July 5th: 16 students
July 6th: 15 students
July 7th: 14 students
July 8th: 13 students
July 15th: 13 registered students
Active: about half of them.
I wonder if that is confidential information or sharing the obvious: 10 followers of my blog, 9 of them wrote at least one blog.
First obstacle: following another students blogs. Blogger does not do very good job allowing people to just click on another's persons profile and start following them. I personally had different issues with starting to follow your blogs: from not knowing you posted a blog (until I asked for a link) to not seeing your blog on my reading list on my dashboard. At the end of this blog I will upload a few image with my blog settings so you all can compare them with your settings and... maybe this will help all of us to start following all the people in the class who created a blog site.
On a positive note: I was really excited to read your blogs and the comments others posted and that the language is not strictly formal. Can't wait to read more blogs this weekend!
I know it has been a bumpy first week of this online class: students still trying to figure out where and what to do but... the world of social media requires active participation at multiple places... that is why they invented smart phones: so people do not feel they are missing something from their social media world. Well... not all of us have smart phone... but I can bet all of us have internet at home and check their emails at least once a day (or Facebook pages). I know that wikis is a more special place (because of the interaction on the site) but blogs... blogs are one of the major tools in this social media world. When before people could make their opinions publicly available for free? With blogs we can experience the real meaning of freedom of speech. Sadly, some of the students in the class chose not to do it :(
It seems the blackboard discussions thing was the least clear for everybody and I take the responsibility for it. A few emails later and, it seems it is a little more clear. Just a little... The bottom line is... participation in discussions on blackboard (outside the weekly discussion question on the articles) will have positive impact on final grade. Why? Because opposite to class meetings, online courses are more engaging and when the class is about social media... the emphasis is on SOCIAL... meaning "socialization" through online media. Otherwise, the point of the social media tools is lost...
Finally... I know most of students work full-time summer job. And I know that students need those jobs to offset some of the expenses for textbooks and tuition. I do not expect that the class to be priority #1 for the students... but I am with tied hands about proper grading, when students do not even complete their weekly assignments.
I am optimistic things will change and the class will get more active next week when we talk about Twitter and Facebook...
Some pictures of my blog settings:
Image of my "Basic" settings:
Image of my formatting settings:
Image of my permissions" settings:
I hope this will resolve the "following" problem we all experienced
No comments:
Post a Comment