Progress Report 1-26-08
After three weeks of using a class blog, my immediate response is: “Why did I wait so long to start?” It is an invaluable tool for constructive criticism, but I don’t have to give up class time to use it. I’ve seen some growth in maturity, especially as it relates to online posting, that I couldn’t possible teach through lecture. So much so, that I’ve advanced my student users from the role of “author” to “editor”. As authors they aren’t allowed to edit their comments, but as editors they can edit (and delete) each others’ posts or comments. We’ll see how that works out.
Looking back at my previous two posts, I have these observations:
1. We still don’t have our shows online (a major disappointment for me); but if we ever do I see the blogs as a major player in promoting interactivity between my students and their audience. That will be interesting to see.
2. I still need more online tools (like Google.docs, wikis, forums, etc., to help with show management and the creative process. Maybe next year.
3. WordPress is not the best choice for classroom blogging. It’s not meant for multiple users, and most teachers would pull their hair out (and look like me) if they tried to use it for such purpose. I need to search for multiple-user blog software (hopefully open source, too) which better fits.
I think our purposes with WordPress are probably quite different. I am using it more as a traditional authorial writing tool, and you appear, if I’m not mistaken, to be using it more collaboratively. The very little I know about a wiki tells me it might fit your purposes better. I guess its good though to experiment.
I’ll second the “I think the wiki would work better” thought. It is my understanding that the wiki is geared for multiple user input and the sharing of ideas.
My hat is off to both of you two for your attempts to use this in the classroom.
I can see the use of a wiki for collaborative script writing and storyline development, but I like the general structure of blogs. I just wish it were a little better designed for multi-user blogging. There are a couple of things I wish I could tweak in WordPress concerning user profiles. But it’s (blogging) definitely a good teaching tool.