pedablogical

@newsfromtengrrl for 2012-05-31

May 31

By Traci Gardnernews Comments Off

• My Course Policies | Inside Higher Ed – http://t.co/oTkcEL6V #
• Shift from branch campuses reflects changes in educational delivery and demand | Inside Higher Ed – http://t.co/aHTIdFcv #
• TedX: The Speaking Equivalent of Blogging | Inside Higher Ed – http://t.co/NzLICiMT #
• Can you judge a book by a Kindle cover? – http://t.co/eTe9MgjC #
• Film Photography’s Revival in a Digital World – NYTimes – http://t.co/YRKu3GAw #
• Information Overload Is Not a New Problem | Wired Science | Wired – http://t.co/1PnCJ6bg #
• Fruitville Elementary teacher mails students letters they wrote themselves 8 years ago | HeraldTribune – http://t.co/yyrSe4vd #
• Naming Rights – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher Education – http://t.co/FAecUQ4Z #
• California Bills Would Put Free Textbooks Online – The Ticker – The Chronicle of Higher Education – http://t.co/TCYrq9sQ #
• How Do Networks Invent? | Beyond The Beyond | Wired – http://t.co/VipZGqUM #
• Digital Rhetoric, Kairos, and Loss — Digital Rhetoric Collaborative – http://t.co/wVw4GUKh #
• Virtual Schools: From Rivalry to Partnership | Edutopia – http://t.co/StQ5hBVz #
• How to Write Any Essay: The Spartan System – http://t.co/xLNSo4TJ #
• Teach Plus: Why Asking for Help Is a Necessary Lesson – http://t.co/itBq8zG9 #
• “City reading,” or the reading matter of everyday life – http://t.co/verzZMfP –could make an interesting assignment #
• Remembering Leo Dillon (1933-2012) and Ellen Levine (1939-2012) – http://t.co/DS1aNyat #
• Building with MIT’S Google App Inventor – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education » http://t.co/LLRB0CUc #

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@newsfromtengrrl for 2012-05-30

May 30

By Traci Gardnernews Comments Off

• Community and technical colleges: anxious students, invisible faculty | The Seattle Times » http://t.co/3nJtSSVU #
• How helpful are remedial college courses? http://t.co/tG1rdU4a #
• The Tools in the Box – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher Education » http://t.co/hqM1LmTW #
• How the Dissertation Writing Retreat Helped Me to See Writing Center Work in a New Light « http://t.co/eGZFtgYy #
• New ‘Digital Divide’ Seen in Wasting Time Online – NYTimes » http://t.co/86xMWfL4 #
• Announcing “Teachers Write!” A Virtual Summer Writing Camp for Teachers & Librarians » http://t.co/9uNLAgEi /via Art B. on FB #
• The Ignored in Conversations About the Future of Humanities | Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/AJQxVGJv #
• When electronic promotion portfolios make sense — and don't (essay) | Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/UCOOK88C #
• Taking stock of the completion agenda's benefits, and limits | Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/BU89lHNs #
• How I Create: Q&A with Poet & Writer Samantha Reynolds | World of Psychology http://t.co/Z7rsYYH5 #
• Reader's Almanac: Douglas Brinkley on Walter Cronkite’s “most memorable reporting http://t.co/N2IGAWIZ #
• Valuable data about key aspects of modern life being lost in a digital archive "black hole" | BBC News – http://t.co/hn1FNT5T #
• Words to Avoid Online If You Don't Want to Join the Government's Watch List http://t.co/1EBzYtw4 #
• Gate words: Watergate was 40 years ago; can we knock it off already? – Chicago Tribune http://t.co/kUNKZ2BZ #
• Extra! Extra! Read all about it… online http://t.co/Na9NCpFa #journalism #newspaper #
• Going Paperless on a Mac – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/IWzqr1Bs #
• Click to Borrow, or Click to Buy: Your Choice is Making Publishers Nervous – inReads http://t.co/uKxiGUWT #
• William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes | Video on http://t.co/8RsjfPBV http://t.co/5BGaMY2Z #

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@newsfromtengrrl for 2012-05-29

May 29

By Traci Gardnernews Comments Off

• Today's Woot shirt is for members of the Grammar Police: http://t.co/ZV6Zc1Vz #
• Honoring sacrifices of Americans through literature – The MetroWest Daily News http://t.co/1HeDJfn5 #
• The Case of the Extra Word – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/sj7w76Eu #
• BBC News – 'Tudor era' is misleading myth, says Oxford historian http://t.co/bF8QbqGS #
• Sentences Crisp, Sassy, Stirring – NYTimes » http://t.co/Q6TzKHX3 #
• Is Segregation Back in U.S. Public Schools? – Room for Debate – NYTimes http://t.co/4vFAteW5 #
• Mobile Phones not allowed in School? Store it in a Truck http://t.co/Fyb62Jjs #
• Disposable Twitter Accounts for Classroom Use – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/kPTuJXZo #
• What’s This Thing Called Google Knowledge Graph? | YALSA » http://t.co/SKdyxWMd #

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@newsfromtengrrl for 2012-05-28

May 28

By Traci Gardnernews Comments Off

• In computer age, teachers finding cursive not in the script – Connecticut Post http://t.co/42XI9DPK #
• UCSD Digital Journalism: MetaFilter and Citizen Journalism in the 9/11 Attacks http://t.co/PGUhR66j #

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@newsfromtengrrl for 2012-05-27

May 27

By Traci Gardnernews Comments Off

• Physics afloat (or not) at cardboard regatta – http://t.co/hxuyeNim Not exactly about teaching English, but an interesting project #
• Formidable Females in YA Fiction: Literature | KQED Public Media for Northern CA http://t.co/nQdPVpAr #
• How Roland Barthes Gave Us the TV Recap – NYTimes http://t.co/nuzJBnyS #

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@newsfromtengrrl for 2012-05-26

May 26

By Traci Gardnernews Comments Off

• Teacher gave POW! to bad writing | The Des Moines Register | http://t.co/JBbn4QIn #
• Why Retreat? Nurturing Teacher Confidence, Creativity, and Camaraderie – National Writing Project http://t.co/TR72ma5P #
• On Not Knowing: Why I Avoided the Academic Jobs Wiki http://t.co/5l2UCLVw #
• Take the Survey! – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/XDEu0p3P #

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@newsfromtengrrl for 2012-05-25

May 25

By Traci Gardnernews Comments Off

• 3D for PD: Second Life Gets a Second Chance | Edutopia http://t.co/aB4Lshto #
• U. of Missouri Press to Close – The Ticker – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/VkbTshvo #
• On June 7, Join the Conversation About Summer Reading – NYTimes http://t.co/eNyEXL3W #
• Ravitch: What is NCTQ? (and why you should know) – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post http://t.co/TDD29dT6 #
• Reader's Almanac: Mark Statman on how Kenneth Koch continues to teach http://t.co/mBuZDnLK #
• When a "Catastrophe" Turns Out Well – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/XsDav3Al #
• Why 15 Minutes? – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/iLWPV2XV #
• Forget Me, Scott Reed – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/ClOUrH3E #
• APA Style Blog: The Writing Dead: How to Cite a Deceased (Yet Strangely Prolific) Author http://t.co/OtQKCkNa #
• A Jennifer Egan Original Short Story… Tweet by Tweet – http://t.co/XvchVE86 http://t.co/mWENvCid #

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Aligning Composition with Student Interests

May 24

By Traci GardnerBedford Bits, composition, connected learning interest-driven learning Comments Off

I was lucky enough to teach a first-year composition course in the mid-80s that focused on the rhetoric of war. Admittedly, the topic was not one I had any deep ties to. It wasn’t one I would have chosen on my own. I took on two sections of the specially themed course as a favor.

I was not an authority on the topic. I hadn’t even reviewed all the texts for the course before I began teaching. I had to work to keep up with the readings and the films that the class watched. I designed the usual kinds of assignments and activities, which I have documented in a List of Ten and in my blog post Assignment: Naming and the Rhetoric of War. Frequently, the students in the classroom knew more than I did about historical battles and current military events.

Despite all the reasons the course could have gone wrong, I found myself with some of the most engaged students I have ever taught. Their personal interest in the topic made all the difference. Students had signed up for the course because they were interested in exploring the topic, so they came into the classroom ready to dig into the texts.

By contrast, the overwhelming majority of students signing up for first-year composition courses had no details on the courses they were choosing. It’s much harder in this more typical unthemed composition course to create contexts that will lead to personal connections for students. 

You can read the list of possible contexts for a generic composition course and my ideas on how to align composition with student interests in my post on the Bedford Bits site.

@newsfromtengrrl for 2012-05-24

May 24

By Traci Gardnernews Comments Off

• Amazon bans junk ebooks – The Domino Project http://t.co/0arzs0XK #
• Petition Urges White House to Require Public Access to Federally Financed Research – Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/8Io2DHhU #
• The Modern Language Association Teams Up With Interfolio – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/kuQt34cW #
• When Should You Quit Academia? | Inside Higher Ed http://t.co/4diuTREQ #
• Video: A Very Brief Visual History of the Typewriter – The Atlantic http://t.co/anDr1ucn #
• What’s a Moodle? Read this http://t.co/L1wLeOVv #
• Reflecting on the flipped class through student feedback – THE DAILY RIFF – http://t.co/x3WabOV8 #
• Public-University Groups Form Panel on Distance-Education Regulation – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/mWtU40O8 #
• An Open Letter to Writing Instructors from a Motivated Student | Edutopia http://t.co/FQg9oKE3 #
• Reading Fiction Can Make You a Better Cook http://t.co/B0C8mmK2 #
• How to Photograph Food Without a Fancy Camera | Small Kitchen College: http://t.co/FyUmeZRb #
• Create Markdown Documents in the Cloud with WikiPack – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/XYgBJja3 #

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@newsfromtengrrl for 2012-05-23

May 23

By Traci Gardnernews Comments Off

• Archive Watch: Building a National Cooperative for Archival Standards – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/sRzIN5Gt #
• When Can I See My Book Cover? – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/pOsvZg9b #
• When Being Too Private on Facebook Can Actually Be a Bad Thing http://t.co/rC1rMh5X #
• Know Your Rights: Photography in Public http://t.co/jkCGWDBj #
• 10 Scandalous Authors From History http://t.co/XzOgElxK #
• Harry Potter and the Ivory Tower: Children's Literature and Academia http://t.co/urerOgY0 #
• Adrienne Rich: Leaving Her Mark on America http://t.co/IQCdRB7p #
• Auto-Correct Is Not Ruining Spelling – The Atlantic Wire http://t.co/Mf1SVr7z #
• Poet Nikki Giovanni urges older generation to tell their story | The News & Advance http://t.co/xergtBGa #
• The Writing Program – DePauw University http://t.co/hIMZRU2b #
• In a Digital Age, Braille Is Still Important | GeekMom | http://t.co/9nxyEHBZ http://t.co/RJItgNUp #
• Is college too easy? As study time falls, debate rises – The Washington Post http://t.co/1tm1Exmy #
• How to Write Longer Papers (Without Working Harder) | HackCollege http://t.co/Hlrz5suv –not tips I actually recommend #
• BBC News – Neets* 'lack skills needed for first jobs' http://t.co/FiiQiH7o *youngsters Not in Education, Employment or Training #
• Educational Technology Is Key to Job Training, Panelists Say – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/qYDECZHU #
• Update: "Google Search Education" – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/X8twTtXL #
• Is $&%*# acceptable in YA lit? http://t.co/sFZezOJ9 #
• How to Rewire Your Burned-Out Brain: Tips from a Neurologist | Edutopia http://t.co/qxbPgqTo #
• Study Shows Promise and Challenges of 'Hybrid' Courses – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education http://t.co/JRVu3Pyl #
• NYT Learning Blog launches its 3rd annual summer reading challenge on June 15 | NWP Connect http://t.co/7uOfpCX2 #

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