tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9096775046824978357.post3309171887322304633..comments2024-03-16T08:56:35.554-07:00Comments on Economics for Teachers: Musings about Teaching Economics: Getting ready for the fallJennifer Imazekihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15217003898479507362noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9096775046824978357.post-88407481956224492102008-08-12T16:50:00.000-07:002008-08-12T16:50:00.000-07:00@dispersemos: I definitely think blogs are more us...@dispersemos: I definitely think blogs are more useful for some classes than others and I share your apprehension about how motivated they will be. I plan to give them weekly topics - I'm curious to see whether students do the bare minimum or if they will actually embrace this. Since this class is for future teachers, I certainly hope they will have a natural interest but we'll see!<BR/>@Robin: thanks, you read my mind! I'm working on a post about RSS that I'll probably put up the first week of class and was going to suggest students start with Bloglines or Google Reader. Seems like those are the easiest for folks brand new to the idea of feeds.Jennifer Imazekihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15217003898479507362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9096775046824978357.post-87842886164885020512008-08-12T11:22:00.000-07:002008-08-12T11:22:00.000-07:00Whether your students use one or several blog host...Whether your students use one or several blog hosts, Bloglines (or a similar tool) is a super easy way to track updates.<BR/><BR/>Good luck!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9096775046824978357.post-47228435234649164492008-08-12T07:43:00.000-07:002008-08-12T07:43:00.000-07:00I've not yet asked my students to create or use bl...I've not yet asked my students to create or use blogs. This is in part due to my own status as amateur blogger but also because I'm not yet convinced that this tool is the best for accomplishing my language course goals. [I am going to implement VoiceThread in Intermediate Spanish this fall with assignments focused on speaking skills.]<BR/><BR/>Having said this, reflective writing is a big part of the gen. ed. course I teach with first-year students. We do lots of informal writing for which a blog might be a useful tool, but I'm still not convinced that it's better than, say, sharing comments via forum posts in Moodle or even creating a Google doc and sharing it with me or the class for feedback/comments. Both Moodle and Google Apps are prevalent on my campus, and students are mostly familiar with them.<BR/><BR/>I have a hard enough time getting students motivated to post to a forum, so I'm very apprehensive about asking them to set up and maintain their own blogs. I suppose it would require laying out clear goals, providing detailed instructions and creating specific post assignments, followed by assessment with a rubric that reflects the goals for this kind of writing.Dispersemoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09652267216918739337noreply@blogger.com