Mike the Student

Grades Again

2005-05-12T15:15:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I posted, and the end of the quarter and the school year is about a week away. So, Bud has really been poking at us to get us to hammer out some details on a good grade in this class.
This is pretty hard to do. After all, people say different things in different ways, and can say a lot in a little, or a little in a lot. Also, some(like me, obviously) may not post too often, unless there is something that they feel is worth being said, or something they feel needs to be shared, or if they need an answer to a question.
So, he's decided to sit down with us individually and discuss with us what a good grading system might be. Shouldn't take too long, there's only six or seven of us.
So far, we've explored blogs and wikis, trying to find their place in the modern classroom. We've been asked to explore the possibilities of both, and how flexible they are(very, by the way).
Do you guys have any ideas?

Grade "A" Blogging

2005-05-04T15:06:00.000-06:00

It's time for us to decide what a good grading thingie would be for our class, so says Bud.
I don't have any definite ideas in my head for what constitutes a good grade, but I can think of some general ones- Class Participation and Online Participation.
I don't know what else we could have asked from this class, seing as this wasn't so much a learning thing as much as a research thing.
He'll probably ask us to do something at the end, like a reflection on our experiences during this quarter in the blogsphere, an essay on how blogging can be used in the classroom, and maybe some sort of farewell(temporary or not) to the educational blogsphere. Whether or not the district accepts the blogging proposal as a portfolio system, I won't post to this blog for the summer. After all, I have my personal blog to look after.
Oh whoops, am I journaling?

Hmm...

2005-04-21T15:21:00.000-06:00

Bud asked me today why I had taken down the links to my personal blog. I told him about the rule(these rules were hammered out by students) about not linking to personal blogs, in fear of revealing info about our district, which our district doesn't want. I explained that although I would never intentionally reveal us, I didn't want him to bend the rules in my favor.
So, he suggested I made a post about it, and asked the Blogsphere what the inhabitants think. So, uh... What do you guys think?

Rant

2005-04-21T12:13:00.000-06:00

This is education-oriented, so I felt it belonged here.

One of the few things I hate about school is the essay. There's nothing wrong with an essay itself, but often, these essays have extremely strict guidelines and questions that we have to answer and pad out to the required length. In my Film & Compostion class, we were required to write an essay on the techniques of filmmaking and the thesis that Morgan Spurloc had for Supersize Me, his documentary about McDonalds.
I felt I had adequately answered most (or all) of the questions, and had done so in my own writing style, with my sense of sarcasm. However, I got a C.
My real frustration is that when I followed my essay guide to the T, It began to come out in a robotic, monotone way.

When I can't be as creative as I want to, I feel like my work is being stifled for being different, and that I can't have my individual writing style.

Rules and Stuff

2005-04-19T14:58:00.000-06:00

Our class began to experiment with Wikis, ours being here.
Because of the rules, I really shouldn't post to my personal blog. The reason is, because we are experimenting with this, our school district doesn't want to be known in case we screw up somehow. I'd never reveal our district, my name, or school, but I took the links down to set a good example for my classmates.
It's kind of a shame- I think I do my best blogging on my personal one.

Anyway, Bud asked us to answer some questions.
3. What are some reasons why you think blogs might be useful at school?
I think that blogs would be useful for displaying student work, and, if the student feels the need to, post links relating to it.

5. Should student blogs be made public for the world to see, or just that schools community?
If the student knows that anyone can see their work, and said work is posted willingly, I see no reason not to allow their blogs to be publicly visible.

Those are really the only ones I have opinions about.

Editry

2005-04-14T15:24:00.000-06:00

Added a counter.

Blahg, part duex

2005-04-13T14:58:00.000-06:00

In response to my teacher's post here:
Well, to me, blogging has it's own way of doing things. I can post whatever! I can post anything! I choose not to post just ANYTHING, I post whatever I think is important to more than just me, and my opinions- I post things that I think are worth sharing, at least such is the case on my personal blog(link removed due to rules).

I think, as many have said, that blogging is special, in that I can post things and give information in a link, so anyone can follow what I'm saying without having to ask me for background information(as long as I have already provided it). I think that the ability to get a story or something else of interest on a blog while getting the honest opinion of someone who doesn't have the constraints of needing to be PC(I choose to be PC... Mostly). This allows people to find views of someone similar to them, and maybe find things that they might enjoy, or also have opinions about.

Our whole blogging class excursion started as a way for our school and school district to research the uses of blogging in the classroom, mostly as a way to display schoolwork in a portfolio system, for possible employers to view.

If this post and the comments on Bud's blog are any indications, then the educational blogsphere may soon have all of it's eyes turned on us. It may be up to us, the students, to decide the place of blogs in the schools.

I feel like I'm part of something.

See the what my classmates think here:
Elle's Blog
Moe's Blog
Joe's Blog
David's Blog
Tyr's Blog

Edit:Will Richardson blogged about our blogging.

Blahg

2005-04-12T15:08:00.000-06:00

Bud posted some questions for us to answer:

1. Why do you use blogs? What do you currently use blogs for outside of school (If you do)?
A:First of all, Bud, PLEASE DO NOT PUT TWO QUESTIONS IN ONE. That annoys me to no end. Secondly, I just use my blog to post random stuff. Whatever I feel like posting.
2. What are some reasons why you think blogs might be useful at our school?
A:It might be a good way to post some stuff we're proud of, rather than the current portfolio system, where our work just sits in a box.
3. What are some potential problems that you see with blogging at school?
A:Access might be a problem, since the server and other components of the system may have problems from time to time.
4. Should student blogs be made public for the world to see, or just our school community?
A:Because the student chooses everything that they want to put in their portfolio, I think that they should be viewable by everyone in the world.

Startings

2005-03-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is the first post of my portion of my school's(which I am not allowed to name) experimental blog portfolio projekt.