Throughout this class we have created numerous bloggs and comments on individual's bloggs, with the incentive to get extra credit. It is a way we can see the views of our fellow class mates. We can go into real world application of the ideas we learn in our economic class. At least that is what we are suppose to think, right? Does it really help to understand economics or is it a easier way to get an A out of the class. I would have to admit I would not even be making this post unless there was an incentive for me. I need a few extra points.
Is it a good thing for Dr. Tufte to have us do these bloggs? I have heard from numerous people that they don't really care what they get on the aplia assignments. If they do bad they will just do one or two more bloggs and that will make up for any points they missed on the assignment. I admit I would never have read so much about oil prices and how they will effect the economy. Or what the merger between Sears and K-mart will do to the retail industry.
8 comments:
I appreciate that the blogs give us opportunities to receive feedback from our peers and not just Dr. Tufte, but I think there are some who think that blogging is the only important part of the class.
Blogging allows a person to state what they feel without having to respond instantly to another persons response. We post what we think and then allow others to comment. We then can either comment back or just leave it. It allows us to speak our minds without worrying about saying the wrong thing. We can put our true feelings without fearing criticism. Yes, criticism does happen but we do not have to worry about being shut down right away. We can take our take thinking of how to respond.
I think it has also kept me more up to date with issues. Honestly, if I wasn't blogging on these issues, I wouldn't have known about many of them.
I think that Joe may be missing the point of what this class and college in general is all about. It is not about the score one receives on an Aplia assignment or what grade one gets from a particular quiz out of an economics class that is basically open book anyways. We are here to learn how to think my friend. That is what employers are looking for. Most don't care if you come out of college knowing or having a rememberence of all the various technical skills that a you learned. They want thinkers.
Blogging affords an arena for free thinking and as you can see from the recent grade scores in our class, many people can't even make themselves put in some extra time to get a good grade by blogging. Sure you see a rise in the amount of posts and comments this week, by those that initially were too lazy to do so but that is okay because as long as they are thinking and learning this week from researching and participating in the class. By the way Joe are you trying to ruin the opportunity for future classes to blog? It seems that now that this class is winding down and your grade is in place that you are doing just that.
Here's what's going on in my head.
1) I am still experimenting with how to award points for this, and it is clear that I was too generous this semester. All I can do is change that in the future. The effect of this may have been to trade off a higher letter grade for less understanding of the text.
2) I have frequently gotten student evaluations that complained that grading was based on too few types of assignments (say, multiple-choice tests only). So, I have been consciously trying to increase the number of ways you can show me what you know (tests, Aplia, experiments, and blogging). This is another example, and it seems to make some people very happy with the class.
3) I am very interested in improving student's writing (and my own). But let's face it - writing is a pain in the neck. Further, most class writing assignments are about something you're not very interested in. Blogging goes a good way towards solving that problem.
4) I am a firm believer in letting public embarrassment act as a quality filter. I can state unequivocally that the quality of writing on blog posts by students in this class and others is far beyond what a professor typically sees (when only their eyes see the final product). So this is an easier way for me to deal with something that I really want to do, but which I have a hard time justifying (time-wise).
On the whole, I think this is a good thing to do with classes, once the boundaries are worked out. Can you imagine what other professors around campus would say if they knew how much you wrote this semester (at 13 wrods per line)? The posts alone in October ran to just over 20,000 words.
One additional thought that I had on this is that I suspect that plagiarism is greatly reduced when: 1) your post doesn't have to be too large, and 2) the post you will like enough to comment on can't be predicted in advance.
The problem with letting students blog for grades is that it's TOO MUCH FUN.
A professor I had at Penn, Samuel Klausner let us have a "debate" in one class, and the next class he said it was a bad idea because fun activities trivialized the educational process. Learning should be difficult. (I presume that's why he assigned us to read Talcott Parsons.)
In one of my MBA classes at ASU (in the pre-blog era of 1999), we were required to write three posts to an intranet bulletin board, but I would hardly call the ASU evening MBA program a rigourous academic curriculum.
I'm not sure I agree completely with this, but it is a serious problem in making a blog work in a class. How do I ensure that while you're "having fun" writing posts about what you like, and flaming others with your comments that you include enough content from the class. I haven't quite figured that out yet.
Forgot to tell you that Michael Kantor (2 comments up) is the blogger behind The Calico Cat, linked on the list at the left.
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