STLHE: Implementing large-scale blogging systems at universities

Session Title: Implementing large-scale blogging systems at universities: facilitating collaborative writing scholarly learning communities
Presenters: Rochelle Mazar, University of Toronto at Mississauga & Jason Nolan, Ryerson University [paper abstract]

Another session with scattered notes, but mostly because I was just sucked right into the energy Rochelle & Jason generated for the topic! They did a great tag-team job of presenting their content (no powerpoint!), their enthusiasm was palpable. They also recorded the session, more details + the mp3 are here. Since you can listen to the session for yourself, most of the notes below are my commentary.

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- Rochelle & Jason have funding to build a blogging tool for higher ed
- plan to build the platform independently (open source) and then integrate into BlackBoard
- both feel that there is no tool designed for higher ed
- they spoke a bit about some of the features that will be included, keep an eye on metaphorica.net (their collaboartive site) for details.

blogging & pedagogy
- we already know that learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom. Blogging provides a venue for student reflection when the “a ha! moment” (Rochelle’s words) does happen, wherever/whenever that may be.
- both speakers also mentioned the “ownership” students feel over their blogs and their online presence (customization, avatars, etc. contribute to this).
- student blogs foster reflection on not just the content but the learning process, allowing them to engage in that process (as well as the learning processes of their classmates).
- it’s not about the technology, that just enables. it’s about the pedagogy!
- Jason mentioned a couple of techniques he uses to actually get his students to blog: he requires x number of words before class, then students are organized into groups of 6-10 and they go away and read each other posts and are encouraged to comment on a significant number of posts. They also have to respond to the comments they receive on their blogs.
- “curriculum of the hallway” (Jason’s words) – what a great way to put it! Because, yes, learning does happen outside of the classroom.
- both speakers also mentioned that they don’t prep their students in “online etiquette”, they learn this on their own (probably even more effective).

[...] No me ha dado tiempo a escuchar el podcast completo, así que de momento, nos quedamos con las notas de Amanda. [...]

“curriculum of the hallway” isn’t my term. It comes directly, or almost, from Elliot Eisner… I Think. Geeze, I’d better check that it is not philip jackson. Anyway, the idea… sorry it is sunday and I’m not amongst my books, is that we have a null, explicit and hidden curriculum. Ok, I’m beginning to remember “curriculum of the hallway” as Jackson’s. But still. The explicit curriculum is what we are taught. The hidden curriculum, as eisner puts it, is the socialization curriculum of the learning environment… how we learn to be a student, or a soldier, or a cop, or a street person. And the ‘null curriculum’ represents that which cannot be voiced or learned because they are excluded by the explicit and hidden. Old stuff that no one much reads any more, I guess.

And yes, powerpoint is somewhat evil. Causes shuttle crashes, I’ve heard.

Thanks for noting our project/presentation.