This slipped off my “to-do” list, and fell into the crevice behind my desk 😉 Back in February, I mentioned our Online Learning Group meeting where we had some local demos of how some of our faculty are starting to use weblogs. Well, I forgot to come back and post the notes from that meeting, but here ya go.
The most ambitious roll-out was Anthropology instructor Rick Effland (Mesa Community College) who was creating assignments for his students in “Buried Cities / Lost Tribes” (probably the most cleverly named course in our system!) where they were to write reflections on their class learnings, and student blogs were linked as co-horts using RSS feeds from other student bloggers. I am sure Rick and his students would get a kick out of some visitors dropping comments in 😉 hint hint hint
Beyond Rick and the others who shared their experience at this meeting, a few more blog-flowers are popping up in the Arizona sunshine:
Robert Klassen (Mesa Community College) has a blog resource for Physical Education.
Tom Foster (Chandler-Gilbert Community College) created a blog for his college’s Teaching and Learning Center as well as a more personal, “Who” flavored blog.
Donna Gaudet and Jim Tipton (Mesa Community College) are assembling faculty resources for the Mesa Center for Teaching and Learning blog.
Likely my favorite example, Robert Burget, an adjunct faculty in the Chandler-Gilbert Art department, is Testing the Waters on having his photography students use Photoblogs. Robert is writing his experiences in the above linked MovableType blog, but is also having his students post their photos in a Buzznet gallery affectionately named (and described) Side Show. Robert will be co-presenting some of this at the April Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference.
There are likely more out there, just hard to know them all. I am encouraged that this is quietly spreading among faculty, rather than landing on them like the 12-ton Course Management anvils.
These are some awesome blogs, fer sure, fer sure. Great examples and models for higher ed settings.
I’d start my own weblog, but my computer access here has been reduced because I threw my mashed potatoes at the wall. I only get ten minutes a day now.
Time’s up!
That collection of blogs from the anthropology class was very interesting – you could see a lot of learning happening through those posts. I’ve been following your blog for few weeks now and am really impressed with the technology use at your school.
Leon,
We are faxing you some gravy for those mashed potatoes.
Ben,
Thanks for checking out the blogs. We are a large system, and the innovators I cited are among the best of our best, but it sutely is not quite representative across the board…. yet.