Posts from — May 2005

Earlier today, I had a great chance to talk with a number of faculty here getting started on blogging. They’re part of a terrific week-long workshop being run by the Center for Teaching and Learning here at UVM.

I talked a bit about how I’ve been using blogs in my courses, particularly English 086 and 180 and also about some of the sites I think are great models of what can be done. I focused especially on Miriam Jones’ fab blog scribblingwoman to show what one might do for their own personal blog. Her course blogs like this one are also great examples of what can be done with blogs in teaching.

I also told them today about how RSS feeds and newsreaders such as NetNewsWire Lite (scroll down that page to find the link to the free Lite version of NetNewsWire) and Newsfire could also be a great tool for students keeping up on blog postings and also for the faculty themselves to monitor what’s going on in the blogosphere.

For me, reading and writing blogs are indelibly connected and I hope the faculty to whom I spoke are able to take some time to see what they can find in terms of blogs connected to their own interests and subject areas.

A few other great sources of information that I’ll recommend to them (and you) here are:

• Into the Blogosphere: A great edited online collection of essays about blogging, with lots about blogging and teaching
• Inside the Ivory Tower: A story from the Guardian about blogging in academia
• Crooked Timber’s list of academic bloggers
• Blogging 101: A really helpful intro to blogs that all new bloggers and blog readers should read
• Academic Blogging is a Must: an interesting posting from the always great tech ronin blog that gives important food for thought for those of us in academe.
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