T Blog

Remember back when Laura Clawson was coming and I offered extra attendance credit for posting a question on her KeeneNing wall? Josh and Rob won the lottery on this one. (Since all the questions ranged from pretty good to excellent, I threw all the questions that weren’t repeats of ones already posted into a hat and chose two at random.

So all 17 people that posted a question get a homework credit, and the two big winners get an extra half-day’s attendance credit.

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!

This is a link to the Gabcast test post I just created in the 6 o’clock class: http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&query=&b=play&id=8538&cast=71988&castPage=

My HW 44 test podcast is attached. hw-44.mp3

My podcast is on the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/TracysHw44

Easy download page for the LAME encoder (which you need if you’re recording your podcasts with Audacity ): http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/ . Right-click on the link http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/libmp3lame-win-3.97.zip if you’re using Windows, http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/libmp3lame-osx-universal-3.97.zip for a Mac. This is much easier than I made it look in the Thursday 4 o’clock class!

The program Audacity can be download from the Audacity Download page at  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ . Have fun!

My podcast test hw-96.mp3HW 93 is attached.

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.

My test podcast for HW 109 is available on the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/TracysTestPodcastForHw109

hw-109.mp3My test post HW 109 is attached.

Let’s see if this feed for Gabcast podcasts works:

<a href=”http://www.gabcast.com/casts/8538/rss/rss.xml”><img src=”http://www.gabcast.com/images/feed-icon-24×24.png” alt=”RSS Feed” border=0></a>

My test podcast 104 can be viewed on the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/TestPodcastHw104

hw-104.mp3

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

We had a small class Wednesday for the 12 o’clock students who couldn’t come to the Thursday night talk with Laura Clawson. We discussed Baghdad Burning (students had read the introduction and first two posts, and did peer review of the three-page drafts, using a new four-question “What Can You Remember?” form.

Homework for Monday is the 7 page peer draft and HW 35A, the Letter to Riverbend.

On Tuesday, I handed out updated calendars for the rest of the semester. PLEASE TEAR UP YOUR YELLOW CALENDARS AND REFER TO THE NEW ONE FROM NOW ON.  This is available only in paper copies right now, so if you missed class on Tuesday, get a calendar from me on Thursday.  Other important announcements–I’ve received a lot of late assignments and “instructor drafts” that were exactly the same as the peer drafts–down to the check mark from the last time I saw the same piece of paper! So I’m giving a little but asking for a little: I’ve streamlined some of the assignments for the rest of the semester.  You have a few less than originally planned, and I’m doing away with Digital Dropbox until your final instructor draft on the last day of the class–my part of the bargain. However, I will no longer accept late instructor drafts, nor will I accept emailed assignments (no matter how good your excuse is). They must be received on paper in the beginning of class the day they are due. 

Also on Tuesday, we watched the rest of the video A Room of One’s Own, and then annotated Chapter 3 of the book.

On Thursday, 2/27, we’re meeting in our regular classroom and then walking over to the library for our third and final session with library liaison Assistant Professor Deng Pan, on evaluating online sources. I’ll hand out the instructions for HW 32 to HW 36.

Assignments due Tuesday: HW 31, three page peer draft of semester-long project, and HW 32, Responding to Riverbend.

Monday/Wednesday students, for Monday, 3/31 you should do HW 32, responding to Riverbend. The handout for this is: HW 32, 33, 34, 35A, 35B, and 36, or you can read the directions below. Also, the updated calendar is available. I’ll give you printed copies on Monday.
Calendar for Mon/Wed (revised 3/36/08)

HW 32: Responding to Riverbend
for A Blog of One’s Own: Women and Authorship in the Digital Revolution
For Mon/Wed students, due Mon. 3/31. For Tuesday/Thursday students, due Tues. 4/1.
· First, read the foreword and introduction to Baghdad Burning (Riverbend vii-ix).
· Please also review Chapter 2 on “The Art of Summarizing” in They Say/I Say (Graff 28-38)
· Write a post of 150-400 words that achieves these two main things:
· Summarize the Foreword and Introduction. Try to capture all the main points, and don’t write a boring list summary. Remember to mention the work by its full title, and to be clear when you’re summarizing Soueif and when you’re summarizing Ridgeway. These two authors are, of course, distinct from Riverbend.
· Compare the Soueif and Ridgeway’s account to your own memories or impression of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq since 2003. How are your own impressions similar to or different from the account in of the war in Iraq in the text?
· Provide MLA in-text citations giving the page number(s) of the parts of the text you refer to (both the text as a whole and specific passages you discuss).
· Spell-check. Give the post a descriptive title that includes HW 32.