Digital Writing Teaching Circle--Meeting #6

DIGITAL WRITING TEACHING CIRCLE--MEETING #6
FRIDAY, APRIL 22--4-5:15 PM
On WebEx

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

Absent: none

1. Announcements/Questions and Answers
a. Brian reminded everyone of the upcoming circle due dates: April 29--next (and last) online meeting; April 30--Last Reflection paper due; May 6--post report on wiki (on your page); and May 13--ftf Teaching Circle meeting at Century College from 3:30-5 pm.
b. Steve asked if it was a problem to miss a meeting. Brian replied that it wouldn't as long as the entire group contributed 60 sources total to the Technology Tables; he will try his best to make sure that each person gets the stipend deserved.
c. Brandy wanted to review how to add to the Technology Tables, and Brian walked the group through the process.

2. Sue’s Presentations
a. Sue first presented Turnitin (www.turnitin.com). She has her students use it for an exercise on paraphrasing that she has her students do. Students submit their paraphrase to Turnitin, which evaluates their work for them. Turnitin's primary function, however, is to detect student plagiarism. This assists students in producing accurately cited research.
b. Next, Sue presented some aspects of Softchalk (www.softchalk.com). She showed us an HTML page that had been linked to text pop-ups that she created. She also showed us how to insert quiz pop-ups in Softchalk and pointed out that instructors could also use it to create games, etc. She’d only begun to learn about its potential. It’s a free software with a 30-day license (ask your Faculty IT people).

3. Steve’s Presentations
a. Steve began by mentioning three articles (which he e-mailed to us) about technologies and classroom use.
b. He then talked about the Center for Digital Storytelling (http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html), a site to inspire students to do visual analysis, think of old stories in new ways, and possibly even create their own stories.
c. Next, he showed us Connect from McGraw Hill (http://connect.mcgraw-hill.com), a site where students could work on exercises as needed.
d. Lastly, he talked about the need to create more visually-based handouts for developmental students. This could be done through the use of the Print Screen function on the keyboard (to capture images), and then inserting arrows as “Symbols” in Windows 7.

4. Bob’s Presentations
a. Bob pointed out a site connected with a textbook that he uses with his students called *America Now* (8th edition). This site has additional articles to provide student context for their readings. It also contains links to Diana Hacker exercises and Exercise Central (Bedford).
b. Bob then discussed the US Dept. of Labor website (www.dol.gov) and how he uses it as the basis of a student research paper: he wants them to study the site and ask them to (re)evaluate their views on their chosen career—do they still wish to pursue it? This makes for an interesting research-based writing assignment.
c. The last part of Bob’s presentation was a book recommendation: Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson. Bob has his students read this book as well and they seem to enjoy it.

5. Conclusion
Brian asked everyone to continue their wiki contributions and to work on their final reports. The next meeting will be NEXT WEEK at 4 pm, and we’ll continue to discuss what we’ve added to (or plan to add) to the wiki “Technology Tables.”

Meeting adjourned about 5:17.
Brian