While some say blogging is dying out, the reality is that blogging technology is just “baked into” other platforms and technologies… There are more than a dozen blogging and publishing platforms that are new, very much alive, and attracting new users. WordPress is at the top of the list …
–Going Public, Arlene Stein and Jessie Daniels, pg. 105
A WordPress blog, which has website capability, can provide students an opportunity to go in depth into one topic. ITS’s WordPress experts can set up your blog or site with an interface that works for you.
Examples
Rick Millington’s 2018 class ENG 199: Methods of Literary Study, as a final project, constructed a WordPress website (requires Smith login):
“dedicated to interpretation and analysis of the Coltrane Elegies, a series of poems by African-American poets inspired by the life and music of jazz saxophonist, John Coltrane….Our analyses focus on figurative language, composition, format, and literary devices, as well as historical and cultural references, such as religion, civil rights, free jazz, and the Black Arts Movement.”
The projects, done in groups, are written reports coupled with multimedia such as photographs, video excerpts of Coltrane performances, and videos of jazz-inspired spoken-word performances of the elegies by their authors.
Naila Moreira’s 2018 class ENG 119: This Overheating World kept a blog throughout the semester, then selected best posts for the site’s featured “magazine,” including final projects with a video narrative (requires Smith login):
Weekly throughout the semester, students were required to write one post as well as comment on two of their peers’ posts. One post had to be a response to a climate change-related campus event or talk.
Ben Baumer’s 2017 class SDS 192: Introduction to Data Science created data journalism with a core of data analysis of film studies, following the model of the popular data journalism platform FiveThirtyEight. Two example student pieces are posted here and here.
Learning Goals
- Regular opportunity for students to engage with class readings and share their thoughts with each other, enhancing class discussions.
- Option to engage with multimedia presentation of information.
- Platform for discussion of writing needs for online audiences.
- Public discourse opportunity to share knowledge with others beyond the classroom.
More Examples of Blog Posts by Smith Students
Marcela Rodrigues Guimaraes ‘20J in the Ms. magazine blog
Carrie Baker and Emily Bellanca, “The Racist Roots of Rape Culture”
Multimedia Expansion
A DIGITAL COURSE provides a model for a more extensive integration of blogging practice into a course. Twitter posts and tweetstorms (view module here), or Instagram (view module here) can serve to encapsulate and bring attention to a public class blog or blog entry.
