I have saved this list all semester in a draft! It hasn’t changed too much, but here is what I am currently thinking about using as my project for the Weblogs and Wikis class:
- Thrift store finds:
- I love finding goodies at thrift stores. There are at least half a dozen in North Fargo and Moorhead alone. Concerns: my budget. my time. a place to put it all. Benefits: this would be fun. There are hundreds of crafty type sites and this is sort of a related niche–junk store finds. I just googled “thrift store blogs” and found this entry. Both the blog and the “research” (heehee) would be a great stress reliever and force me to make time for what I enjoy. What a hoot this would be. In fact, I can start with things I bought in the past (or is that cheating)?
- Mommy blog
- Drawbacks: market is saturated with mommy blogs. I’m lucky if I get to see McK for 5 hours a day during the week. I’m a little schizophrenic about certain aspects of my home and school life and she is one. When I’m at school, I’m focused on work and my students. From the time I get home until the time she falls asleep, I focus on my daughter. Besides the logistical nightmare of working while a toddler is running around, I sort of like our quality time to be separate from school work of any kind. She can see that she has my attention during those times. I’m also not a great photographer and a blog filled with grainy, out of focus pictures of a toddler easting and sleeping and playing just doesn’t seem to shout “hey read me!” I think, too, that I want my blog or wiki to reflect my professional interests more. Benefits: Two birds-one stone theory. Play with daughter and do homework. That just doesn’t seem compelling enough.
- The role of literature in composition courses
- Benefits: since this has been a recent department concern, the research and keeping track of it seems like a logical idea. I am passionate about literature. I think there is a lot of material out there that could be collected into a wiki space. Drawbacks: Somehow this doesn’t excite me as much as thrift stores or the ideas below. I just sense that after a week or two of posting and researching, I’d tire of merely collecting resources that may or may not be useful to anyone but myself.
- travel literature wiki
- I am going to be teaching a special topics course in the fall called Travel Lit. Currently, my colleagues have taught Horror and Supernatural Lit last spring and Banned Lit this spring. Drawbacks: Is this reading that I have time for right now? No. Will I soon? probably. Without the 3x week meetings online and my hybrid course that finishes up in April, I’d definitely be able to re-purpose those time slots for this project. Benefits: I could use a wiki space as a notebook to develop an outline, a syllabus, a reading list, possible class assignments and projects, and to record my own reactions to works I am reading and considering. I have already read a handful of books, so until I have time to read more, I can start writing about what has been considered. Also the wiki could grow as the class starts–students can contribute, etc. Major concern: if I do all this work and the class doesn’t fill–we’ve never run the course in the fall and these are relatively new, unheard of classes. If it is cancelled and I have crunched all this into spring instead of over the summer, will it be a waste of time?
- Student wiki (for novel material and student-created content)
- I think this one has the most practical application so I started it already–will that count against me?
- When I first heard of wikis, I signed up with pbwiki and then did nothing with it. I recently set up cw1102.pbwiki.com to create an experimental place for my 1102 classes. Two sections (on campus) had the choice of reading Tess of the d’Urbervilles, which I have used for a couple of years now, or The Kite Runner, which I chose for its modern relevance and the lack of current online material (minus info about the movie, of course). I wanted my students to create their own cliffnotes, so to speak. Future classes will be able to use it. Blog stats indicate that others are looking for Kite Runner essay material 🙂 So far, I students have been in groups discussing the elements of the novels. I also ask some specific questions for them to consider. Then I decided to post this to pbwiki. Since I didn’t ask them to type their first set of work, I am slowly adding the content. However, for the second group assignment, they are typing which will make it easier for me to post. I hope to soon have students post to the wiki itself but I need to arrange for us to meet in a computer lab and prepare some basic (really basic) instructions on how to log in, edit and save, as well as some ground rules. The will also do a creative, fun group project and can use the wiki space for planning.The benefits are obvious. The drawbacks: I’m not certain this will fit the project for the class. It’s collaborative, but I am merely providing the structure, some resource material and my students are creating the rest of the content. Even if they create it and I end up posting it, it’s still not my writing.
So. Any suggestions? Reactions? If you read any one of these ideas and just say to yourself, “Oh! Hell no!” let me know.
Jenn Beyer 