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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Student blogging
Student blogging is often done underground, carefully sequestered in LiveJournal or Xanga. Though they can be found, it often takes a little searching. I read a few Bryn Mawr student blogs, mostly by students who have worked for me and I usually search around every once in a while to take the pulse of our own and other college's student bodies. It's definitely worthwhile to do so. It's not that I want to find out "the dirt" or learn someone's secrets, but I'm interested in finding out what students these days find interesting, what they care about, what makes them happy, sad and angry. It's especially interesting during the spring when prospective students are deciding what college they're going to. The reasons they choose one college over another are fascinating and sometimes extraordinarily complex. Current students will also respond to questions they receive from prospective students and the answers they give are quite articulate and reflective. I think it's useful for anyone at a college to have a better sense of their population and student blogs are a great way to gain that insight.
Some colleges and universities have established sites where students can blog (like ours). Some of these are simply spaces in which students can blog with no editing. They are unfiltered, but still, most students are aware that they're blogging on the college site and won't necessarily say the things they might in another setting. And often, these blogs are part of classes and may not have the same free spirit. Some of these sites are attached to admissions sites and are just a step above the canned language common in most admission materials. They're still interesting. They're just not quite the real thing.
Via Karine at College Web Editor, I discovered the College Blogs Network, run by a UPenn student. It looks great and not only might it be a way those of us non-students might get a good idea of student life, but also it seems to be a great place for student bloggers across the country or even around the world to connect with each other.
It's a great idea. I'm definitely adding it to my blogroll.
Some colleges and universities have established sites where students can blog (like ours). Some of these are simply spaces in which students can blog with no editing. They are unfiltered, but still, most students are aware that they're blogging on the college site and won't necessarily say the things they might in another setting. And often, these blogs are part of classes and may not have the same free spirit. Some of these sites are attached to admissions sites and are just a step above the canned language common in most admission materials. They're still interesting. They're just not quite the real thing.
Via Karine at College Web Editor, I discovered the College Blogs Network, run by a UPenn student. It looks great and not only might it be a way those of us non-students might get a good idea of student life, but also it seems to be a great place for student bloggers across the country or even around the world to connect with each other.
It's a great idea. I'm definitely adding it to my blogroll.
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Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Teaching Carnival
One of the best things about the blog world is the carnivals. Carnivals are collections of posts/essays on specific topics. There are carnivals for nearly every topic. One of my favorites is the Teaching Carnival which focuses on teaching issues in higher ed. George has a call out for the academic year's first teaching carnival. If you have a blog and want to submit a post on teaching, you can email George or you can tag your post with "teaching carnival" (George has instructions for that on his blog and I can also assist.) Even if you don't submit a post, I highly recommend reading through the archives or checking in on the carnival date. There are always interesting suggestions and strategies as well as stories from the trenches. It's well worth a few minutes of your time.
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