In our meeting today (8.20.10) KCF and I talked about creating a list of ways to use blogs inside and outside the classroom. Since I already had a list started from my trouble blog, I thought I would add it in here as a way to start this page. KCF and I will add to the list (hopefully) soon.
How we use our course blogs:
- Announcements, handouts, revised syllabi
- Reading reflections in which I discussed my own thoughts on the readings
- Introductory thoughts on the topics we would be discussing that week
- Links to and discussions of blog entries from personal blog that were relevant
- A welcome to the blog and I why it is important
- A detailed description of the different categories on the blog
- Media examples relevant to the class and that needed queer analysis
- Questions about topics discussed in class
- Modeled effective ways and provided tips for critically engaging with readings/the course
- Feedback on engaged readings and other posts
- Weekly questions related to the readings and the class
- Answers to students’ blog and in-class questions
- Advice on how to blog
- Mini-lectures on topics and issues
- More information on authors and concepts, such as youtube clips of authors
- Aid for in-class lectures/activities
How the students use our blogs:
- Informal annotated bibliographies about key terms, concepts, or paper assignments
- Media examples, artists, ideas that were relevant to class and needed a feminist/queer/intersectional analysis
- Critical and creative engagements with the readings and theory concepts
- Respectful, thoughtful, engaging comments on each other’s blog entries
- Information about local events relevant to class
- Feedback about the course and the blog
- Vlogs (video entries) about the material and readings
- Summaries of their experiences on the blogs
- Direct engagements with readings and course topics
- Wide range of examples of feminism and feminist issues
- Definitions of feminism
- Peer review feedback and status reports on paper revisions
- Tracking issues, providing more information for class on chosen topics
- Agendas for responding to contentious issues
- Critical and respectful debate with other students’ posts and comments
How we use our own blogs:
- Archive Ideas
- Document Research
- Offer up various accounts of our/selves
- Build relationships with visible and invisible readers
- Experiment with pedagogical techniques
- To have fun!
- Continue to define/challenge/bust binaries
- Put popular culture or current events in conversation with academic theory
- Disrupt the walls of the ivory tower by opening up the conversations to communities beyond our classrooms
- Foster creative outlets for our feminist theories/expressions