Digital Writing Teaching Circle--Meeting #7

Digital Writing Teaching Circle—Meeting #7
April 29, 2011—4:00-5:15
On WebEx

Present: Brian Lewis (facilitator), Laurie Lykken, Bob Bledsoe, Brandy Opse-Weber, Dianne Gregory, Laura Funke, Stephanie Laurey, Sue Taylor

Absent: Jacqueline Arnold, Steve Anderson

I. Intro/Announcements
A. Bob asked Brian to review how to post files to the wiki—we went over how to do this.
B. Brian reminded the group of all remaining due dates: Final Reflection (April 30); Final Report on Wiki (May 6); and Final ftf Meeting at Century College (May 13 from 3:30-5 pm).

II. Brian’s sites
A. Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/) --an online (free) blog for students to use. Easy to set up. Students may use this blog to do narrative/descriptive work. More advanced students may use it for argumentation—students may argue with each other on blogs that they set up.
B. A group technology project (draft) that he’s working on. The project shows the different options that students may be given in working with technology. He plans to have students present their work to the class as well and evaluate each other. This draft may be found on the wiki at http://digitalwritingtc.pbworks.com/f/4-26-2011_Bulletin.pdf.

III. Brandy’s site
Brandy shared the importance of students learning auditorily. To this end, she shared a site called A Z lyrics (http://www.azlyrics.com/). She had her creative writing students analyze songs for figurative language and use of story. Brandy was able to show the site, but there were some technical problems with the audio and we weren’t able to hear all that she said.

IV. Dianne’s site
Dianne showed us http://education.skype.com/. It’s a Skype for educators site. Professional speakers can Skype into the classroom. You can also get your students involved with certain projects with other students around the globe. Groups of students can Skype with each other.

V. Laura’s sites
A. She mentioned that D2L 9.2.0 will have audio responses in the Dropbox or Discussion posts (beginning in June). Audio recording is saved as .wav file.
B. She also talked about http://cartoonstock.com/. It’s a repository of cartoons. Can be used to illustrate difficult concepts to students, like irony. Or use it as a way of making statements about contemporary issues/college topics.
C. Finally, she talked about e-folio (http://www.efoliomn.com/). She uses it for herself and currently uses the new version. Some of us (Laurie, Sue, Brian) have used e-folio for classes as well (GPS life plan, common book, technical writing class, final portfolios, etc.). Laurie has had students present e-folio to each other.

VI. Stephanie’s site
Stephanie presented http://www.myhymphs.com/. She teaches a lot of developmental courses; this is a site to show these students what bad grammar looks like. Students can analyze grammar in the context of songs. The explanations tend to be quite humorous.

VII. Sue’s sites
A. Her first was http://www.wolframalpha.com/. A good site for students to obtain data with cited information. Can be used for the research paper for Comp 1.
B. Her second was http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/. It shows visual examples of errors from a humorous perspective.

VIII. Conclusion
A. Brian made a plug for everyone to do a Voki for Laurie—we stopped a bit early so people would have time to make one.
B. See you at the last meeting on May 13!

Meeting adjourned about 5:08. Posted on WebEx

Brian