Monthly Archives: May 2005

Pandora’s Blog



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Originally uploaded by lhl.

Our student-faculty panel at the SSAW05 Conference at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Communication in L.A. Session II: Exploring the Use of Weblogs in the Classroom I Panel: Pandora�s Blog? What Happens When College Students Take to Social Software in the Classroom




Mai 2005 B 076

Originally uploaded by sebpaquet.


Sebpaquet’s picture (Mai 2005 B 076) of our panel–>

Barbara Ganley, Middlebury College
Eugene Lee, Middlebury College
Mary Ellen Bertolini, Middlebury College
Piya Kashyap, Middlebury College
Before we arriving at our hotel, Barbara drove us out to the Getty Museum, and we lingered around in the beautiful gardens before heading inside to see the Irises. We made a brief stop at the Pier in Santa Monica where I put my feet in the Pacific for the first time.

Getting to Know You

Despite the fact that I spend more and more of my time reading blogs, I’m still in love with books. I’m drawn to the wonderful immediacy of blogs, but also still enthalled by the book written and revised over time. Some writers (and people) reveal themselves in a flash (like blogs) while others unfold themselves over time (like books). I love that word “unfold.” Not surprisingly, “unfolding” is a key metaphor in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which I’m preparing to teach again this fall. In it, the main character literally folds and unfolds a letter sent to her while she metaphorically unfolds the characters of others and herself. Key to her new self-knowledge is rereading, rethinking, replaying of the movies in her mind (anachronism!) of past events. In the 1995 film version of the novel, we see the replaying of the past in flash back (slighted altered) as she reads the letter.
Sometimes, you discover things you never imagined about people when you read their books. I’ve know my colleague Hector Vila about 5 years, and I decided it was finally time to read his book. I’ve been reading a bit of his book each night. I discoverd it’s a Writing to Heal narrative–interesting, because I’ve been teaching a Writing to Heal course for the past 3 years, and Hector and I never discussed this in terms of his own writing. I’ve finished part I, and I’m finding it very moving–both his own narrative and that of his inner city students.

My time working with inner city students really formed who I am as a teacher. It’s true that when every thing you’ve been taught will work, won’t work, you either quit, or reach down into yourself for anything you can find there and for anything you think has a prayer of working, and then you dance on the wings of a plane in flight to move your students forward if only an inch.

Hector’s book is aptly titled Life-Affirming Acts. To me that’s what teaching writing is and does–giving life to words–whether on the page or screen–it’s life and death to me, and I try to convey that to my students, and some come to believe it, too.

From e-mail to blogging

Before class blogs gave us a voice to communicate with our classes, e-mail class lists (enabled in 1999 at Middlebury College) gave us easy, instant communication with our classes. My first class e-mails were perfunctory and business like–full of housekeeping details. Soon, my e-mails to my class became more playful as I used humor and exaggeration to hold my students’ attention.

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Blogging Delivers Resources

JAN.jpgOne of the things I love about setting up class blogs, is that I can link outward to a myriad of resources in the real world and link inward to resources I’ve created for my students myself. For my Jane Austen & the Royal Navy Winter Term Course, I found many interestings sites to share with my class. Now that I’m teaching a Jane Austen Seminar this fall, I’m wondering can I give too many resources? I hope not–because my next class blog is about to intesect with my obsession.