Assignment Overview

For this assignment, students run collaborative theme-based blog hosted by WordPress.com. The goal of the blog will be to present informed, insightful, curious, authoritative, and in-depth multi-modal posts on issues related to those discussed in class and on the subject of your group’s blog.

Assignment Specifics

Each group will complete the following:

• choose a topic based on those listed on the first day of the module
• name the blog in way that makes it clear what the theme of the blog will be
• choose a layout theme for your blog
• choose a hashtag for your blog
• learn several WordPress blog features (how to create posts, add links, add widgets, add images, and so forth)
• write an about page that describes each author of the blog professionally and the kinds of posts that readers can expect
• create a blogroll that links to each of the other course module blogs and no fewer than 5 influential blogs on a similar topic as your own (this will take doing some research, and I suggest using some of the blog search engines listed on this Mashable post).
• add the Twitter feeds for your hashtag using the Twitter widget creator, found on Twitter.com under Settings.

The Posts

Each individual in each group will compose a total of at least 6 posts. Of these posts,

• three must be inspired by texts you linked to as part of the #tfebt portion of the Twitter assignment
• three must be inspired by texts your classmates lined to as part of the #tfebt portion of the Twitter assignment

Posts will need to be informed, insightful, curious, authoritative, and in-depth, and very well written. They should locate the #tfebt text(s) you mention in terms of what we’re reading and discussing in class. Quote and reference readings when you can. But, write for a global audience who may not know anything about the course (because anyone anywhere in the world will be able to see your post). They do not need to be wholly serious; one of the great things about blog posts is that they can include funny material, like video and meme images, that help a more serious point.

Each post will need to have features that are important to blogs and blog readers: links whenever having one would make a meaningful connection, images, video, tags, categories, and so on. Write with the tone of exploration but with the confidence of an expert, not just a student learning something new in class. Rather, a writer thinking through new ideas on important subjects. For an example of the kind post I’m looking for, see: Participatory Learning and the Death of the Lectern, Blurring Lines: Understanding Extratexual Discourse within Fandom, and What Would Batman Buy for Christmas?

Post Due Dates

• three posts should be online by
  • Mod 3: Saturday, 4/19
  • Mod 2: the Saturday before Spring Break
  • Mod 1: the Saturday after the end of week 2
• three posts should be online by
  • Mod 3: Saturday, 5/3
  • Mod 2: Saturday, 3/29
  • Mod 1: the Wednesday of week 4
• additional posts are, of course, more than welcome (not it reads “at least 6 posts” above)

Additional assignments, such as the final project, will require blog posts in addition to the ones for the blogging assignment.

Commenting on Posts

Each student will be required to comment on at least 8 posts: four within your own blog group, four within other module blogs.

Your replies should contain sentences and further the author’s ideas. Just writing “wow–I totally agree” is not enough. Engage the ideas. They should be 50 – 100 words long.

Authors should monitor their comments and reply to those who have commented. That is, of course, the point, to engage in conversation.

Assessment and Other Stuff

Your blog posts will be assessed in terms of the interpretation of the ideas presented, how well the ideas from the course texts are incorporated, how well they incorporate multimedia (images, videos, and so on), and how well they show you thinking critically about the issue you’ve chosen in terms of the module texts and what you have found online.

So that I am able to assess your blog posts and responses, please keep a log in a single Word or GoogleDocs document that contains for each post:

• the date
• the post title
• the post URL

For each comment, log the following:

• the date
• the title of the post you respond the
• the post URL
• the full text of your comment

Please create sections for the Posts Log and the Comments Log so I can more easily tell which is which.

Totals

By the end of the module each student will have at least:

• 6 blog posts (plus any additional required for other module assignments)
• 8 blog comments