester. If a project isn't working, there is nothing wrong with altering the project, dropping the project, or melding the project with another project.

A bit of shameless self-promotion

2007-02-21T06:15:00.000-08:00

Poets Anonymous K-Zoo is proud to present:

An Evening with Buddy Wakefield

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

8:00-10:00 PM

Ravenwood Coffee

773 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo, MI 49007
(269) 341-4200

$5; All Ages Welcome

Open mic poetry before and after Buddy’s performance

BUDDY WAKEFIELD is the two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion featured on NPR, the BBC, HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, and most recently signed to Strange Famous Records.

For more info, contact:

Todd Bannon: tabannon@gmail.com

Poets Anonymous K-Zoo: http://www.pakzoo.org/

Buddy Wakefield: www.buddywakefield.com

Blogging was OED Word of the Day

2007-02-14T16:56:00.000-08:00

I just started subscribing to the OED's Word of the Day RSS feed. One of the nice things about Google Reader is I get the older feeds whenever I get a new subscription. I was browsing through today and came across this entry:

weblogging, n.: OED Word of the Day
from Oxford English Dictionary by Oxford English Dictionary

1995 Re: Help! in comp.lang.awk (Usenet newsgroup) 26 Oct., I'm just logging my
web-hits for personal satisfaction and so I can provide some info for the
curious. BTW, I've streamlined and expanded my web logging in the last few days. 1998 InfoWorld (Nexis) 16 Nov. 56d, Bypassing Web
Commander..will prevent you from taking advantage of all of SOS-Pro's Internet
features, including time limits and Web logging. 1999 Web
Techniques July 51/1 Web logging was originally designed for Web engineers to
diagnose problems and measure total throughput, not to provide insights that
could improve the marketing performance of a site. 2002
Economist (Electronic ed.) 6 July 67 Yet just when old media began to feel smug
again about its old-fashioned paper-based products, weblogging (known as
blogging) happened.

NOTE: I'm not sure if the links in this post will work if you don't have an OED subscription. I am subscribed via WMU.

Teaching Writing Wiki

2007-02-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry I didn't put this up earlier. I wanted to get more content out there before I posted.

I really want this wiki to be a collaborative effort. I'll be using it for my ENGL 4790 class I'm teaching next semester. However, it would be great if teachers and students at all levels were able to contribute to it.

Teaching Writing

RSS implications for the classroom

2007-02-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

I read the RSS Chapter in Richardson's book (Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, for you first time readers). It's a great summary on the hows and whys of using RSS feeds in the classroom. Of course, we just had Robert Rozema, in our class last week, so some of the information felt slightly redundant and a little pale. The book was published in 2006. I am only half-joking when I say it needs a new edition to bring it up to date.

I'm thinking ahead to the next time I teach my writing methodology class, and the wheels are turning. I'm sure I will add to and otherwise alter this list, but off the top of my head (and fresh from stealing from Richardson), here are some ways I might use RSS feeds next semester:

Course Readings. Imagine a set of readings for a class that, not only don't need to be printed and copied, but aren't even decided upon ahead of time. I can create an RSS bundle for students to subscribe to and this will become our weekly reading for class. I am not suggesting that I get rid of texts in book form, but RSS bundles could make highly relevant and completely up to date supplementary reading.
Student-Guided Readings. Why should I do all the work. If students discover interesting feeds in their research, they can share those feeds with the rest of us.
Aggregated Blog Reading. As Richardson suggests, the aggregated reader is a great way to keep on top of student blog posts without having to go to each site individually to check for updates.
Student Research. Wouldn't it be great if our research came to us? Oh, yes. This passive, pushed research can't take the place of active research, but it could certainly supplement it.
Student Publication. Finally, RSS feeds will allow my students to make their work more visible on the web.

RSS, like any other technology, will not prove to be a golden bullet for education. It's a tool. Unlike blogging, this tool is meant to increase efficiency, but won't necessarily change the way we think about the way we teach.

A brief RSS sampling

2007-02-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

Later this week, I will do some experimenting with what I can and cannot do with RSS feeds. I'm very interested in RSS applications in education.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show an RSS sampling based on the feeds I am currently subscribed to. I have subscriptions to all the ENGL 5970 blogs; news feeds for "student activism, public writing, service learning, PeaceJam, and poetry slam; and I subscribe to some specific sites as well (for instance the New York Times Education section).

My Google reader gives me these top headlines:

SLAM IDOL (1)
slamidol20070203 - The Slam Idol Podcast - February 3rd 2007 - Wishes by Jannie Jack The Slam Idol Podcast (http://slamidolpodcast.com/) - February 3rd 2007: Show Number 173 - Featuring "Wishes" by Jannie Jack ...
- Google News (3)
Local poet competes in world series of slam - Worcester Telegram Local poet competes in world series of slam Worcester Telegram, MA - Feb 1, 2007 Today, Jackson, 24, competes in her first ...
Erin Jackson - Worcester Telegram Worcester TelegramErin Jackson Worcester Telegram, MA - Feb 1, 2007 Erin Jackson of Shrewsbury made a splash as a member of ... Poetry jumps from page to stage - Vancouver Westender Poetry jumps from page to stage Vancouver Westender, Canada - Jan 25, 2007 Swan is Vancouver’s representative at the ...
The State of Student Activism (2)
Better Get Used to Yahoo ID I met with Bradley Horowitz of Yahoo last week, and the message that came through loud and clear was how important Yahoo ID is ...
The problem with MSM podcasting: Idiotic questions One thing that's great about being a print reporter: You can ask idiotic questions and--with the notable exception of the ...

In total, I have 55 new items since I last checked on Friday, so I obviously have a lot to read.

The following is a list of subscriptions that have given me new items in the last couple days (number of new feeds in parentheses):

Google News -"Poetry Slam" (3)
Slam Idol (1)
GotPoetry (1)
Google News - "Service Learning" (15)
Google News - "Student Activism" (18)
Business Week (2)
New York Times -Education Section (11)

I see that I made a mistake in my subscriptions. When I was first playing with RSS feeds, I found an article in Business Week called "The State of Student Activism." I subscribed to it, thinking I had found an entire feed on the topic, but what I was really subscribing to was a section of Business Week that happened to have an article on student activism. Now I get feeds from that section, but they are always labeled "The State of Student Activism" even if they're about (as is the case today) using Yahoo ID.

I obviously need to tweak my RSS subscriptions. I need to delete some and I need to get more specific in what I'm asking for. I want my feeds to apply directly to my dissertation work. I don't mind wading through a few articles that don't directly apply, but I definitely won't have time to go through hundreds of articles daily - not if I want to have a life.

Later this week: implication in education

I'm not sure how I feel about this...

2007-02-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Rob and my new obsession with RSS feeds, I came across this article:

Student’s Recording of Teacher’s Views Leads to a Ban on Taping

I think the student did the right thing in recording his teacher. The teacher had definitely crossed over the line separating church and state. He was imposing his religious views on his students. The student who recorded him knew that no one would believe him without the recording.

However... what do we think about being recorded without our knowledge or permission? What if it was the school administration or the federal government that had been doing the recording? Conservatives are encouraging college students to record their liberal professors to gain ammunition against them. I would be a hypocrite if I supported the student in question here but condemned the conservative students.

I guess I come down on the side of a classroom where students feel safe to express themselves freely. If they feared their comments would be made public on the Youtube, then our discussions wouldn't be as frank and honest.

Do threaded discussions work?

2007-01-31T12:06:00.000-08:00

I'm talking about classroom forums like Nicenet and Blackboard. I am also thinking about any of the millions of topics-based forums that exist. Online forums are a major part of what Will Richardson refers to as the Read/Write web. When we are using online forums, we are reading what other people have to say and contributing in kind. We respond to others' opinions and other people respond to our opinions. We tend to carry on several asynchronous conversations simultaneously.

While it is true that there is a certain amount of talking to hear ourselves talk, for the most part, real communication is going on. Ideas are evolving through their interplay with contesting and complementary ideas.

This works extremely well in topic-oriented forums where everyone who participates is doing so by her own free will and because she is interested (sometimes obsessively so) in the topic of discussion. However, threaded discussion can become a pointless exercise in a classroom setting IF students don't have a good reason for doing it.

I learned this the hard way in my 4790 class I taught last semester. I had expected the online discussion to be one of my students' favorite tasks, but a midterm survey I conducted showed the opposite to be true. Almost unanimously, my students said the online discussion was redundant with the classroom discussion we were already having. From my subsequent conversations with these students, I've put together the following guidelines for a successful threaded class discussion:

For threaded discussion to be useful, students need to respond to each other. If they are each posting without reading each other's posts, then we just have a writing exercise. As I said earlier, it is the interplay of ideas that causes ideas to evolve.
Threaded discussions must be seen as a path towards a destination, not the destination itself. Threaded discussions should be the kernels of future papers and projects.
Topics can arise naturally from class discussions, but should never merely repeat class discussions. It's more useful for a topic to preview an upcoming classroom discussion.
I like to think of threaded discussions as thinking out loud. Students should feel safe to play their thoughts out in their infancy in this very public forum without fear of ridicule.
Expectations should be explicitly stated. Unfortunately, it might be necessary to require a minimum word count, a minimum number of posts (weekly or semester), or minimum number of responses to other students' posts. I recommend weekly deadlines for posts.
The instructor should take part in the conversation, but only to model, not to instruct.

Although blogging is different from (more sophistated than? more adaptable than?) traditional threaded discussions, the same rules should apply when using them in an educational setting.

Encouraging Student Activism Website is down

2007-01-30T07:57:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of moving another website into my root directly and moving the Encouraging Activism site into a subdirectory. Because of this the website is down. I should have it back up by the end of the week.

Update:

The site is back up.

More than a journal

2007-01-30T06:17:00.000-08:00

Chapter 2 of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson may turn into a seminal text in developing my dissertation. Before reading this chapter, I had no idea about the possibilities blogs had in education.

First off, blogs can be used as a class website or portal. A well-used blog is updated far more frequently than a traditional website. Teachers can have complete transparency - allowing parents and administrators to see what students are working on a weekly or even daily basis. This would also allow easy communication between teachers and parents. As a class portal, blogs could be used by students to keep track of and turn in assignments.

Blogs can also be used to store class work, which is a great tool, both for students and teachers. It's nice that students don't have to worry about losing their homework or for a file to get corrupted on their computer. Likewise, teachers don't have to worry about the myriad excuses that tend come up around every assignment deadline. (Well, there will be fewer excuses, anyway.) Since, assignments can be stored on blogs, the next logical step is using blogs as electronic portfolios.

Ultimately, I am very interested in blogs because of their implications for public writing. We are by definition writing in the public sphere when we blog. For most of us, our audience is small. However, we have seen the potential for a wide national and even global audience for blogs. Richardson sites Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign as a good example of the power of blogs to raise money and awareness (3). Students should feel a sense of accomplishment and pride of work in publishing a blog that is read and responded to by people outside the school walls.

The next step for me is to start implementing these ideas into my classrooms. My current section of English 1100 is making use of WebCT Vista . It's working fairly well, but its limitations are becoming apparent to me. Nothing we do there can be considered public writing, since only people in the class have access to what we publish. Students don't have access to each other's files, so it's difficult to do any real collaborative work (at least through their tool set).

The question is, do I create another set of tasks for my students this semester or do I wait until my next class? I'll probably wait. Although I always tweak my classes as I go to meet the needs of each particular set of students, I don't want to create more work for them this late in the game.

Multi-tasking in class

2007-01-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

I'm running into some conflicts between what I know intellectually about education and what annoys me as an instructor. Specifically, I am conflicted about students multi-tasking in class.

I know that students have the ability to participate while doing something else in class. I do it myself. However, I think there is a line where students and have completely checked out and are no longer participating. Now, this is college and they are adults. I'm not about to start calling students out for checking on their e-mail in class.

I don't lecture much in class, so when students aren't participating, they're missing good class discussion - discussion that they should be adding to. They are missing out, but so are their classmates who would benefit from that they have to say.

I do a lot of small group discussions in class, and this forces students into participating. We also have group projects that necessitate full participation. It's really only during the full group discussion that I am noticing this problem.

I feel like the structure of the class I am teaching is a big part of the problem. Students are in straight rows with computers facing away from me.

I guess I'm just thinking out loud here. I've already decided that my next course of action is a class discussion on this.

Website up and running

2007-01-18T22:56:00.000-08:00

I gave up on using WMU to host my website. I'm using Bluehost instead.

My website is called "Encouraging Student Activism" and you can find it at: http://www.eduactivism.org/

I have a lot of work to do, and it looks like a couple pictures didn't come through, but you can get a feel for the general look anyway.

Nate Dannison drew this.

Wireless Laptop Classrooms

2007-01-17T15:04:00.000-08:00

As I read this article, I am struck by the biggest weakness of the high-tech classroom I am teaching English 1100 in - structural inflexibility. We can't move our desks! I realize how spoiled I have been taking classes and teaching classes in the room with the moveable wheeled tables. In a matter of minutes, the class can be rearranged from straight rows into groups of four, a circle, a double circle, pairs, or any other configuration imaginable. There are no limitations beyond the physical walls of the room itself.

Laptops on every desk is nice. The document projector is very nice. The dual projector screens are great. The room is completely wired for whatever audio/visual needs I could possibly desire. However, despite all this technology, the room goes against everything I have learned about teaching. Namely, this room is set up for lectures. All students are facing forward and the professor dispenses his invaluable knowledge. We know that very little real learning can happen in this way. We know that students need to interact and participate.

This is not an English Education classroom. For all it's electronic modern age wonders, the teaching philosopy that dictates the structure of this room is remarkably similar to what we would have seen one hundred years ago.

English 1100

2007-01-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

I'm teaching English 1100 for the second time this semester. I have completely overhauled how I am teaching it, and am hoping to make full use of what I learn in Allen's teaching and technology.

First off, I am attempting to make my section paperless. Through WebCT Vista, e-mail, and a completely wired/wireless classroom, I might be able to avoid any paper submissions. I am even contemplating having the students submit an electronic portfolio at the end of the semester. This should eliminate the need to hang on to boxes full of old unclaimed student portfolios between semesters.

One of the major projects my students will be working on is the creation of a MOO for novels they are reading. In groups of four or five, students will study a novel, plan how to present it, and then create a virtual environment that represents that novel. I am excited about what they will be able to come up with. With novels like A Scanner Darkly and Heart of Darkness to choose from, there are too many possibilities to comprehend. Most of my students share my excitement, but there are a few nervous students who worry about the technology side of the project. I plan on spending a little time each week getting them over the learning curve. I want this to be a fun and (relatively) stress-free project.