It's been quite a busy afternoon, trying not to get overwhelmed by the multitude of tools that are being used in the IDEL10 course.
So far I have:
- set up a profile at the holyrood park hub
- sent out friend requests there to all members of the IDEL10 course team
- logged in on WebCT and began reading
- went through the course guide
- and have now set up the weblog, added all the tutors as friends (waiting for approval by Clara O'Shea), created a group
I am not completely clear about whether only Clara should be in that group, or whether the other tutors should be in that group as well. So, Clara, once you've approved of my friend request on this blog, and you've read this, please let me know by writing a comment? TIA. But anyway, I can't add Clara to the group before she accepted my friend request here.
And just to help my own memory, this weblog is linked to my googlemail account, I did not want to run the risk to go through a change in e-mail address in about 6 weeks time, just to find out that it might not be possible and set up a new blog again.
Okay, back to WebCT now.
Keywords: IDEL10
Comments
There is certainly a lot of setting up to do for the course – well done on getting so much done so soon!
For the weblog, I will be the tutor that responds to your blog, but Sian, Rory and Hamish will all need access for assessment purposes.
Below are some quick comments I’ve shared with each student as they have started up their blog…
Some general comments about the blog
The purpose of the blog is be an open, reflective, dialogue between the two of us – somewhere you can develop ideas, not somewhere where ideas are delivered fully formed, evidence and argued. The metaphor I find myself working with is a cross between a diary and a chat I might have with a lecturer before or after a small group seminar.
You might want to consider scheduling time to make your blog entries. Three or four entries a week is ideal. It might be a good idea to include time to blog with your time for doing the course reading. Then again a great ‘blog thought’ might hit you at any time – so find a way to keep track of those ideas for when you later have time to reflect on them. Indeed, there’s nothing wrong with making a two line blog post, and following it up later.
I’d also encourage you to be adventurous with your use of the medium. You might find visuals, video etc that can help you express your ideas – even though this is an assessment activity, it’s a chance to have fun and explore developing your own blog voice.
I’ll check in on the blogs two or so times each week. So you should be hearing from me fairly regularly, but it might be a couple of days between your post and my response (I work part-time!).
I’ll respond to your post in the comments section (like I’m doing now). My intention in commenting on your posts is to be supportive, clarifying and challenging. You don’t have to respond to all of my comments. It’s up to you which bits you want to then respond to further – and whether you want to continue the conversation in the comments section or branch into another blog post.
I might not comment on every blog post – as you might make some posts to track you own ideas rather than needing my input. It’s also sometimes a bit hard to keep track of comments and posts – something might slip through the net or it might have been set to ‘private’. If you feel I’ve not responded to something in time just email me that you think something’s amiss.
Around the end of week 5 we can have a mid-blog review, looking at the blog brief, the assessment criteria, what you have done so far and what you could do further when thinking about the assessment angle of the blog. I’m eager to improve my practice too – so at that stage I’ll be asking you for feedback too!
I think that’s it for now. Kudos again on getting the blog set up and do let me know if you are having any problems or need something further from me.
All the best
Clara