Hey all,
Just thought I'd send you an update on some other blog-related happenings in my life.
I'm a tutor for Sweetland Writing Center, and last weekend I participated in a conference on writing in East Lansing, MI. The theme of the conference was "storytelling," and small groups of peer tutors from colleges all over Michigan gave presentations or lead roundtable discussions on topics of their choice. Two other U of M tutors and myself lead a discussion on blogging and the future of blogging and writing centers.
Currently, we are trying to make bloggers feel more welcome in the Writing Center. We encourage students to come in with both personal and academic blogs and get feedback from our tutors. We discussed the freedom a blog allows a writer to explore, while an essay provides much more of a rigid structure. We, as Sweetland tutors, are on hand to help students embrace this newfound freedom and break themselves out of a typical thesis-essay format in their blog comments and posts.
The discussion was received very well by both tutors and professors who participated. Although some professors seemed somewhat hesitant or confused by the importance we were placing on blogs in the classroom, they seemed willing to explore the possibility of including blog-based writing in their classrooms.
I was able to use this class as an example, and even got to show off this blog! Thanks to all for making the blog such an interesting webpage to show off during my presentation!
How encouraging that the "Writing Center"! is attempting to make "bloggers" feel more welcome! --never, never easy to change, but, seems to me, that evolutions are inevitable! --right now, the "Hurricane Sandy" meteorological system is forcing evolutions of land masses, and evolutions of aquatic forms --much will be displaced, allowing interactions between what seldom lacks opportunities to interact and embrace --however harshly! --and temporarily!
ReplyDeleteThis from Fox news:
http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2012/10/29/millions-across-east-coast-brace-for-uperstorm-sandy/
This from CBS:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57541877/hurricane-sandy-gains-strength-speed-on-east-coast-path/
This from the Christian Science Monitor's liveblog:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/1029/Hurricane-Sandy-Liveblog-Atlantic-City-flooding-as-storm-surge-begins-video
This "blog" from "The Washington Post":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/10/29/as-hurricane-sandy-devastates-cuba-bloggers-rise-to-the-challenge/
and this from "The Baltimore Sun":
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/weather/weather-blog/bs-md-sandy-update-20121030,0,2899772.story
--a tiny sampling of a much that is available! -I'm epecting more, and more, and more, and more