Tough Decisions

Tough Decisions About Classroom Blogging

When student work is exposed to the world, class dynamics can change in subtle ways. Topics that might have been spoken about freely can become muted on the web. Does a student want to refer to her sister if her sister might read about herself on a class blog? On the other hand, the faceless computer screen–even though it opens up to the world through a blog–can release opinions and narratives not expressed in a face-to-face classroom. So in a course that by its nature deals with sensitive, even confidential, material, what should be public? What private? Which talk should be hidden? And which, set free?

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blogging the unsaid

Resources

Resources and Tools
Creating a Community Within the Class
Developing Community Beyond the Class
Writing the Unsaid

For me, using blogs in an academic environment is about having an opportunity to bring discussion and resources to students faster and more completely. I like to create a small world of resources on the blog that expands to the larger world on the web for my students. In Jane Austen and the Royal Navy, a non-writing intensive class, I was able to create extensive paperless writing guides by linking back to information on the weblog of a previous writing class and, also, to off campus sites.

Easy communication outside of the classroom, allows in class time to be more important, more vital. In my Writing Workshop 1 class, the on-line journal combined with my newsy blog about class events and assignments created what my colleague Hector Vila described as

On our way!

About

Since 1994, Mary Ellen Bertolini has worked at Middlebury College as a Professional Writing Tutor and Lecturer in the Writing Program. She received her undergraduate degree in English from the College of New Rochelle (New Rochelle, NY) and has received graduate degrees from the Bread Loaf School of English (VT) and Wesleyan University (CT). She has published articles on Frank McCourt and Sandra Cisneros and has given several talks at Middlebury College about Jane Austen. In 2000, she began the 4 Divas Writing Project (published 2001), and gave a talk about this project and its publication at the AEPEL conference on “Writing and Healing” in Estes Park, CO in 2002. In spring 2005, she presented “Voices, Readers, & Community: Blogging the Unsaid” as Part of Middlebury College panel, “Pandora’s Blog? What Happens When College Students Take to Social Software in the Classroom Blogging” as part of the Social Software in the Academy Workshop at the Annenberg Center. In spring 2006, she spoke at Bates College about the Middlebury College Peer Writing Program and the Center for Teaching, Learning and Research.

In the Writing Program, she has taught the Writing Workshop courses, WRPR100, WRPR101, and WRPR202, “Writing to Heal.” In the English Department, she has taught courses in Jane Austen and EL107, “Journal and Essay.” She, also, has taught First-Year Seminars: “Jane Austen & Film” and “Literary Orphans.” In January 2005, she taught the Winter Term course, “Jane Austen and the Royal Navy.” She has held positions as Director of Academic Support, Acting Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research, Acting Director of the Writing Program and First-Year Seminar Program and as Faculty Co-Head of Wonnacott Commons.

Currently Assistant Director of the Writing Program, she runs the Peer Writing Tutor Program, and continues to teach and tutor in the Writing Program (located in the Center for Teaching, Learning and Research in the Library).