Purpose:
The purpose of the Blog in EDUC 332 is for us to delve more deeply into course readings and to link course reading to current events related to school reform. A blog provides us with the opportunity for ongoing discussion of these issues outside of class and also lets us reflect on and comment on the thoughts of others. I owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Comas for talking with me about the way he uses blogs in his courses and this aspect of EDUC 332 is built on his model of classroom blogging.
This blog will help us to:
- Make linkages between what we are reading in class and what is going on in school reform today.
- Develop or test new ideas and arguments about school reform
- Get feedback from others about our ideas in real time
- Better understand current events related to issues of educational policy
- Consider the benefits and drawbacks of various school reform proposals
How it works:
This blog is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week and you can use it whenever you like.If you have things related to the content of our course that you want to blog about go for it. The course blog is located on the “blog” link from the course home page.
Primary Posting: Even if you don’t have things you are burning to discuss, you will be expected to create a substantial blog post during at least 8 of the weeks during the semester. That is correct — 8 substantial blog posts are required. These posts would be about 1 type written page.
Each week, I will post some ideas that you might want to think about or respond to, but you are not limited to the topic that I present as long as you are able to tie what your are writing about back to our course and our readings in a meaningful way. I can’t stress this enough — your blog posts have to be relevant to the issues that we are talking about in class and our readings. Quoting from our readings or providing references can be helpful in making these links.
Secondary Posting: Another important part of this assignment is responding to the writing of others with questions, comments, and connections. These can be shorter posts though you will want to make sure that they develop the conversation. Please don’t be overly critical with each other on these responses — the goal is generate discussion, not shut it down.
You are expected to provide at least two secondary postings each week.
Due Dates: Primary posts are “due” by midnight on Sunday each week. This is a hard deadline. Responses to primary blogs (at least two per week as discussed above) are due by noon on Wednesdays.
Blog Council: Each week a small group of students (see lists by date on the Blog Council page) has the job of reading all the posts and discussing them with me on Wednesday afternoon so that we can provide feedback to the class about the blog. For example the blog council will point out exceptional blogs, make suggestions about how to improve blogs, and any other useful observations. Make sure you know when you have been assigned duty on the blog council so that you set aside time to read all of the posts and are prepared to meet on the appropriate Wednesday at at the pre-determined time.
Assessment:
Your grade on the blog is based on two elements.
The first element is completion of blog posts and participation on the blog council. For this aspect of the course you must submit 8 primary blog posts (each of these are worth 3 points) and at least 2 per week (about 26 in total, each worth 1 point) secondary blog posts. You must also successfully participate on the blog council for one week (worth 5 points). A perfect score in this area would be 50 points.
The second element is related to the quality of your work. My job is to evaluate your posts and responses over the course of the semester and rate your overall blogging skills as exemplary (10 points), accomplished (8 points), developing (6 points), beginning (4 points) or inadequate (0 points).
These two elements are added together for a total of 60 possible points. Your grade in this area of the class is determine by finding the ratio of points earned to those possible. Overall, the blog assignment is worth 10% of your course grade.
Example: A student completed 8 primary posts, and 20 secondary posts. The student successfully completed here work on the blog council. My overall assessment of the quality of the work was that the student was an “accomplished” blogger. The total points earned were 24 (for primary posts) + 20 (for secondary posts) + 5 (for blog council) + 8 (for quality) = 57 points out of 60 possible. This is 95% and this is the grade that would then be included in a weighted average to determine the overall course grade.