ETC@BMC

Laura Blankenship July 17th, 2008

Why use social software?

For me as a writing instructor:

• Blogging offers opportunities to engage an audience
• Through that engagement, students can hone their arguments
• While focused on ideas, surface-level issues such as grammar and spelling become part of public presentation
• Creates a scholarly/learning community in miniature–following Kenneth Bruffee and his ideas of discourse communities
• Link to blog site (http://bubo.brynmawr.edu/~dblank/woi.brynmawr.edu/)
• Apathy’s blog (http://bubo.brynmawr.edu/~dblank/woi.brynmawr.edu/apathy.html)
• Summary of blog activity (http://bubo.brynmawr.edu/~dblank/woi.brynmawr.edu/summary.html)

Anne Dalke

• Learning community
• Public intellectuals
• Anne’s forum/blog (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/2349)
• From Anne’s article in Bryn Mawr Now:

“There’s a sharp contrast between the traditional way of producing academic writing and the current way a number of us here go about inviting students to publish their writing on the Web,” said Dalke. “Our mode tells students, from the get-go, that they are participating in larger debates on the topics they are studying.”

• Christina/Apathy’s Blog: (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/blog/381)

Blogging within Blackboard: the Plant Blog

• Examples: Amy Scott, Ashley

Software environment and details matter. Take advantage of technology to create the environment you want.

• Serendip–expansive site with lots of possibilities, hard to create a separate space, may feel artificial
• Standalone site or offsite–separate space, flexibility to configure as needed, public (or private), possibly no support
• Blackboard/CMS–contained and separate space, familiar, easy to use, not public

• announce