I have a set guideline reguarding language! My students have a tendency to become "over enthusiastic" and I also have them write out the word. I am older and don't have a reference book for "text talk". I keep them on topic but I encourage as many different veiw points as possible. There are no stupid ideas unless they can not be supported with facts.
Tina,
That is so important. You have to have expectations for students using blogs. Examples are a powerful way to help students understand expectations.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dr. Kelly - Students should understand the goals of the blogs. They need to know the purpose of the blog and what they will get from their participation. Students also need to understand the requirements of the content. To facilitate these outcomes the students may need some examples of acceptable usage or of unacceptable usage.
Tina
Andrea,
These are great guidelines. I hadn't thought about getting permission about speaking to someone in a blog but that is important.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Two types of guidelines online professors should consider when using blogs in the online classroom include:
1. Appropriate content and blogger relations.
2. Reporting factual material and obtaining consent prior to speaking about someone in a blog.
Hector,
How would you hold students accountable? How would you grade?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Tanya,
Good observation. You would want to make sure those items that are important such as vocabulary and grammar should be a part of the grading system such as a rubric. That would work for this as well as hold students accountable to the policy.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Catherine,
I agree. The blog should stay with the topic related to the course. You may want to make sure that everyone understands that healthy debate means staying on topic. There are all sorts of examples of what happens if there are problems with dialog.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I think that instructors should try and stay in neutral territory when blogging - there is nothing wrong with healthy debate but at the same time, things such as religion and politics tend to 'rile' individuals up which we don't want in this case. Trying to make sure conversations stay on the positive side of things is how a blog should be conveyed as a whole while still encouraging students or individuals to bring forth various ideas.
Hello Dr. Wilkinson,
Guidelines should be provided on accepted online behavior (netiquette) and on the type of content that should be included in the blog.
Hector Morales
As already mentioned, language and appropriate content are two important topics to address. As part of the language guideline, it is important to address use of industry terminology, general vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and organization of content. When addressing appropriate content, as was mentioned in the course materials, it is important for students to see examples of what is expected. This can help guide students down the appropriate path. It can be helpful to explain why the examples are appropriate too so that students understand the function of a proper blog post rather than just trying to reiterate something they know the instructor likes.
Richard,
Great strategy! It does make a case for students to support authentically their argument.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I've found the same thing. they are very ready to support statements/ analysis with examples and this also end up being a great way to discuss the quality of sources/ resources that students decide to use to support their ideas.
Lakithia,
I agree with you. You will have to provide expectations and enforce them. Students have to understand appropriate behavior
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
The two guidelines I feel are required in a blog are proper behavior/respect for others ideas and posting relevant information. Students need to understand that this type of environment is designed to share thoughts and everyone’s opinion should be respected. Also, it needs to be made clear to students that they must stick to the topic presented. It is inappropriate to discuss topics that are not relevant.
corinne,
You make a great point. You can create ti for the group. I love your ideas regarding blog usage particularly with service learning and internships. Nice work.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Janis,
I agree with you, you just provide guidelines for both the post and the reply. You must model it also.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Blogs should be interactive, allowing users to post comments or messages and providing a sense of discussion and social networking. Therefore, blog activities should be designed for such networking. However, many people believe that blogs must be public so that the networking expands across an entire pubic audience. This is not true. Blogs may be private between two people. For example, a private blog may be set up so that students can reflect on an experience, such as a service-learning experience, that only the student and instructor can view.
Consequently, blog activities may include the following:
• Students provide commentary on a research topic pertinent to the course.
• Students develop a central point for text, images, and links to other blogs.
• Students develop an interactive format to explain subject matter.
I use Moodle for my on-line courses. The discussion forums are very similar to a blog.
Clear guidelines need to be established as to what is expected within the blog. Below are two areas that need to be included in the guidelines.
1) Students get off topic. I teach math. We are examining graphs and how they can be misleading. Students are discussing this. But the topic gets off on where they shop, how bad customer service is at a particular store, etc. I need to steer them back so we are discussing math related issues.
Students need guidelines to help them post relevant posts--at least relevant to math. I am intrigued about using the discussion forum as a blog. I just figured out that I can set the Forum page to read as a blog. Possibly I can get separate pages to appear if the students want to work off topic. But this would need to be apart from the graded portion.
2) Students need to be instructed on Fair Use Policy vs copyright infringement. Most do not realize the "lifting" a graphic from a website could possibly be copyright violation. They also don't realize that they still need to cite their source of a particular graphic. So, the second guideline that I believe is essential to blogging is instruction so students understand the rights of authors of other websites.
Barbara,
Yes yes yes! I think this translate to almost any type of electronic communication. Our role as instructors is to establish criteria and hold them to it.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
