just changed my template. want to get into the html and change colors a bit. will need to do that later. just also updated links to student blogs. dawn and misha both had more than ONE posting, which was way cool. i really enjoy going through and reading the blogs and wish the broken links worked and wish that everyone wrote more. when we get in the lab, i want to talk about a bit of html so folks can include links they like. ok... gotta jet, book, skedaddle, get outta here.

OK, I read the student comments on blogging. Getting all social science-y here with hard data: out of 24 responses (40 students are enrolled in this class...wonder where they were today...), 7 have not yet set up blogs. Of those 7, 3 were new to the class and just got blog instructions today. The other 17 students had all either set up a blog or had tried to set up a blog. Some are unsure of their blog addresses, others have been unable to access their accounts.

One student wanted to respond to my blog but couldn't figure out how to access this. This student's comment got me thinking...mebbe I need to give all students access to my blog? But I made a decision early on not to have one massive class blog but to have individual student blogs. My reasoning was both logistical and emotional: just too darn hard to have 41 writers writing to one blog, and I want students to have their own writing spaces on the web.

So maybe one way to deal with this is to have students read my blog and then respond to my writing on their individual blogs. Is my head spinning yet? I'm feeling overblogged.

Lots of excellent comments about what keeps folks from blogging. These comments tend to fall into four categories: 1) access, 2) directions for assignment, 3) consistent posting/routine, 4) journal nature of postings. OK, so at least 5 students mentioned no internet access at home, no access at school (virus in campus dorm, campus internet access down). This morning in class, I mentioned the possibility of having one class a week (maybe Thursday class) in a computer lab. Several students wrote that working in a computer lab regularly would help immensely both with access issues and time issues (work full-time, full class load). Many students said they just didn't know what to post and they wanted clear directions. (Clear assignment instructions are something I'm working on and need to finalize by next class.) Several students said that blogging was just not part of their routine and they kept forgetting to blog. One student said that writing an online journal is just too personal. Another said that the blog should be a personal journal and that we shouldn't have outside readers and students should be able to post on any topic in which they're interested.

These comments bring up important concerns. If students want a personal journal to write about anything at all, probably a paper journal makes more sense. But blogs are by definition public -- published on the web. Blogs are meant to be read. And when I started class, I talked about two areas I'm most interested in emphasizing: authentic audience and service learning. I know that deeply personal journal writing can encourage writers to write even more. I don't want to discourage that writing. However, I envision the blogs as a way for the writers in this class to work out their ideas and their concerns about their writing in this class. OK, that's a start.

Here's what I've outlined so far for blogging in class.

• post by class period every Tuesday


• 1st prompt - blog about your experience setting up a blog


• 2nd prompt - post on the major academic journals used in your field (ask professor in your major/field which journals are most used/respected)


• get two readers outside of this class to read your blog regularly and comment on it

I've said that the outside readers should spend no more than 15 minutes a week reading your blog entries and commenting on them. Outside blog readers' comments should either be posted on your blog (bloggers can invite outside readers to be team members of their blogs) or can be emailed to writer and saved for portfolio. I need to be more specific about this: any criteria for outside readers? when do bloggers need to submit outside reader comments? do bloggers need to respond to their readers' comments?

OK, I'm definitely blogged out. Got my work cut out for me.

no time during office hours to blog after class today ... so i'm home and slurping a large iced coffee to try and get my brain cells working. the blog thing ain't happenin' for the students. my evidence for that is that most students haven't emailed me a blog address. also, i haven't got a good list of prompts or blog assignments fixed yet. so i asked students today to respond to the following: Do you have a blog? What challenges do/did you face in blogging? What keeps you from posting regularly? What would help you to blog regularly? .... something like that. I collected what everyone wrote and I'm about to go read it right now and then come back here and see if I can puzzle out some solutions.

no class today...had to take care of josh. i'm starting to understand that my request for students to email me their blog addresses has been confusing. several students have asked me if they need to email from their blog. so i think the whole blog interface has been a bit perplexing. will see if we can talk about those questions.