T Blog

For our final class meeting of the 12 o’clock, 4 o’clock, and 6 o’clock sections:

Students completed a survey on attitudes toward information literacy for Professor Yi Gong, the post-test complement to the one from the beginning of the semester. Portfolios and final instructor drafts of the semester-long project were handed in, and students did a group letter writing assignment reflecting on the course and providing advice for next semester’s Blog of One’s Own Students. (I’ll post these here on my Keeneweb blog.)  Now, students are all done with their work for the semester, since there is no final in this course–all the work is mine now, as I read and respond to final papers and portfolios.

Thanks, Spring ‘08 students, for a challenging and rewarding semester!

For our penultimate class meeting of the 4 and 6 o’clock sections, I handed out instructions for submitting essays to Blackboard for ITW submissions, answered questions about the final draft of the semester-long project, we did peer review of 15-20 page drafts, listened to the third and final podcasts by students about Baghdad Burning, and students filled out evaluation forms.

Peer Review Method: 1) Carefully read your classmate’s essay. 2) Identify two of the elements from the Grading Standards Sheet that they’re doing well with and the highlight the parts of the essay that demonstrate that. 3) Identify two of the grading standards elements that you think they could most fruitfully work on. 4) Write your classmate a half page note (on notebook paper or on their essay) explaining what two standards they’re doing well on and why you think so, and what two standards they could work on, and why you think so. Sign your name return the essay to your classmate.

In class this Monday for the 12 o’clock section, tutors Haley and John came from the Writing Center to do a workshop on proofreading and editing. Thanks, guys! They covered transitions, sound-alike words, writing formally, the importance of a polished final project, having a strong claim, and more.

I also handed out the directions for submitting the final draft to the TW Blackboard site and handed out portfolio checklists and grading standards sheets to students who didn’t get them last week. Just as a recap, you put your final draft and all previous drafts with the instructor and peer feedback in a portfolio with a printout of all your blog posts (you don’t have to print out Keene-Ning) and hand in that physical copy on Wednesday.  For Wednesday you also have to submit your instructor draft electronically to the digital Dropbox on Blackboard for this course, and submit an anonymous copy of your essay to the ITW site on Blackboard. 

Finally, we listened to the podcasts students recorded in our section for the final homework assignment, which I thought provided a perfect final discussion of Riverbend’s Baghdad Burning. I was proud of the thoughtful responses students had to the book.

On Wednesday you’ll complete another survey on information literacy for Professor Yi Gong like you did at the beginning of the semester, complete a “Letter to Next Year’s Class” assignment with your group (your choice of written or Gabcast response), and hand in your final portfolios. Portfolios are due at the beginning of class.

First of all, an alert student brought to my attention that the directions handout says that Podcast 2 is not due until midnight tonight, and of course I will honor what the instructions I gave you in writing, so anyone that didn’t post a link on their blogs to Podcast 2 yet has until midnight tonight.

In class today I handed out a portfolio checklist that tells you everything you need to hand in the last day of class, and a Grading Standards sheet that tells you how I will evaluate your final draft of the semester-long research and writing project. We went over them, then discussed the reading in Baghdad Burning, students’ impressions of it, and I asked for students’ thoughts on what it’s like reading one blogger in depth and at length, and now that you’re all experienced podcastters, I asked for students insights on how audioblogging compares to text blogging.  After the break we did peer review of 15-20-page drafts. Today’s method was to read the essay, identify two of the grading standards that it was especially successful in, highlight the parts of the essay that show that success, and then write a note of about half a page to talking about what two elements from the grading standards the essay was most successful at, and what two might be the most important to work on to create a successful essay.

Individual conferences continued Monday for the 12 o’clock class yesterday, and today, Tuesday, for the 4 o’clock and 6 o’clock sections.  (There’s been great attendance and punctuality, by the way, so far–thanks and congratulations to students for showing up.)

We’ll be back to regular classes tomorrow 4/22 (Wednesday) and 4/23 Thursday. 15-20 page peer drafts are due on Wednesday for 12 o’clock students and and Thursday for 4 and 6 o’clock students.

Wednesday will be regular peer review, and the 12 o’clock class will have a proofreading and workshop next week by Writing Center tutors. Thursday will be a the tutor workshop for 4 and 6 o’clock students.

It’s fun watching the podcasts appear in the feed. Everybody, remember to post links on your blog to your podcast for each homework assignment.

Happy writing!

Today and yesterday (Wed 4/16 and Thu 4/17) were individual conferences, so we didn’t have class, and with the beautiful weather, I think it was pretty good timing! Conferences will continue for the first part of next week (Monday and Tuesday) and then we return to regular classes with that big 15-20 page peer draft.

Tips for the research and writing project: All drafts should have a works cited list, and we’re using MLA style for documentation. See page 412 of Hacker for a sample Works Cited list. To cite an entire website, see Hacker 389. A page or “short work from a website” is page 390, and your articles from Academic Search Premier are cited like a “work from a service such as Infotrac” on page 391 and 394.

For integrating quotes, review Graff Chapter 2 and 3.

Finally, every essay needs a strong claim. A claim or thesis statement should be an assertion, an arguable statement that a reasonable reader could disagree with. Then the essay has something to prove and the reader has a reason to keep reading. Or if you need a more practical reason to present a strong thesis in your introduction, you’re unlikely to be able to get an A on your essay if it’s just a “data dump.”

If you’re looking for blogs on your topic, check out Technorati at http://www.technorati.com. They have a great search engine. And of course, don’t forget the massive number of social computing examples tagged in my del.icio.us bookmarks: http://del.icio.us/mendhamt/socialcomputing.

You’ve just completed HW 41, and HW 42, the first podcast, is due at the beginning of next week. You have the directions, and they’re also on the Documents for ITW 101 page.

Have a good weekend, and good luck with your essay writing!

The agenda was the same for the 12 o’clock, 4 o’clock, and 6 o’clock classes:

I confirmed appointment times verbally. (Other teaching duties came up that had to take precedence over sending 54 reminder emails….) An introduction to podcasting answered the question, “What is a podcast,” and I demonstrated the program Audacity and the service Gabcast–students will be creating podcasts and posting links to them on their blogs. After the break, we viewed YouTube tutorials on Audacity, students worked in pairs to create test recordings on Gabcast, and were given 5 minutes at the end to talk to the members of their pod and plan when they would meet to record their podcasts.

Tutorial by Fabian Brown for installing Audacity and the LAME encoder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5K1ZsoO1sU

Mixing with Audacity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1IqWoWu8gU

Gabcast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIashxaJnzo

Individual conferences will take the place of regular classes on Wednesday 4/16, Thursday 4/17, Monday 4/21, and Tuesday 4/22. For those days you need only appear for your scheduled conference with me and meet with the students you’re recording your podcast with.

Our Gabcast channel is #8538, and called “A Blog of One’s Own.” The URL is http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&id=8538. Podcasts recorded on our channel will automatically appear on the Gabcast page, and in the feed on the right side of the page here on T Blog.

If you create your podcast with Audacity, after exporting it to an MP3 file you may be able to simply attach it to a post on your blog. If that doesn’t work, create a user account (it’s called getting an internet library card) at the Internet Archive–all you have to provide is an email address and choose a password. The URL is http://www.archive.org, and the Upload button appears right on the front page.

The handouts “How to Podcast” and HW 42 to 46 were distributed. You can get them from the Documents for ITW 101 page here on T Blog.

Returned 7-page drafts. Students had 10 minutes to proofread their instructor drafts, then turned in 10-page drafts. HW 40 and 41 instructions handed out (see the Documents for ITW 101 page if you missed them). HW 40 asks you to respond to a podcast from Alive in Baghdad. Leave yourself time to make sure you can view the podcast on the computer you’ll be using, and if you’re using the computer lab you might want to bring headphones with you.  Share research findings/blog posts for HW 35B–students were asked to look up a name or term from pages 41-69 of Baghdad Burning. You can view my shared posts in Google Reader at http://www.google.com/reader/shared/09248713823500804133.

After the break, exploring intellectual and emotional responses to texts. Identifying the emotional tone and undercurrents of writing and other works of art can be a help in analyzing and understanding them. Here are part of your reactions to this exercise: 4clockexploring-your-intellectual-and-emotional-responses-to-texts.doc 6-oclock-exploring-your-intellectual-and-emotional-responses-to-texts.doc

I was happy to hear from Brian Conley today, who started the Alive in Baghdad podcast series you’ll be responding to next week. They’re doing important, original work and our attention to it on class blogs might even help spread the word.

Individual conference days were announced and we discussed the reading in Riverbend (7-41)–What parts did you find upsetting or surprising? We view videos, the  BBC News series “Five Years, Five Iraqis” at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7305270.stm and the Daily Show’s “The First Five Years” at http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=164644&title=iraq-the-first-5-years
.  Finally we did peer review of seven-page drafts using the “What Can You Remember?” method. I collected a copy of seven-page draft, and returned three-page drafts with checks, check-pluses, or check-minuses.

Thursday HW 35B and the ten-page draft are due. You already have the instructions for these.

We were fortunate to have Dr. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos, Blue Hampshire, and Dartmouth College speak to us about her work as a political blogger.  (Thanks, Laura!) If you missed it, ask your classmates for highlights. I certainly learned a lot, and found Dr. Clawson a really engaging speaker.  Was anyone else as surprised as I am at how little money is in it even for bloggers on national blogs?

The 4 o’clock students who couldn’t come to the talk viewed videos related to Iraq and Paul Bremer from CNN, The Daily Show, and Al Jazeera, and gave me their thoughts on what would be best for other students to view. (The Daily Show was judged most entertaining. Al Jazeera and The Daily Show were easier to understand. The CNN videos were a judged little boring and inacessible, but important and in-depth.) For links to videos, see my Iraq del.icio.us bookmarks  at http://del.icio.us/mendhamt/iraq.

On Tuesday, the 7 page peer draft is due(HW 34), and the blog post is HW 35A, the letter to Riverbend. If you need the handout, it’s http://keeneweb.org/tmendham/files/2008/03/hw32_33_34_35a_35b_36_itw101_20080326.doc

Today, HW 27 was collected, (instructor drafts of intro paragraphs of the semester-long project, with peer draft and peer review comments/highlighting attached), the directions for HW 28, 29, 30, and 31 were distributed,  we watched excerpts of the video version of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, and discussed Chapters One and Two of the book. Chapter One: Framework of book–a talk about women and fiction, comparison of Oxbridge and Fernham. Chapter Two: A trip to the British Museum library, Professor von X, and a look at the newspaper.

Read Chapters Three and Four of the Woolf for our next class, and have a fun and safe spring break!

Hope you’re all having fun reading Virginia Woolf! Kudos to those who have kept up with the homework and written summaries of Chapter One for the HW 24 discussion on Keene-Ning. Individual conferences continue today instead of regular class, but tomorrow we return to our regular schedule. HW 26 and 27 are due Wednesday for 12 o’clock students and Thursday for 4 and 6 o’clock students.

For those of you wishing to get a jump start on your work for spring break, the homework due after break is also posted on the “Documents for ITW 101” page, along with the past present homework assignments.

Individual conferences continue today (Monday March 10) and tomorrow (Tuesday March 11) instead of regular class. 

The instructions for HW 26 and 27, which are due Wednesday if you’re in the 12 o’clock section and Tuesday if you’re in the 4 or 6 o’clock sections, are available on the “Documents for ITW 101″ page of T Blog or  at  http://keeneweb.org/tmendham/files/2008/03/hw26_itw101_20080310.doc.

HW 26 asks you to response to Chapter 2 of Virginial Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, and HW 27 asks you to revise your introductory paragraph for your semester-long project and submit it both on Blackboard and a printed copy in class.

Agenda for Thursday’s class:

• Return annotated bibliography instructor drafts
• Assign times for individual conferences
• Attendance
• Discuss and compare Wonkette and Daily Kos, based on interviews we read with Ana Marie Cox and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and your observation of the sites.
• Thesis statement exercise
• Distributed HW 22 and 23
• Break
• Peer review, read-around style.
  • Round 1: Read, highlight what you like, closing comment, and your name
  • Round 2: Underline the thesis statement if there is one, and to test the thesis statement’s arguability, state what reasonable people who disagree with the claim might argue. If there is not a thesis statement, create one relevant to your classmate’s topic. Sign your name.
  • Round 3: Asterisk the sentences that “hook” reader interest (this is often done with a statistic, a paradoxical statement, a question, a quotation, and analogy, or an anecdote). Write one additional sentence that could be used to hook reader interest (it is okay if this one is made up or a lie–we’re doing it for practice)
• Collected extra copies of HW 21 (students were asked to print two copies of the peer draft of the introductory paragraph). These will not be graded–it’s just to show me that you did the assignment and understood it.

Agenda for Wednesday:

Attendance 

Collected instructor draft of annotated bibliography, with peer review sheet and peer draft attached.

Distributed HW 20 and 21 instruction sheet, which is also available on the “Documents for ITW 101″ page at http://keeneweb.org/tmendham/files/2008/02/hw20_21_itw101_20080226.doc

Discussed essay introduction paragraphs–hooking reader interest, background, and thesis statement.

Discussed Scoble reading: What do we know about Scoble from this interview? What do the five pillars of conversational software mean? Which of the principles from the Corporate Weblog Manifesto did students find most interesting/noteworthy?

Break

Watched two excellent short films about college writing: Across the Drafts and Shaped by Writing.

Return “ballpark: paragraphs

Attendance

Discuss readings on transitions, Nick Denton, and Joi Ito

Overview of MLA documentation, with handout, “Documentation Resource”

Discussion of Works Cited lists and how to create entries for books, magazine articles, and database articles, with handout, “MLA Works Cited.”

Peer review of annotated bibliography. Students without printed bibliographies excused from class, and took a half absence.

Agenda for Tuesday:

Attendance
Collect instructor drafts of “ballpark” paragraphs (Instructor draft, original peer draft, and purple peer review sheet. Student’s name on each item. If one or more elements missing, write a note on what you are handing in saying that it’s not there.)
Go to library for second information session with esteemed library liaison Asst. Prof. Deng Pan–the essential and major session on using Academic Search Premier and Lexis-Nexis.

(Students already have handouts for next week’s handout. See the HW 16, 17, 18 & 19 handout on the “Documents for ITW 101″ page here on T Blog if you need it.)

Agenda for Tuesday, 2/19

Attendance

Distributed handouts for HW 16, 17, 18, and 19, which can be found on the “Documents for ITW 101” page of T Blog.

Reminder that instructor drafts of your “ball park” paragraph are due on Thursday, printed and in the Dropbox on Blackboard.  Also, Thursday we’ll meet here in the classroom, then go to the library for our second information session with Prof. Deng Pan.

A look at some blog posts you chose for HW 12, and discussion of writing description. Remember, the titles of post should be enclosed in quotation marks when you write about them, and the titles of websites should be put in italics or underlined. Don’t be sloppy!

Break

A look at some of the blogs mentioned in the Rebecca MacKinnon article we read for today, including Global Voices Online at http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/, Isaac Mao: Life 2.0 at http://www.isaacmao.com/, OhmyNews at http://www.ohmynews.com/ and OhmyNews International at http://english.ohmynews.com/, RConversation at http://rconversation.blogs.com/, and Screenshots at http://www.jeffooi.com/. Reminder to spell, capitalize, and space titles of blogs as the blogs themselves do it.

The agenda for Monday, 2/18 was:

1. Attendance
2. Distribute HW 14 and 15 instructions. These can also be accessed on the “Documents for ITW 101″ page of T Blog.
3. Peer review of “Ballpark Paragraph” instructor drafts.
4. Tracy checks HW 12 and HW 13 printouts.
5. Students sent to watch “The Information Cycle” on their own computers or at the computer lab. The link is: http://www.lias.psu.edu/instruction/infocycle/infocycle.html
6. On Wednesday we will meet in the classroom and then walk over to the library instruction room for an important instruction session with Assistant Professor Deng Pan, who is our library liaison for A Blog of One’s Own (as well as being a research librarian and head of technical services and acquisitions at Mason Library).

HW 14 and 15 are due Wednesday.

Agenda for Thursday

1. Library instruction/information literacy session with Assistant Professor Deng Pan, Head of Technical Services at Mason Library and our library liaison for A Blog of One’s Own. To understand LC #’s see http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco, and to review the information cycle see http://www.libraireis.psu.edu/instruction/infocycle.html http://www.lias.psu.edu/instruction/infocycle/infocycle.html.

1. Discuss readings, interviews with Ayelet Waldman and Arianna Huffington
“A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night: Waldman says the blogosphere provides “a way for women to experience social community that I think has been really rejuvenating, particularly for women that are not working or are not working full-time.” What is it about blogs that makes this possible? Why is it necessary? What other social groups do you think you might find supportive communities for on the web? How might you find these communities? (Waldman has found many for women at infertility blogs and an expecting mothers’ email list.

“Punching Holes in Faded Mirrors” Explain why Huffington considers relentlessness and a pit-bull necessary. What is the nature of the attention-deficit that Huffington thinks the mainstream media suffers from? In what ways is the Huffington Post a marriage of old and new?

3. Peer Review of “ball park” paragraph peer draft

HW 12 and 13 handout distributed, which also has HW 14 and HW 15 on the back. You can get the handout on the “Documents for ITW 101” page.