Key thoughts on DLM Using the Social Web for Social Change, Fall 2009
My admittedly disorganized thoughts on the class...
Having readings as well as videos to watch was a nice change of pace from other classes. It also set the stage well for us getting into video making as a class later in the quarter.
Having pre-Elluminate readings and videos was probably necessary, but it was made difficult by having Monday-night Elluminate sessions. The Monday night schedule also made the pre-Elluminate personal learning journal posts rather difficult to always complete as thoughtfully as I’d have liked, since Sundays are usually spent finishing assignments for other classes that are due by Sunday at midnight.
Having keyquotes in the reading lists was fantastically helpful. It’s really nice to have an idea of why we are reading a particular piece or watching a particular video.
The first few weeks of content were repetitious, though interesting, for those in the class, like me, who already live and breathe many of the topics. As discussed in class, it would be great to spin off the first several weeks, up until the Cialdini work, into its own intro class. I think that class—The Change Agents’ Intro to the Social Web—could be extremely helpful to the entire BGI community. (In fact, I offer this as a title for the summer class. :))
Google Apps for bgi.edu email accounts and calendars and docs and … and … and … would be awesome.
I greatly appreciate being pushed back into the wonderful world of Delicious. It has been fun and rewarding to leave the “breadcrumbs” for future classes and for my future self.
The BGI Beat blogs were a really great exercise, though I must admit I did not stay nearly on top of them enough, even with my Google Reader Fu. I think it would be great, though, to reduce the number of posts required. Perhaps of the three types of posts (which could perhaps even be expanded a bit to 4 or 5 key types), maybe there are two required each week, and the types are up to the blogger. There could, however, be a requirement that by the end of the quarter we must have at least two or three posts of each style. Another thought… for the summer class(es), perhaps it could be a group blog where each student must post 3 posts on a given topic by the end of the summer term. This would give students exposure to blogger without marrying them to a particular URL or topic forever and ever amen, all hail Google.
As discussed in the last class session, the blog posts took us longer than was expected because most of us did choose to attach our real names to them, and since we are (for the most part) still developing our professional reputations, it was difficult to just throw things out there with little (or less) thought. We were very careful about what we wrote and wanted to be as sure as we could that each post was thoughtfully crafted and helped build our reputation on our topic. This goes back to the personal branding exercises, which were very poignant for many of us, and absolutely should be either kept in this class or transferred to LPD.
It was all impactful, and I wish future classes would have enough time to do it all, though I'm not sure that's entirely realistic. Every week could probably be pared down somewhat. Perhaps something a bit more creative...assign half the class to watch and react to half the videos each week so then in theory they read about the other half in Google Reader via the other half's learning journals...
Thanks to everyone for an awesome class. It wouldn't have been the same without this particular group of learners together.
Having readings as well as videos to watch was a nice change of pace from other classes. It also set the stage well for us getting into video making as a class later in the quarter.
Having pre-Elluminate readings and videos was probably necessary, but it was made difficult by having Monday-night Elluminate sessions. The Monday night schedule also made the pre-Elluminate personal learning journal posts rather difficult to always complete as thoughtfully as I’d have liked, since Sundays are usually spent finishing assignments for other classes that are due by Sunday at midnight.
Having keyquotes in the reading lists was fantastically helpful. It’s really nice to have an idea of why we are reading a particular piece or watching a particular video.
The first few weeks of content were repetitious, though interesting, for those in the class, like me, who already live and breathe many of the topics. As discussed in class, it would be great to spin off the first several weeks, up until the Cialdini work, into its own intro class. I think that class—The Change Agents’ Intro to the Social Web—could be extremely helpful to the entire BGI community. (In fact, I offer this as a title for the summer class. :))
Google Apps for bgi.edu email accounts and calendars and docs and … and … and … would be awesome.
I greatly appreciate being pushed back into the wonderful world of Delicious. It has been fun and rewarding to leave the “breadcrumbs” for future classes and for my future self.
The BGI Beat blogs were a really great exercise, though I must admit I did not stay nearly on top of them enough, even with my Google Reader Fu. I think it would be great, though, to reduce the number of posts required. Perhaps of the three types of posts (which could perhaps even be expanded a bit to 4 or 5 key types), maybe there are two required each week, and the types are up to the blogger. There could, however, be a requirement that by the end of the quarter we must have at least two or three posts of each style. Another thought… for the summer class(es), perhaps it could be a group blog where each student must post 3 posts on a given topic by the end of the summer term. This would give students exposure to blogger without marrying them to a particular URL or topic forever and ever amen, all hail Google.
As discussed in the last class session, the blog posts took us longer than was expected because most of us did choose to attach our real names to them, and since we are (for the most part) still developing our professional reputations, it was difficult to just throw things out there with little (or less) thought. We were very careful about what we wrote and wanted to be as sure as we could that each post was thoughtfully crafted and helped build our reputation on our topic. This goes back to the personal branding exercises, which were very poignant for many of us, and absolutely should be either kept in this class or transferred to LPD.
It was all impactful, and I wish future classes would have enough time to do it all, though I'm not sure that's entirely realistic. Every week could probably be pared down somewhat. Perhaps something a bit more creative...assign half the class to watch and react to half the videos each week so then in theory they read about the other half in Google Reader via the other half's learning journals...
Thanks to everyone for an awesome class. It wouldn't have been the same without this particular group of learners together.
December 13, 2009 at 7:36 PM
Beth,
Thanks for pointing out the issue around the quantity of blogposts required. This is something I meant to mention in my own post-script to class, but failed to think of while I was actually writing it. I also totally appreciated the key quotes, and wish all our classes could do this. Made everything easier.
Totally LOVE The Change Agents’ Intro to the Social Web. GREAT title and way to break up what many of us feel are probably several different courses rolled into one big, hairy, audacious & inspiring course.