The inspiration for this collaborative blog project (Diablog) is a writing assignment that KCF and I have to complete in 8 consecutive Fridays for the remainder of the summer. Here is our abstract:
Teaching with Blogs and Blogging while Teaching: Using Blogs to Expand Access to Feminist (Cyber)Spaces
In the spirit of feminist scholarship we have found that blogging creates opportunities for accessibility to shared knowledges in exciting ways within and beyond the classroom. In this essay we wish to critically reflect on the value of blogs for feminist educators through the lens of accessibility. Using our multiple experiences teaching with blogs and blogging while teaching, we will argue that creating and participating in blogs in our lives and in the classroom allows us to complicate how “accessibility” is frequently framed in terms of who has access and how that access is determined by race, class and gender privileges. We envision this complication as not counter to but in connection with critical discussions of web accessibility as usability for a wide range of readers/writers. Taking the format of a written dialogue, we will draw upon theories of feminist pedagogy, feminist technology, and our investments in our own experiences, identities, and research interests as a Chicana feminist and a white feminist troublemaker.
Reflecting on our various pedagogical exercises and activities on and with our blogs we will discuss access in terms of:
- Visibility: Making the writing process accessible for both teacher and student.
- Creating Community: Blurring the lines and challenging binaries between online/offline, real life/academic life, students/teachers, mind/body, public/private.
- Training: Providing students with the skills for critically engaging with technology.
- Engagement and Evaluation: Giving the blog participants and readers more opportunities to engage with each other and to share their own research/knowledge in creative ways.
And here is our tentative plan:
Our (tentative) Plan!!!
We will be writing every Friday together in person and during the week we will be using our blog to exchange ideas about our writing to prepare ourselves for our writing session.
(From our abstract – we will be discussing one topic which we will determine the week prior to our writing dates.) Topics:
- Visibility
- Creating Community
- Training
- Engagement and Evaluations
Proposed Structure and Timeline:
Part I/Intro: Why we like blogs each write this section (on the blog) – why we use blogs in our teaching and with our own writing. What is it about blogs that excite us and relates to our ideas on pedagogy and access in the feminist classroom? Coming with our own pieces on what has worked for us in the past we will then weave this together for the introduction. Each of us should aim for 300-350 words by July 9th. General questions to consider below:
- Why do we like/use blogs?
- The goal is to position ourselves to the questions at hand – where are we coming from?
- How does it connect to our teaching and our research/writing?
Part II/Dialogue for each section: a. initial thoughts posted by each of us to the blog; b. come together and have the conversation about the topic; c. transcribe and clean it up; d. discuss the processes behind thinking and writing – our meta-analysis.
For each topic we will devote one meeting to writing and the week before we will set ourselves up with ideas of what we wanted to focus on for that section which we will be writing on the blog.
Here is our (tentative) writing and thinking plan for the next two months.
Week 1: July 9, 2010
- Part I/Intro (see above)
- Create our blog project.
- Entry number one: what do we want to include on our blog? Each of us would write our own initial thoughts and then comment on each others’ entries.
Week 2: July 16, 2010
- Writing time – solidifying our introductions.
- Reflection on the blog so far. Create “About me” etc. pages.
- For next week – prep for conversations around Topic #1 (discuss which topic we’re going to write on and then set parameters for each of our blog entries).
Week 3: July 23, 2010
- Writing time – polishing up and expanding blog posts with our conversation and reflections on Topic #1.
- Reflections on what is working with the blog – writing our meta-analysis.
- For next week – prep for conversations around Topic #2
Week 4: July 30, 2010
- Writing time – polishing up and expanding blog posts with our conversation and reflections on Topic #2.
- Reflections on what is working with the blog – writing our meta-analysis.
- For next week – prep for conversations around Topic #3
Week 5: August 6, 2010
- Writing time – polishing up and expanding blog posts with our conversation and reflections on Topic #3.
- Reflections on what is working with the blog – writing our meta-analysis.
- For next week – prep for conversations around Topic #4
Week 6: August 13, 2010
- Writing time – polishing up and expanding blog posts with our conversation and reflections on Topic #4.
- Reflections on what is working with the blog – writing our meta-analysis.
Week 7: August 20, 2010
- Come prepared with comments for revision.
Week 8: August 27, 2010
- Prepare final manuscript