clogs

In the comments of the last post, What Now asked how I make use of class blogs (henceforth "clogs" -- just because).

I've given a couple of talks about this (one with KFitz), and I have learned a few things over the years -- starting long before blogs, when I used Usenet in my rhetoric classes. Rather than trying to tailor my mental mosaic into a tolerable narrative, though, I'll just throw it all down paintball-style (ow!).

• You have to make it mandatory. If it's optional, a few people will groove on it and take the clog over as their private playground. When just a few people are posting, it veers off of its pedagogical mission very quickly and can turn into a dorm blog (dog?), for example, or a playground for the a cappella singers, or whatever.

• When making it mandatory, it's best to keep those points of the final grade separate from participation points and so forth. I learned the hard way that "Participation in class and on blog: 10%" is not adequate incentive; it needs to be "Blog postings: 10%."

• Let the students know what your expectations are. I usually say "two contributions a week on average," which generally gets me one contribution per week. But if you've said it repeatedly, and perhaps even posted it in the blog sidebar, there will be far less whining at the end of term.

• You'll still need to remind the class periodically about posting. I do it about every third week; KF email each student a reminder halfway through, saying "By now, you should have posted X times...."

• Comments need to count as much as new posts. This is extremely important, and perhaps counterintuitive. But the whole point of a class blog -- and a class itself, in fact -- is the interplay of ideas, and if students somehow get the idea that blubbering into the void twice a week is sufficient, you've undermined the whole mission. Make this very clear to them up front and it will soon take care of itself.

• Post the occasional comment or new post yourself, but don't be the most frequent poster. The clog should be a student space, and you're just one voice among many.

• Refer in class to great ideas or questions brought up on the blog. This is really important; if I praise a post or comment or thread in class, clog participation goes wild for the next couple of days. The more you do this, the less nagging about participation you have to do.

• Don't just permit but ENCOURAGE tangential posts, informal musings, "Come see my play!" posts, and general miscellanea, in addition to continuations of classroom discussions. This is really helpful in forming community, ergo trust, ergo comfort in testing new ideas on each other.

• Make the first post of the clog a list of examples of the kinds of posts that you welcome. Make some of them intellectually intriguing and others silly, just to get the point across.

• If posting is slow or clumsy, don't hesitate to ask a juicy question on the clog yourself. That usually brings 'em out of the woodwork.

• KF does this, and I'm planning to do it this semester: Have everyone choose a nym, and make up a nym-to-name handout, so everyone knows who's talking. Having a mix of real names and mystery people ("sphincterboy9000") doesn't help build community. And some people, at least, won't want their real names out on the web.

• I don't know of any blogging modules attached to course-management software (WebCT, Moodle, Sakai, Blackboard, etc) that are worth a damn. Talk to your IT department and see what they suggest. They may have a MT license, or they may be willing to shell out a few bucks a month for your class to get a Wordpress or Typepad account.

• Finally, get the folks in IT to do as much of the set up as you can -- you've got better things to do!

I'm sure I've left a few things out, but I'll add them as they occur to me, or as folks (inevitably) point them out. And I'm certainly interested in hearing what has worked for other people.

The pikkie is the second-funniest result I found when searching for "class blog." I didn't pick the funniest, because it was of a couple of kids, from someone's family blog, and it just seemed invasive. How would that blogger feel if he was roaming around the net and found a picture of his kids on some random person's blog? Ew.

Comments

[What Now?]

So helpful -- thanks! I've just bookmarked this post to refer to the next time I'm planning a class.

[Tiruncula]

This is excellent! Thanks so much for posting it. I'm planning to attempt a clog(tm) next fall, so I'll bookmark this and plan plenty of time to get the tekkie ducks in a row.

Next question: have you ever done a class wiki? I was toying with the notion of having a grad class work collaboratively on a commentary of a long and little-studied text.

[meg]

I have indeed played around with wikis, but I haven't managed to use them in a way that is more productive than blogs (and I can't them both to work for a single class -- that's too much tech for most of the students, in my experience).

I have had a couple of classes build ongoing wikis, using MediaWiki, but it wasn't entirely successful. KF (link in main post) has done great things with wikis, and her blog has links to at least one of them. Go check it out.

And that sounds like a great idea for your grad seminar, btw.

[Shhhhhhh]

Just a quick note to confirm the success of meg's clogs...

Having audited one of meg's courses (HEL), I can absolutely vouch for the success of her tactics in cloglandia. I was astounded at the number of interesting posts, having tried to implement the clog in my own courses in the past. In the future I plan to follow her example in some of my clogworthy courses. Her word here is clog-gospel.

[vemos]

Thanks for these great bullets. Much of this applies to all manner of online class-related communication. The only tweaks I am trying this term are:
*not calling the class blog a blog. Many of my students, older and younger, find the whole idea off-putting. Just call it what you want it to be.
*offering the option of student created "online research journals" (i.e. blogs) as a substitute for a one-off high-stakes presentation of research. That is, they keep their own blog over the course of the term where they reflect on the research process and results.

[Another Damned Medievalist]

Well, I'm trying a different set of LJ assignments this time. I'm trying to navigate some kind of mean between what I do with Blackboard discussion boards and some of the projects I did last semester. We'll see ...