In ATY 595 during Fall semester 2014, we are going to use this blog as a tool for posting our responses to each week's reading assignments with the goal of "jump-starting" our discussions in class. Each student/blogger must first carefully read (and sometimes re-read) the assignment, reflect on its content/meaning/significance, and then attempt to get down in words a coherent response to the reading that can then be explored and discussed by the entire class when we meet on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
The rules are simple...one student will be assigned as the main blogger for each reading assignment, and 2 other students will be assigned as commentators for each blogpost/reading assignment. However, any student may respond to any post or comment...the above assignments are just the bare minimum and I hope that our online discussions through this blog will be lively and wide-ranging typically involving posts from more than three individuals.
All students need to read all the relevant blog posts prior to each week's classroom discussion: the threaded blog posts and comments will form the common ground and starting point for each classroom discussion. But the discussions will have to probe deeper and reflect more broadly on what we have read (both in the original reading assignment and in the various blogposts).
The blogging assignments are available now on the course Blackboard site.
