Course Design by Patricia Geist-Martin

Blogging Sites
I am going to have my students blog as part of a writing assignment. While I realize that some students already blog, I would like to ask them to use the same blogging site for my class. I am new to blogging so I am looking for your advice on a site to use for this assignment. In addition, I am looking for efficient ways to give students credit for this work without the need for me to read and evaluate every entry. So any suggestions for that would be very much appreciated.

My students will be creating podcasts as reflection on their community based service learning projects. I want to design a way for them to engage in reviewing others’ podcasts. I would like to design the process to work in such a way that a random selection of each person’s podcasts will be reviewed by three other students (so that I have inter rater reliability).

Does anyone have any suggestions about efficient and effective ways to design this process???

I am working on the message I want to send out to the class about creating their podcasts and I find myself struggling with designing the message so that it motivates, even inspires the class of 30 students. Eventually this class with be large lecture and that makes design principles even more complicated. Recognizing that people are motivated differently makes this a challenging process. In the first go round with podcasts some students were motivated just by the newness of it all, others saw it as a chore, others truly used it as an opportunity to share what they had learned. So the question I am considering is how the design of the initial message, describing the rationale and use of the podcast can motivate and inspire students to be creative in the process of implementing their podcasts.

Finally. I am writing my first blog. I admit, I am not a blogger. I have read blogs. But not often.

Like everyone, I spend countless hours at my computer, usually innundated with e-mail. So when I finally have the “spare” time that I might spend reading blogs, I want to be as far away from my computer as I can get (and that includes using my laptop in the woods). So here it is Mother’s Day and I have given myself permission to take care of a few things that have been sitting on the back burner, like this one.

So I am reticent. More than that, the carrot is hidden or missing.
So, the question I would like to pose for those of you who blog regularly (particularly here and in relation to our PICT fellowship) is why? What motivates you? What do you gain from doing it? And is it fun?

I promise to log back on again soon to see what you all have to tell me.

thanks,

patricia