The Posts Are Coming!

My ENG 111 J class has been tasked to write their first blog postings! These posts will be due (we'll see how well they deal with deadlines...) by midnight next Monday (Feb. 2). So, check back early next week to read the first round of posts. On the right-hand side of this page, you'll find the first prompt (BLOG PROMPT #1).

The idea behind the prompt: Basically, what I'm trying to do is get a dialogue started about the culture that surrounds us. We tend to become composites of the products that we consume. As such, we identify closely with the songs, movies, and television shows that we love, watch regularly, and even set up to DVR or TiVo.

So, as we begin this writing and social experiment, I thought it best to write from home.

The goal is to eventually move this personal writing into a more public space-- to take statements like "I love Bruce Springsteen!" and qualify them with solid, analytical, researched and organized writing. By the time we stop posting, my students should have enough writing generated to produce quality, documented essays!

In the mean time, I've offered my own response to the prompt as an example. It's not great writing, but it's a start. To view this post, scroll through BLOG ROLL - ENG 111 J and click on Teacher Man's World of Words.

A funny thing happened on the way to blogging...

Hello all!

Since I started using blogging in my writing courses, I've relied primarily on Google's Blogger as a platform. It's easy to set up, it links with other services (Yahoo!), and it's the platform that I chose when I started my personal blog (somewhere out there in the world of words, disengaged from my "professional" self!).

So, when I started this project (again)-- with a unique group of students working at a distance-- I didn't give much thought to the "platform" issue.

Turns out, though, we have a problem.

The computers that my National Guard students are relying on have security blocks that won't allow them to access Blogger! As such, I am moving their operation over to WordPress.com instead. A by-product of this move? I think I like WordPress more than Blogger!

If you'd like to find out why, take a look at the new hub site: Pop Write World On Word Press.

What you'll find there is a more robust "hub" site. I've added layers of pages that allow outside-of-Blackboard access to project details. If you're a visitor (and not a graded participant!), then feel free to peruse these materials to get a better understanding of what this Pop Write World thing is all about!

Welcome to Pop Write World!

(This site was used in a previous semester for a different class. Feel free to check the archives for past posts. For a better understanding of Pop Write World, take a look at And So It Begins... The first incarnation of this site-- and its posts-- can be found at Pop Write.)

And So It Begins... Again!

What you are viewing right now is the central blog site for a writing experiment. True, for the students posting here, it is not an experiment so much as a graded assignment, but since the nature of this project is fluid (as all communication is...), much of what we do here is uncharted territory!

How Does This Work?

Simple: This site is the hub for students in two expository writing classes at Davidson County Community College. From this site, you will be able to access over 75 student blogs!

Over the course of the spring 2009 semester, these students will be posting a variety of things based on topics and guidelines established by their instructor-- me. In addition to posting on their sites, they will be encouraged (er, required!) to read and comment on their classmates writings.

The end results should be very interesting!

Oh, and there's a twist! A significant portion of the student bloggers (one course) are in a deployed National Guard unit. These gentlemen will be posting from... somewhere else! Interestingly enough, in talking with their commander, I discovered that as long as they don't post information that is too specific, they have a surprising amount of freedom to write. I look forward to hearing what they have to say!

That leaves me: While my students post on their blogs, I will monitor from the hub. I will post prompts for their blogs here, and then I will link to a real-time blog roll (to the right of the page). That way, you can check in, see what's on the menu for the week and then peruse the postings at your leisure! I also hope to cull interesting blogs from the masses and offer them in a "This Week, This Now" post.

What Happens Next?

This week marks the beginning of the spring 2009 semester. Blogging will begin as soon as all of my students get their blogs set up-- and I give them their first prompt. That should happen sometime next week.

Until then...