Due to a somewhat abrupt change, there wasn't as much blogging this week. Instead, students emailed me early self/course evaluations, offering their perspectives on their performance at my request. Though there were some expressions of uncertainty, I think a majority of those who emailed me understand quite well their position in #345tw. That's not to write that there aren't some persistent concerns. I want to find the time to address them in full next week. Given the group facilitation planned for next Tuesday, I doubt 15 minutes will be enough. With that in mind, I want to suggest now the possibility of a face-to-face meeting next Thursday. The focus of this additional meeting will be course requirements beyond the use of Twitter, including deadlines for blogging and other assignments. So, #345tw students, could we meet twice next week?
Evaluating Twitter won't be the only topic on the table, but as some students have already posted their evaluations, I want to take a moment and look ahead to the possibility of doing away with Twitter. If M1 and/or M2 decide against keeping and using Twitter for the rest of the semester, something needs to replace it. Something needs to replace it because, along with Posterous, Twitter was part of the alternative to using Blackboard and/or having ENG 345 as a more traditional course. Something needs to replace Twitter if only because of sheer volume. Please forgive the elementary math used below to illustrate tweet volume:
5 tweets per week x 140 characters = 700 characters per week
700 characters over the next 10 weeks = 7000 characters
On an average of 5 characters per word: 7000 / 5 = 1400 words.
So, if students continued to use Twitter for the next 10 weeks, they'd each produce around 1400 words. This is equivalent to a solid short essay, but I'm not about to suggest an additional major writing assignment as a replacement. Instead, here are some possibilities:
- An additional blog post and/or comments per week
- Face-to-face meetings once a week
- Revise existing requirements
- A new social media tool
From my perspective, only two of the above options are viable. Additional blogging in the form of one more required post per week and/or more comments may be the most sensible. Students are already comfortable with blogging and managing Posterous. Given students' growing confidence, perhaps there's more yet we can do with Posterous alone. I also think meeting face-to-face once a week for the rest of the semester could prove beneficial. If nothing else, requiring such meetings would provide a set time for groups to see each other and discuss facilitation and project work.
Based on the early evaluations of Twitter, I'm less inclined to think students will be open to revising requirements for use. I'm even more disinclined to think a majority of students will be open to learning a new social media tool at this point in the semester. It may be better to just settle in and work with what's been working so far.
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Most of the group projects posted this week appear solid and I look forward to seeing how each group brings their project to fruition. I do have one concern, though, which I posted on Twitter yesterday: "#345tw clarification: Content curation in the form of links to YouTube or other sites does not count toward 'appropriate media equivalent.'" The point behind this clarification concerns the focus of the group project itself: original content creation. Each group needs to create its own content, take its own photos and post them to Flickr, shoot its own videos and upload them to Vimeo or YouTube, type up its own texts and post them to a wiki, etc. Simply posting or linking to content posted by others outside the group/class, whether audio content, photo content, video content, or some other kind of content, won't count toward the 2400-word requirement or the appropriate media equivalent. I encourage each group to research and reference outside sources, but we can't get away with posting a cluster of YouTube videos about [insert topic here] to Tumblr and call it good.
Odd how 2 snow days impact even a course that's predominantly online. Confusion, miscommunication, and misunderstanding abounded this week and I'm a little unsure as to why. Perhaps I need to email more friendly reminders...