palimpsest

Atom Feeds for Blogger Blogs

I thought you all might be interested to know that Blogger is now supporting Atom feeds, which means that instead of having to check 41 student blogs a day to see if they've updated, I can let my newsreader (as soon as it supports Atom feeds) indicate which ones have been updated and which ones haven't. Those of you using blogs in the classroom can imagine how much of a time-saver this will be.

Syllabi

This semester, I have one blog that routes information for my various classes: 318. The syllabi, which are all linked from that page, include: 1 section of composition, 2 of Brit Lit II, and 1 of the Victorian novel.

There are also, so far, links to 2 assignments: response papers for the novel course, and a locally infamous poem memorization assignment for the survey.

Like everyone, I'd like to move to the Liz Lawley courseware implementation, but have been thwarted thus far by the Demons of IT. I've also been meaning to put up archives of old classes, especially the MOO course from Georgia Tech.

English Syllabus

The syllabus for English 3621: Writing by Women I (a course about women's writing up to the late 18thc) is linked from the course blog. The syllabus is a work-in-progress; a lot of the readings are on-line, and I haven't identified them all yet. (I thought by working this way I might save the students the cost of a course kit, but I don't know if they are any further ahead given the cost of printing in the computer labs.)

Descriptions of various other courses can be found on my webpage, but I started using WebCT a couple of years ago so stopped posting syllabi on the web, and didn't transfer the older ones over when I revamped the site this past summer. English 3621 marks the move away from WebCT. Next September I hope to use Liz Lawley's fabulous courseware, if I can figure out how to load plugins (or, who knows, I might get it up and running this term if I have the time. Ha!).

Composition Blogging

My syllabi are all online at my faculty web site. At the moment, I'm only teaching Composition, but I rely pretty heavily on online technologies in all of my classes. My Comp II courses might be of particular interest to you all, since I'm requiring that all of my students maintain a blog this semester. The site for the course blog is here, and my initial post describes how to make a link and how to add comments. I'll be adding material there over the course of the semester (in much the same way that Chuck did for his blogging class). Feel free to roam around on either of my sites. I'd like to be able to tell my students on Monday that people are already reading their work--there's nothing like the fear of a potentially public shaming to get students to take their writing seriously....

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And since George posted the link to the Crace collection, I thought I'd share this: The Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online, 1674-1834. Both very handy and very interesting.

Spring Courses

Syllabi for my spring courses are now online. I'm teaching ENGL 467: Computer and Text for upper-level undergraduates and ENGL 668k: Introduction to Digital Studies for graduate students. The Computer and Text course, which is being served up with Liz Lawley's spectacular MT Courseware, has been overhauled to include more of an emphasis on procedural texts, interactive narrative, and gaming. I'd particulary like to have some feedback on the Choose Your Own Adventure assignment.

The Digital Studies course will get a vanilla MT blog some time soon; there still may be a little nip and tuck on either syllabus.

maps of london through the centuries

The British Library has made available online the Crace Collection of Maps of London, "the essential guide to the development of the capital from the 16th to the 19th centuries, brought together by the Victorian designer, Frederick Crace." This exhibit is part of a BL site entitled Collect Britain, "the British Library's largest digitisation project to date ... By summer 2004 you can view and hear a staggering 100,000 images and sounds from our world-renowned collections without ever needing to visit the prestigious building in London." (via Andrew Pink on C18-L)

submitted: intro guide to html

Back when I worked at MITH, I created this Introductory Guide to HTML. It's not perfect (does not address CSS, for example), but I think it's not bad. I've always intended to reformat it without all the MITH headers and footers and perhaps update the content. It occurs to me that even in its present format, it would prove useful to those classes with students writing blogs or creating web resources.

categories

Chuck just mentioned using categories, and I think the use of categories is essential for this site. Here are three basic suggestions: "wanted," for materials that you are looking for, "found," for materials you've come across, and "submitted," for materials you've created and want to share.

Tech Autobiographical Sketch

Because George has asked us to identify items we've found on the web that we believe to be useful, I'll go ahead and highlight an assignemnt I discovered while surfing on Earth Wide Moth. The assigment is A Tech Autobiographical Sketch, and it looks like it might be a useful way of teaching students how to think critically about their experiences with technology. I'm specifically intrigued by how the assignment can fit into a discussion of how technologies should be understood, at least in part, through the discourses that surround them. I'm sure that I'll be adding to the list over the next few days, but found this assignment particularly worth mentioning, especially for a freshman writing course.

By the way, I decided to put this entry under the category "assignment," under the assumption that developing categories will eventually make searching the blog easier. Any objections?

Blogging and webpage basics

George kindly asked me to post copies of two handouts that I mentioned in my course blog: "Four ways to set up your own webpage" and "Four ways to blog." They might serve as models for those of you who want to get your students blogging or building webpages from a standing start. I have found that while some students are happy with verbal instructions—ie. "You can host your course page on one of the free hosts out there"—the less computer–savvy students like having something more specific, and on paper.