Final "Portfolio" Reflection #1

Well, it looks like I've written 35 or 36 posts since I began this blog back in September! Wow! Time sure has flown. And, I can't believe I've written that much. I had figured 1-2 a week for the 15-week semester, which would be about 15-30. Well, I guess it's close. (Too many "wells"? I'm still not sure if I've found my "tone" or "voice" yet!)

The first major thing that comes to mind when reviewing my posts is something Alyssa R. said to me in class a few weeks ago: "These blogs sure are public." When I asked her what she meant, she replied that someone from SlideRocket had found her blog, and her post about SlideRocket, and they had left a comment for her. Like me, I think she thought no one would find these blogs except our classmates. But someone had found hers! Then, just a day or so later, I saw a comment to my podcasting post, and Chuck Tomasi (one of the co-authors of Podcasting for Dummies) had left a comment thanking me for using and mentioning Podcasting for Dummies in my blog! Then, a few days after that, the SlideRocket people had also found my SlideRocket presentation and blog post, and had left a message as well. Of course, it's all about recognizing "product placement" and advertising, but it's also "cool" to think that these blogs are "out there, and lovin' every minute of it," as Kramer once said on Seinfeld.

My best blog post? Maybe the two posts about American Literature, and comparing my course to a course Donald Ross is currently teaching. But why are these the best? Maybe because they were not assigned for my Digital Writing class. (Which is where we want our students to also end up, eventually.) But also maybe because I'm really enjoying my sabbatical and having the time to do things like this, to take this Digital Writing course, and to sit in on another course that I enjoy teaching. So, I don't know if the two posts are necessarily "good" because of the writing itself but because I enjoyed the creation of them, the experiences which led up to them.

Likewise, my "worst" blog post ... perhaps the one(s) having to do with podcasting ... because I struggled, at first, and partly throughout, with the podcasting activity itself, with figuring out Audacity, with take after take, with finding music, with editing. But by the time I was looking for music, and editing, and using the envelope tool, I was actually starting to have a bit of fun.

So that may be the "key" for me, the criterion that I would use for evaluating my blog posts: Which activities gave me the most frustration and struggle, and which activities were fun (or even became fun as time moved along)?

Frustrations:

• Podcasting (recording and editing audio) ... the first three-quarters of it
• Vlogging (recording and editing video) ... I don't actually consider what I did to be a vlog ... OK, it's definitely NOT a vlog, I do know that ... and it took a long time ... but again, the fun came later, when I got the "hang" of iMovie ... and it was fun to use video of my cat and creatively connect it to writing ... and it was fun to actually post something to YouTube!
  

Enjoyments:

• Creating the WritingMinnesota wiki
• Bubbl.us
• Flickr SlideShow
• VoiceThread (x2)
• SlideRocket Presentation
  

These were all "new" tools for me, they were fun, I had to be somewhat creative (although I'm not creative at all), and I tried to always connect it to my teaching, although often in somewhat goofy ways. But, hey, it's a start ... and I might even have the courage to show these to my students as "rough models."

And that's what I have to keep doing: reflecting on HOW AND WHY I might have my students use these tools. Yes, I want them to have fun, to be motivated and engaged, but I also want them to be writing and to be improving their writing. And I want to be confident that these tools are indeed helping them to do that.

My First Podcast

There. It's done. Finished. I've finally done it. And who says that worrying and carrying on aren't useful?

This particular podcast is "Episode 2" (no, there's no "Episode 1" yet) from a podcast "show" which might be titled "American Literature to 1865." Oddly enough, this "show" also happens to be a course that I teach at Anoka Ramsey Community College. (But I won't get into educators as entertainers in this particular blog post.)

In this podcast, I talk about why we are reading some texts but not others; particularly, why we are not reading exploration narratives/reports by Spanish, French, Dutch, and other non-English writers, and why we are not reading the Native American Origin and Creation Stories.

So, without further ado, here are the various links created by the University of Minnesota's Media Mill:

Public Download URL

Public Playable URL

RSS2.0

This podcast was created on a PC using Audacity and LAME. The podsafe music by Mauricio Cuburu was found on PodsafeAudio.com. The mp3 file is stored on (hosted by) the U of MN's Media Mill, which also generated the RSS feed.

Thank you, thank you very much!

Planning a "Solo" Podcast

Just when I thought I had a handle on the technology -- on Nings, on Blogs, on Wikis, on VoiceThread and digital storytelling, etc. -- along came the Podcast ... and BOOM ... I'm paralyzed with fear ... again!

I've spent the last week, and more, pouring through the Hendron and the Podcasting for Dummies books -- I've read the whole PFD (not .pdf) book now -- and I'm still tentative about actually sitting down and doing the podcast. My next task is to review the tutorials on the wiki, again, and the plan is to sit down on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, and record, and edit, and complete the ID3 info, and complete the show notes, and complete the FTP of the mp3 media file to the U of MN Media Mill, and finally generate the RSS 2.0 feed.

See, I have the process down now. It's just the bells-and-whistles of all the software to worry about. But it's not like I've done nothing. I experimented in class last week with the Mac's GarageBand. I definitely like GarageBand, but since my college only supports PCs and Windows, I'm focusing more on the software applications related to PCs, particularly Audacity.

And, I've already recorded two files on Audacity: a personal introduction for my classes, and a short story I wrote a few years ago -- which would actually work well as a 2-3 person "radio play," or whatever it might be called, if I scripted it that way.

Audacity does not have all the bells-and-whistles that GarageBand does, which might lead one to think it's easier, but it then requires other downloads for music and sound effects and whatnot. Maybe that's what's tripping me up?

But my preparation or planning for my "solo" podcast is done. It will be a monologue about the reasons why I do not currently spend very much time on Native American literature (or orature?) -- especially on the creation tales, the trickster tales, the ghost dances, the songs, and so forth -- in the American literature survey courses. It's a question I ask myself every semester, it's a question I wrestle with frequently, and it's a question sometimes (OK, rarely) asked by my students. So it will be a "talking through" of the rationale I use ... and perhaps the rationale I've heard from others.

So stay tuned! I hope to have a post on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, with at least two things: a link to the podcast itself, and, hopefully, an RSS feed to "subscribe" to the post ... and perhaps to future posts.

Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor in Am. Lit. I

I sat in again on Donald Ross's EngL 3005, American Literature and Cultures I, course at the University of Minnesota on Monday, September 29, 2008. The course schedule for that day indicated that Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor would be taught together. Since I also teach both of these Puritan poets near the beginning of my own American Literature to 1865 course, and since they are two of my favorite poets, I thought this would be another good session to attend.

Donald began the session by looking ahead to the recitation sections for that week. The topic would be Jonathan Edwards' Personal Narrative, a "conversion narrative," and his Images of Divine Things. The comment that I found most significant, in terms of connecting various writers together, which is something I continually try to do in my own course, is that "Edwards takes John Winthrop's ideas of Justice and Mercy and turns it into a story." I'd have to go back and check my own notes to see if I bring that point out in my own class. For some reason, I'm not sure if I do, but then again, I don't teach Edwards every year.

(But that is a topic for another post, or two topics for two other posts: (1) allowing students to "vote" on who they want to read, thus letting them become the "anthologizers," and (2) slowly reducing the number of Puritan writers I teach, since, almost to a class, one common comment at the end of the course is that the Puritans are not really all that interesting to read.)

Donald then moved on to Bradstreet and Taylor, and he made the comment that we would be studying "parallel poems" between the two poets. Again, my ears perked up, since this is also the approach I take. However, I normally teach Bradstreet first, over two days, since I also use her poems to introduce various literary terminology (e.g., couplets, stanzas, rhymes, end-rhyme scheme, iambic feet, tetrameter, pentameter, etc.), followed by a day or so of Taylor. I looked forward to which poems Donald would pair together.

The first pair was Bradstreet's "The Author to Her Book" and Taylor's "The Preface." The second pair was Bradstreet's "The Flesh and the Spirit" and Taylor's "The Soul and Christ's Reply" (actually, these are two poems). The third pair was done with students pairing up with each other and doing a 4"x6" index-card quiz: Bradstreet's "Before the Birth of One of Her Children" and Taylor's "Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children."

Donald ended the session on two notes. First, he talked about Philip Freneau's "On the Causes of Political ..." as a way to illustrate the short paper that was assigned. Second, he talked about Bradstreet's poem on Queen Elizabeth and likened it to current events about Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.

Interestingly, there were some similarities and some differences between the pairs of poems Donald chose and the pairs of poems I normally teach. First, I pair Bradstreet's "The Author to Her Book" with Taylor's "Prologue," since they are both poems about the act of writing poetry. Second, I pair Bradstreet's "Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House" with Taylor's "The Preface," since they are both poems about God both giving and taking away. Third, like Donald, I pair Taylor's "Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children" with Bradstreet's "Before the Birth of One of Her Children," since they are both poems about marriage and rearing children, but I also use other Bradstreet poems here as well, such as "I Had Eight Birds..." and/or one or more of the poems to her husband.

Furthermore, I teach some other poems by each poet, but not in pairs. For example, for Bradstreet, I also teach "The Prologue" and "The Flesh and the Spirit." I sometimes also teach her poems to her parents. And for Taylor, I also teach one of the Meditations, usually #150, I think, "The Joy of Church Fellowship Rightly Attended," and "Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold." I sometimes also teach Taylor's "Huswifery."

In all, a most enlightening reflection, and it was nice to see that Donald and I are not so far apart in the pairs we construct. While I normally teach all of the Bradstreet poems first, and then the all the Taylor poems after, I will rethink this part of the course and perhaps proceed, next time, pair by pair, rather than asking students to recall the Bradstreet poems of Monday or Wednesday when encountering the Taylor poems on Friday.

Walt Whitman's Astronomer Poem

Here is my first attempt at "digital literature" or "digital storytelling." I'm sure it does not exactly meet what was asked of me, since here I use Walt Whitman's words mixed with some "Creative Commons" images from Flickr. I'm sure I was supposed to use my own photos or images, and my own writing, to create "this"--a digital poem or story. But I had fun doing it. And I'm sure my students might have fun doing something like this as well.

But what's the point? Why did I do this? (Other than to complete the terms of an assignment?) And why would I have my students do this? (Other than to complete the terms of an assignment?) What would be the purpose? Who would be the audience?

Would including a project like this in my course challenge my students academically in some way? (The technology challenged me a little bit, but the concept of the VoiceThread came to me almost immediately, and I had fun doing it.) Or would it be only for fun, a new way to look at and think about literature? A pop-culture approach to American Literature?

Would doing a project like this give my students more insight into a literary text? (For me, the insight might come in the way of requiring them to choose the "best" images for the project. It was impossible for me to find "applause in the lecture-room." I guess I could have "staged" it--and students might have fun doing these stagings. But, I think I did pretty well with "the mystical moist night-air," when I thought that was going to be the hardest phrase to capture.)

I definitely see much potential here, but like all the other tools I've been introduced to so far in this class, I'm still falling short of brilliant ideas and insights for incorporating them into my courses. Maybe it'll come to me later ...?

A Brief VideoThread Survey of American Literature

Here is my first experiment with composing "digital literature" using VoiceThread. The images are all from Flickr and are licensed under "Creative Commons."

This VoiceThread is an audio and video tour of some of the writers I cover in the two-semester course sequence of American Literature: ENGL 2230 and ENGL 2235 at Anoka Ramsey Community College.

Flickr Slideshow of Mankato, MN, and American Literature

The slide show you've just seen is, apparently, an odd miscellany of images from Flickr. There's no explicit, coherent theme, I don't think, so don't think you've missed anything! (Sounds a little like Mark Twain at the beginning of Huck Finn, don't you think? "Persons attempting ....") However, being the English professor that I am, I suppose there's something lurking under the surface. Maybe we can find something there?

Also, Flickr does not let me organise my faves, so there's no way I can impose upon my choices a coherent, linear narrative. Maybe that's where VoiceThread will come in handy? Moreover, my faves seem not to be organised in the order I chose them on Flickr, so that's not even helpful, where one might try to choose images in a certain order so that the faves are organised. (Did you like the British spelling of organize? I hope so. I also think we should go metric! Powers of 10 are so much easier.)

The coherent narrative is this: I went to college in Mankato, and in college I studied American Literature, first with Dr. Robert Houston, and then with Dr. Ronald Gower, both excellent professors--perhaps more on them later, in another blog post. Literature has an imaginative, playful component, much like I'm trying to adopt in this blog post, which some of these images demonstrate, and Mankato has a picturesque past and present, which also lends itself to the imagination. For example, while I could not find any images of the Dakota Sioux hanging in Mankato (it happened around 1862, I think), I did find the image of a Mankato-area man tarred-and-feathered for not supporting the war. This stuff should only happen in the imagination, right?

So there's the coherent theme or narrative. Of course, you might also see things I didn't, and that's OK too. It's what we English professors call "reader response," where the act of reading, or viewing, or interpreting, is as much a creative act as the act of composing. There are no wrong answers, right? Not as long as one can support their "reading" with evidence from the "text." (Sorry! Don't know where that lecture came from.)

NOTE: All images in the slide show have a "Creative Commons" license, which is great, and I thank the artists for allowing their use. (However, limiting a Flickr search to only those images with the "CC" license does, sometimes dramatically, limit your choices. Using your own images and/or checking other image repositories on the web, such as Google Images, might be even better.)

Day One of American Lit. I -- Taught by Me

In the past 2-3 years, I've begun this course--Eng. 2230: American Literature to 1865--after welcoming the students and identifying the course, by handing out two poems: Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" and Emily Dickinson's "There is no Frigate like a Book." I don't identify the poems by either author or title--I just hand them out (both printed on one page) and ask students to spend a few minutes reading and thinking about them. I then try to get discussion going by asking, first, for general reactions to the poems, and then for any similarities or "links" students see between the two poems; I also ask if anyone knows the poets or the poems. I begin this way for a few reasons:

1. I want to foreground the reading and analysis and interpretation of literature in the course, rather than all the history.
2. I want to set a tone and an expectation for the class--there will be more class discussion than lecture.
3. I want students to look ahead a little bit--to the end of the course, in this case, since the course ends with Whitman and Dickinson. Many of the early writers will be slower and more difficult to read--Smith, Bradford, Winthrop, etc.--but more "modern" English will come.
4. I want to set a few themes for the course with these poems--the importance of books and reading, but also the importance of getting outside the analytical classroom to appreciate the literature on its own.

I can do this--while Donald Ross probably can't (and may not even want to)--because my class "caps" at 50 students; however, my usual enrollment is between 35 and 45 students. After seeing Donald's first day, however, I do want to rethink my own. Does he set more of a "university" tone to his class (yes, I know, he teaches at a university), while my tone is more "community college" (or even "high school," as some students think)? Should I even be concerned about this?

Some students have been told all through high school that college will be full of lectures. I want them to discover right away that this might not always be the case. This brings with it, however, another kind of challenge. For the students who value lecture, or who have come in expecting lectures, my class might disappoint them. And, they might see a discussion-based class as less valuable, or more "easy," than a lecture-based class. They might not see it as I do, that a discussion-based class might be harder because it is "active learning," while a lecture-based class might be more "passive." It does all depend on the setting (for example, class size, which usually can't be helped) and the professor. I know really good lecturers, who are very engaging and elicit student participation.

After about 15-20 minutes discussing the poems, I hand out the course syllabus--the document with all the objectives, requirements, and policies--and review it with the students. Years ago, I stopped reading everything to them; now, I only read the requirements section with them, and a few of the policies. I try to point out everything, and I encourage them to read it that night. Some of my colleagues read everything; others read nothing and expect the students to read it all. Some of my colleagues will even give quizzes over the syllabus during the next class period. The discussions surrounding these practices have to do with the thought that students need to be familiar with all the objectives, requirements, policies, penalties, etc. right from the beginning, so that there are no surprises, hurt feelings, or complaints later on.

I hand out the course reading schedule separately from the course syllabus--and, yes, I know that, technically, the word syllabus suggests "outline," which suggests "schedule." Like Donald Ross, I include a reading question or two for each writer on the schedule, to guide and help the students with their reading, but unlike Donald, I include these for every writer, not just for some. Where I "fall down" is not following up with these questions daily or even regularly. Nearly all questions do make it into our discussions of the literature, but I don't always start with them, nor do I make it obvious when I'm bringing them in. Thus, past students have reported not paying attention to the questions "because we don't use them."

By this time we have only about 5-10 minutes left. (The class meets 3 times each week for 50-minute sessions.) I usually end the first class with a "Participant Information Sheet," wherein I ask what they already know about American Literature, what they are expecting, how comfortable they are with class discussions, and if they have anything personal they want to tell me--such as legitimate, planned absences or disabilities.

Day One of American Lit. I --Taught by Donald Ross

On Wed. Sept. 3, 2008, I sat in on Donald Ross's first day of EngL 3005: Survey of Am. Lit. and Cultures I (to 1850). I had asked him previously if this was OK, and he had no problem with me attending whenever I wanted. I wanted to see how he conducted his first day to compare to my own first day. In a follow-up post, I will describe how I usually do my first day.

EngL 3005 at the University of Minnesota enrolls approximately 150 students. If I'm counting correctly, these 150 students are broken into 6 recitation sections of 25 students each, and 3 teaching assistants each teach 2 recitation sections per week. Donald Ross handles the lectures, which meet twice per week, 12:45 to 2:00 p.m.

Donald began directly with the course syllabus, which includes the reading schedule. He stressed that he teaches literary works in their contexts, so the course--and probably primarily the lectures--will stress history. He also pointed out that for some writers, he put questions in the reading schedule to help students guide their reading. He reviewed what 4"x6" card quizzes were. He mentioned that information on the two course papers--one short and one long--would come in 2-3 weeks. And he finished with what he calls the "fine print"--all the policies set up by the University and the English Department.

He then jumped right in to the historical background, beginning with maps to show how much the Europeans knew about the Americas, beginning with about 1502. He began with Spanish explorers but soon switched to English explorers and explained why and how the course will deal mostly with English-language writing and the East Coast.

He then plotted a timeline on the board and asked for a few dates from the class. Aside from these questions, there was little class participation thus far. He began the timeline with about 1340 and ended it with 1865.

From there, he began his lecture on Hawthorne's novel, The House of the Seven Gables, which will begin the course. During this time, since it was the first day after all, he pointed to and read specific passages from the Preface and Chapter One of the novel, and followed those readings with his own commentary and explanations. The goal behind all this was to create a list of major themes for the novel, which also, incidentally, will appear later on as major themes for the course.

All in all, an interesting and engaging first day--from my perspective. But, remember, I'm a teacher of American Literature as well! The girl next to me did doze off a few times, but for the most part, people around me seemed to be engaged and taking notes. About 15 minutes before the end, though, people were getting restless.