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How is blogging being used in teaching at UCLA and elsewhere?

Blogging can definitely be used in teaching, and here are some UCLA Faculty experiences:

Chad Topaz, Dept. of Mathematics

“I have done some work implementing student blogging as a tool to improve teaching and learning. If you are interested in this topic, feel free to peruse the information packet I put together.”

Unfortunately, Prof. Topaz has left UCLA and moved to USC and then on to Macalester College – 5-23-08.
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Kimberly Jansma, Dept. of French and Francophone Studies

She experimented with blogging in an advanced French writing class. Students took the role of tenants in an apartment building and the writing assignments for the class were done in the “voice” of that character. After the assignments were corrected, students would post them to their blog and other students could read and commment on them. Also in French.

  • not just for a writing class
  • the blog is “real” virtual reality. People DO in fact blog in the real world. Makes it more realistic.
  • Comments allow for feedback
  • Any assignment (not just a final product)( can be assigned to a blog; e.g. sentences, paragraphs, discussion questions. She wishes she’d done more of that.
  • Students can learn from fellow students; w/o the teacher setting the A students apart.
  • quality of work, and motivation went up

Articles and Other Resources

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