Reflection Blog

You are required to post several times to your blog throughout the course. You have to post a minimum of three separate times. I will review the blogs each week. You are also required to post your blog address to the discussion board so other members of the class can review your blog. This is an important aspect to create a community and share work with each other. You must post to the discussion board as soon as you create your blog site. You must keep the same blog address throughout the semester. 

Goals

The goals of the reflection blog are to

1. Increase your learning through reflection
2. Increase your learning through interaction with other students
3. Expose you to a new and important technology
4. Improve your written communication skills

Description

The Reflection Blog assignment involves you maintaining a blog (Web log) of your thoughts on various course topics. A blog is basically an online journal. In this journal, you will reflect on your readings, discussions and other activities related to the course. Exactly what you write in your blog is up to you. The idea is for you to pause and think about what you've learned in the course; this is called reflection. Reflecting is a powerful tool for deepening your learning. Reflection helps you better retain the newly-gained knowledge and also connects the new knowledge to existing knowledge.

Some of you may view this as a chore; trust me, this is a valuable learning tool. As is the case with most learning activities, you'll get out of this what you put into it. If you get into maintaining your blog, you'll probably find it a fun, and valuable experience. Tons of people blog for fun, so there must be something to it.

Requirements

The requirements for this assignment are simple:

• Maintain a blog on any web site (http://www.blogger.com or your own web site) of your reflections on the course.
• Post entries on topics as you see fit.
• Entries will receive credit if they are:
  • Substantive (show a reasonable degree of thought and reflection), and
  • Related to course topics.
• You must post at least three entries throughout the semester. No more than two entries per week will receive credit. (This is to encourage reflection throughout the term.)
• Make sure you send me your blogging web site address as soon as it is established so you can earn credit.

You will receive points for each substantive blog entry, up to a maximum of thirty points. You may post as many entries as you'd like, and not all entries have to be related to the course. However, only those entries that are substantive and related to the course will receive credit. At any point during the term, upon request I will provide you with a progress report of how many points you've earned to date.

WebAuthoring

You may use any online web service to post your blog. If you have not already created a web site select any of the following free web sites to upload/develop your electronic portfolio.

http://www.blogger.com (Most students use blogger. It seems to be the most user-friendly)

http://www.freewebs.com

http://www.google.com/a/

http://geocities.yahoo.com/

http://www.bravenet.com/

http://www.blinkz.com/

Student Example Blogs

Blog 1

Blog 2

Blog 3

Blog 4