Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Help, please!

I just sent an email to a student asking her not to write future homework assignments on her phone. She did it on a sidekick™ and emailed it to me, which was a formatting nightmare.
You guys know where I'm coming from on this, I'm sure.

Friday, April 18, 2008

CompClass Workshops 5/7-5/8

New--a flyer!

I just set up a pretty big block of time on 5/7 and a little on 5/8 for Nick Carbone, the director of new media for Bedford/St. Martin's, to provide CompClass training. (I'll work on food too.)

More details to follow, but in Cyberia on Wednesday, 5/7, we will have semi-formal or structured presentations between 9am-2pm, and then we'll splice the rest of the non-presentation time to help individuals with follow-up or one-on-one intros. We'll also have 5/8, 12:30-2 (maybe longer), in Cyberia. Nick could also meet with teachers elsewhere till 4pm both days. I hope that this will allow many of you to check out this cool tool, especially if you're considering using it this fall.

As you probably remember, CompClass is Bedford's course management system available with the new department handbook, RULES FOR WRITERS, for an additional $10. To see the features, which include COMMENT, e-handbook, and student blogs, jump to this site, which includes a virtual tour, as well as handouts.

CompClass can also be packaged with other Bedford texts. I might bundle it with my 1B anthology.

Please let me know if you're planning on attending, even if it's for just, say, 45 minutes.

KLEINMAN
http://fog.ccsf.edu/~ckleinma

AND HERE'S MORE FROM NICK CARBONE ON THE TEACHING/LEARNING/TECHNOLOGY LINK--


The workshops, while they will show CompClass for Rules for Writers, are not only about CompClass, but will more generally be about teaching writing with online tools. For example, CompClass offers discussion boards that are very user friendly. But the question isn't so much about what buttons to click to create a discussion board (though that will be covered) but also (and more importantly) about the role an online discussion can play in your course: what's a good way to write a discussion question to generate online discussion? what directions are useful to give students about responding to classmates' posts? in what way might a discussion replace an essay draft? what are useful strategies for bringing back to the face-to-face classroom issues raised in the online discussion? CompClass has a blog as well. What's the difference between a blog and a discussion forum? When and why might you use a blog assignment instead of a discussion forum? CompClass lets you link to any content provided in it as well as to anything on the Web or that you upload. You can link to: a specific page in Rules for Writers, a tutorial on integrating sources, a model document, a peer review game, any document or video or audio file you upload; you can even embed a YouTube video into a page that you add to the e-book. What's a good use of all that linking? How will that ability to link to content open up new assignment and teaching possibilities?

The workshops are meant not only to be an introduction to CompClass and the Rules for Writers e-book, but are also intended to be conversations about teaching, where attendees can trade ideas, learn from one another, and come away with dreams and plans for their fall courses.

___________

And if we can bring in some snacks -- juice and cookies, coffee and
donuts, etc., . . . will be provided.

Nick


Nick Carbone, Director of New Media
Bedford/St. Martin's

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Chronicle Catches up with Harwood


About a week ago, the Chronicle caught up with San Francisco area authors Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler to talk about their gameplan of taking the publishing industry by the horns via their podcast approach and free books.
Then on Thursday, they published a follow-up detailing the abundant reader responses on SFGate.com