Photo: Latke Time [345/366] by Tim Sackton on Flickr, used under a CC-BY 2.0 license I’m using a food-related theme for my summer technical writing course. The first assignment is an oral presentation (video) that they will use to introduce…
Category: Teaching Composition
Great Writing Resources from UNC-Chapel Hill
Recently I needed a resource to help students understand brainstorming. I knew that they generally understood the idea, but I wanted to encourage them to try some new strategies and stretch their invention skills a little. After a few disappointing…
Mapping Online Identity
This post is part of a series that ask students to examine how digital technology shapes literacy and the ways that people interact with others, inspired by Virginia Tech Libraries’ digital literacy initiative. Previous posts have covered definitions of digital…
Researching a Public Figure’s Online Identity
Inspired by Virginia Tech Libraries’ digital literacy initiative, I am sharing a series of activities that ask students to examine how digital technology shapes literacy and the ways that people interact with others in my recent posts. So far, I…
Revising the Resources List on My Syllabus
This week’s post on Bedford Bits describes the work I have begun on revising my course documents to make them more visual. The ultimate goal is to make them more engaging and more useful to students. I started with the…
Audience, Peer Review, and the MOOC
I failed at #WEXMOOC this week. Though admittedly, I feel a little tricked by the nature of the MOOC (defined generally) as well. Our second assignment asked us to reflect on our identities as writers in relationship to three other…
The Tiresome Insistence of the MOOC
I covet beta site access. I download and install the newest tools. I try out and review apps before they catch on. I enjoy crash testing systems (even if their developers wish I wouldn’t). But MOOCs haven’t tempted me. Every…
A Definition Assignment from a Super Bowl Commercial
I wasn’t blown away by the Super Bowl commercials this year. There were a couple that seemed cute to me. The GoDaddy commercials, as usual, annoyed me. WWE fan that I am, I enjoyed The Rock’s Milk commercial, and like…
My Connected Learning Round-up for 2012
Earlier this year, I spent some time learning and posting about Connected Learning, in particular in the context of the college writing and literature classroom. Most of my posts focus on trying to define what Connected Learning is and thinking…
Aligning Composition with Student Interests
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…