February 2007 — News
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Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog
Guidelines
If you elect to blog, you might consider some of the following guidelines drawn from my online teaching:
1. Provide posting guidelines. Suggest a minimum number of words or length for each posting based on your criteria for what constitutes a substantive post. Generally, one to two focused paragraphs per post is appropriate. Criteria might be stated in a checklist or rubric for graded discussions--yes, associate the requirement to participate with a grade. A substantive response might include references to assigned readings, other resources learners have found, and their views on practical applications of principles they are learning. As students must be taught to credit the work and ideas of others, a blog might be a good place to introduce students to APA format, MLA style, Chicago style, or even AP style for aspiring journalists.
2. Provide HTML support, if needed. Depending on your blogging service, you might need to teach students some introductory HTML code to create new paragraphs or live links to any Web content they provide. New paragraphs are created very simply by adding <p> at the beginning and </p> at the end of each. A link can be created by filling in the URL and words to appear on the screen using the code <a href="http://.......">Words to appear</a>. Alternatively, students might use the HTML features of Word to compose replies offline.
3. Give priority to student commentary. Your reply to student postings can stimulate dialog. On the other hand, it might be perceived as the final word and cut off discussion. Consider waiting to add your comments until conversation is waning. Then you might summarize key points and recharge discussion with another question (Muilenburg & Berge, 2000). Ideally, every discussion should have some kind of closure. Learners will feel more valued if you quote their posts in any wrap-ups.
4. Involve students in summarizing and moderating discussions. Let's do some math. You might have a class of 25 students, posed only one discussion question for the week, and asked students to not only post an initial reply, but to respond to two other learners. That translates to reading at least 75 posts, replying to many, and then composing your own initial contributions--and you have five classes. Did all learners participate fully? Were the replies of value? Summarizing content takes time, and you might wonder how useful it will be. The question is, "Who should summarize your blog discussions?"
Glogoff (2005) stated, "[S]tudents reported that the peer-review capabilities of blogging contributed to better understandings of course content" (sec: Student Responses to Blogging). So, why not use your blog to help students develop critical thinking and metacognition? You should summarize at least once to model how it is done. Then let students weave and summarize as a way to reflect on their own learning and contributions of their peers. Weaving relates discussion sections from prior weeks to the current week or is used to synthesize multiple responses. You might also have students take turns as discussion moderator for part of a learning experience. Assigning student teams to moderate discussions also enables high levels of feedback without exhausting you.
