Electronic Textbook

The Electronic Textbook, at Last? Using a Blog to Deliver Materials, Organize Classwork, and Provide an Entryway to Collaborative Learning Activities
Zhanna Yablokova, Borough of Manhattan CC / CUNY

Use blog like a website, hosted on http://wordpress.com at http://eng201.wordpress.com/

First reaction of student is that her picture looks better.

Use the same format for each class:

• Reading assignment with short story linked.
• Quiz or Take-home writing assignment
• Class Discussion Questions
• Materials
  • Short stories
  • Videos
  • Music
• Right-hand column: Pages
  • Expanations
  • Links
  • Embed powerpoints using http://scribd.com

Students like this blog

Questions

• Is the software free? How are backups handled?
  • Can be locally installed, database-driven
• How long does it take you to set up each assignment?
  • It takes some time, but the most time is finding the content
• Is it available after the students leave?
  • Yes, and no. It's online, and the scribd items are online, but the course is rebuilt at same URL every semester.
• Why not use LMS?
  • It's password protected, not easily accessible
• Consider wiki versus blog format?
  • Wordpress is very user friendly, wiki isn't needed.
• Do you put your assignments on the blog? Do you change them?
  • Yes, they change each semester.
• How do you do feedback online? How do students interact with this? Groupthink?
  • There is a comments section. Sometimes this is mandatory, sometimes this is not. Use http://co-ment.com