Exhausted and Exhilerated

Friday, 3:45. The end of a long, but productive week. My New Media class succeeded in publishing their first blog posts by the deadline (the end of class today).\

21 Classes has proved to be challenging, but not impossible for us to master. I am tickled at my students' lack of technological expertise with this particular literacy. I have a handful of students who are "pros"--comfortable with diving in and playing until they figure out how to do what they want to do. The others need varying levels of support, ranging from gentle prodding to hand-holding to a quick nudge.

Our class today was most exciting at about 10 minutes before the bell when I instructed the students who had successfully posted to go and help those that needed help.

I recommend 21 classes.com (forgive me blogger--I enjoy writing here, but the two-layer platform enables each student to personalize their own space and provides the teacher with an easily navigated site!) to any teacher!

I end the week pleased with the classes' set up. I have truly removed myself from front and center. The students sit in "Blog Pods" (our term!). They help eachother, collaborate, edit, and support. I moniter from the sidelines, on my Mac teacher computer, or wandering among the pods.

On Fridays, a student and I bring snacks, and the writers can get up from their desks and get a snack. Music plays on my laptop, thanks to Pandora (msn.com's customizable Internet radio) and the 50 minutes flies by. Why wasn't school this much fun when I was a kid?

New Semester, New Class!

Well ladies, I have made blogging on a weekly basis a goal for myself. It is also a required goal for my New Media Journalism students.

Yes, I have been tapped as the "Communications" teacher. I decided to re-name the course "New Media Journalism" because the former title did not match what the administrators articulated as the expectations.

So, here I am at the beginning of a new semester teaching a brand new course in writing for brand new media, most of which I am barely familiar with. I figured this blog would be an appropriate location for my first reflection.

So, how is it going? Surprisingly well. One of the gifts of early middle age is my newfound ability to "wing it". I find myself comfortable with setting a goal, doing a bit of background research and jumping in! Our first project is to be a class blog. So far, I have set up an account with 21classes.com. If you need a blogging platform for a class, I recommend checking it out. It is a bit more complex to begin with than blogger, but allows for a "two layer" blog. The first layer is a portal with a homepage for students to check out what's new from you. The second layer consists of the students' individual blogs which the administrator can choose to have listed on the portal page. This way, each student can design and write to their "own" blog and I can easily see what is new that each student has done.

Our blog can be accessed at DWSJournalism@21classes.com

We haven't posted yet, but I'll let you know when to check it out.

So far, I have immersed the students in gmail, google documents, and googlereader. I am committed to making this a completely paperless classroom and I am loving it.

I am a "digital immigrant" in this brave new world. You know what? I'm liking it!