CIT Showcase: Teaching with Blogs: Advice From a Student

Jennifer Kim, Undergraduate Duke Student

  • Has taken 4 classes with blogs, all in english
  • 3 successful, 1 not

Why blogs don’t work

  1. Blogs fall into a black hold
  2. Blogs are not relevant to class and have no structure
  3. There are unrealistic expectations

How blogs can work

  1. Get people involved, RESPOND!
  2. There is proper incentive
  3. Provide an easy mechanism

Showed effective uses of blogs:

  • Weekly blog post with three questions and ask people to respond. Students often responded to each other, too.
  • Didn’t like the use of blog tools in Blackboard.