Blog Design – Am I doing it Right? 

So here’s the setup. Lector lives in wordpress, and will continue to do so. It’s currently a traditional blog, with all discussion driven by the students enrolled in the ENGL 015A sections that are participating. As it stands, two of three sections will continue to use the traditional WP environment, each having its own tab. The plan, right now, is for me to have my own tab too.

A third section is giving this P2 theme the old college try. No traditional design. No tabs. So I created this blog (also P2). But is this the right way to be interacting with the students? Really, I’d love to embed what I’m doing here into my tab in the traditional WP space (I think). Is that possible, my WP-savvy friends?

Should I have created this blog at all? Should I just be posting directly to the student space? In the traditional environment, keeping a rolling log of posts that will help everyone – perhaps commenting on student discussion with links back to my tab when appropriate. In P2, simply commenting on whatever the current thread is.

Challenges:

Each section will be having its own discussion and they’re not likely to be the same – how to keep track of this, or do I need to?

Students need to be able to contact me with questions, wherever I might “live.”

I need to be able to easily, quickly scan content and post pertinent resources and requested information.

Opportunities:

LOADS OF THEM! – A new mode of information delivery that enables me to interact with classes on an ongoing basis, thereby embedding information literacy concepts into the course experience rather than trying to cram everything important into a 50 minute instruction session (which is, of course, impossible).

The chance to be identified as a real-time resource for students – both individually and for the library.

The chance to interface with teaching faculty and collaboratively work to create a well-rounded course that addresses key concepts that EVERYONE needs to be a critical thinker, speaker, and writer in a world where our thoughts and discussions are increasingly public.

This blog, as it stands, will help me to have an archive of my thoughts about it all, so it’s not for nothing. But what’s the best way to set up my presence to both be effective and also not kill myself with multiple posts to multiple spots all of the time? (Part of my study is to determine a method of asynchronous embedding that might also be scalable, so this is important!) Help me to think about it…please!