11030

11030

General Session - Conference Presentation Only (no formal paper)

Event Specific Blogging – Sharing Content-Related Experiences with Students
Sheryl Bone, Kaplan University, Michigan, USA, sbone@kaplan.edu Teresa Kelly, Kaplan University, Georgia, USA, tmkelly@bellsouth.net

Many college students admit to feeling intimidated by professors’ academic knowledge and are afraid that the professor will confirm their academic inadequacy if they express themselves (Cox, 2009). Faculty use blogging to express opinions in non-intimidating ways and to promote dialogue. Students blog as personal commentaries and as a required part of some courses (Educause, 2007) in order to form opinions and develop confidence in expressing themselves publically. Event specific blogging shares timely information with readers so that they can experience an event as if they were participating (pure blogging.com, 2008). Event specific blogging allows faculty to relay content from conferences, meetings, and other events, thus allowing their students to share in professional experiences as they work to become professionals themselves. The workshop will examine the efforts of a team from Kaplan University, who participated in National Novel Writing Month 2010 (NaNoWrimo). Some members shared NaNoWrimo experiences with students and other members of the University community through event specific blogging. The blogs provided invaluable modeling for student writers and allowed them to see that their struggles with writing-related issues were not unique to student writers. Workshop participants will use the NaNoWriMo experience to discuss the advantages of event specific blogging, the role it can play in education and the benefits for both students and educators. Participants will also be encouraged to identify opportunities in their own professional lives that lend well to event specific blogging and be guided through different ways of creating, managing, and promoting their blogs.

REFERENCES Articlesbase.com (2008). Retrieved from "|http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/the-fear-of-writing-essay-604509.html

Cox, R.D.(2009). The college fear factor: how students and professors misunderstand one another. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. "|http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Educause, (2007). 7 things you should know about Blogs. EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, Retrieved from "|http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7006.pdf

Vercillo, K.(2010). Live Event Blogging vs. Event Specific Blogging [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://www.pureblogging.com/2008/01/17/live-event-blogging-vs-topic-based-blogging/

Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, All Audiences online blogging distance education