Hi Jay... I am using Blackboard in my Sociology of the Family course. Every week, I post two topics: one from current events, one from the text assignment. Students remark using their personal experiences.
Some students are very comfortable with this format and love to log on several times a day, writing very long, personal posts -- almost seeking a therapeutic release, I believe (the course covers so many intense, personal subtopics). I respond to each and every post, always linking their observations back to something in the text, to guest speakers we've had, or to family issues in the news -- otherwise it can just get too intensely personal. While in grad school (recently, at the same school where I'm adjuncting now) one professor utilized Blackboard in a similar way but would not post herself, except for the initial question. Some students found that frustrating...to get no feedback from the professor. Both as a student and an instructor, I notice class members do not seem to post to one another -- barely at all. More than half the class does not seem to like posting on Blackboard period (again, my experiences as student and , for 2 semesters with small and large classes, as instructor), though not doing so in my class impacts their grade substantially. My main reason for implementing a Blackboard component into the class is that I am sensitive to the fact that some students are shy and will not speak up in class -- this provides another outlet for them to participate in discussions. I grade postings subjectively, based on frequency of posts, detail, and connection to studied material. These postings count as 30% of the grade, with 40% drawn from the subjective grades of 2 exams, and the other 30% from attendance and other assignments. I plan to continue using Blackboard -- though it keeps me working throughout the week (better than a mountain of papers once a week though) Sarah Murray William Paterson U of NJ (we're neighbors!) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jay Livingston" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Teaching Sociology" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 8:24 AM Subject: TEACHSOC: Class blogs > > > A few weeks ago, Andi Stepnick posted something about having students > post journal entries to WebCT. I'm curious as to how this works because > I was thinking of doing something similar. Many years ago, back in the > pre-Internet dark ages, I had students keep journals. I required two > entries each week. In each journal entry, students were to try to link > an idea from the course to something specific from their first-hand > experience. It worked well with some students, but having to read and > comment on so much handwritten material was burdensome. > > So I was thinking of having students do something similar now but on > Blackboard -- a sort of collective blog. Each student could see what > others were posting, and they could make comments. Perhaps discussions > would get started. > > I wonder if others have experience with class blogs, and how anyone > thinks something like this would work, what problems might arise, how it > would be graded, etc. Any suggestions? > > > Jay Livingston > Montclair State University > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teaching Sociology" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/teachsoc -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
