I take a short break to post this. My eyes are tired and I lost patience reading on my students' final exams blogs. The whole idea was to make them think. I knew they hate papers, and if I ask them to write me a final exam of 20 pages they will be in rage. I also wanted to bring something new in... I mentioned before the reasons behind the blog as final exam.The grad students did a good job. After all the pain and intensity of the semester I think I reached my goal. They do think about the content. More or less... some of the postings are very good. But even the ones who have more trouble with the content they still are able to think about good examples in the classroom.
My undergrads are not as deep (some are very good, the best of my students). Some postings are rushed, just to have the job done! My work is long and hard... to read 52 blogs. And not only one time since I give them comments then I have to go back and see what and how they modified. And all are impatient. Take a couple of very short nights, better said short sleep... But I hope the end result is that they do think and are able to apply the content learned. I think because I reduced the lectures to minilecture and asked them to read the text, and discuss in class, reflect, and give examples, and show how they will apply it; all that helped them to understand and think critically about what they learn. And hopefully remember better (meaningful and personalized information should stay longer in memory).
The only easy in this style is that I have all online, can access it anytime (OK when the blogger.com is not down) , and they have instant feedback and do not have to wait till next class time. I like this style. I am not sure though how to use it in summer session. It is 3 weeks course daily 3hours 15 min class. But I will be able to use it for graduate class which is 2 months with one meeting/week for 4 hours 30 min.
OK, it's midnight ... I will finish reading and commenting all blogs tonight that students can work on this weekend.
And I must finish an article for submission also. No car washing this weekend again. My car is so dirty... I cannot belive, and it makes me nervous. I have to find a neighbor's kid who wants to make some $ on car washing.