Assignment Description: Blogging

Each of you will set up and maintain your own personal weblog using the Blogger service. Blogs are an exciting format for self-expression and community building and they serve as an example of a technology that is impacting society in ways that no one would have predicted.

You are free to use your blog in whatever way you want, though you should keep in mind that it will be read by faculty and other students in this class (and potentially by anyone in the world with a net connection). You are encouraged to think about your blog as something that you will continue to use after this course is over. Feel free to write about interesting (or mundane) things that you're doing that are unrelated to the course, and to express your likes and dislikes about TV, movies, books, music, food, relationships, politics... whatever moves you.

For grading purposes, we want you to use some of your blog entries as a place in which to reflect on the themes of this course:

• teaching in general (sites you find, how your day went, reflections on the profession)
• educational technology (sites you find, ideas generated by this course)
• teaching in your content area (English, foreign language, sites & ideas)

By May 1, you will look back over your postings and nominate (by specifying the date posted) five postings you made over the course of the semester that best represent your thoughtful reflections on these issues. You should also point to an additional five postings in which you have responded to postings made by others in the class. You will receive a grade based equally on these three dimensions:

• the quality of the writing (be yourself, but model good grammar, spelling and flow)
• the degree to which your writing shows thoughtful reflection
• regularity. You are expected to blog at least once per week.

This assignment counts for 15% of your course grade.