Using blogs within the classroom as a digital media course exercise.

1. Dr. David McCoy
Ashland University

2. Blogs as Course Exercises
 Group Research
 Individual Research
 Creative Writing
 E-Portfolio

3. Weblogs as Practice
 More than a personal diary
 Research components
 Discovery elements
 Writing experience
 Multi-media mastery
 Career-orientation

4. Group Research Project
 Small groups (3-4 people)
 Create a social media site with the intent to study and
to communicate on a global level.
 Blog guidelines
 Use text, images, video, links
 Describe your research findings in the narrative.
 Build this site around a general topic (Blogging and
the Fifth Estate/Twitter and Europe/Web 2.0 and
China/International Interactive Videogaming)
 Presentations on Tuesday February 28

5. Group Research Project
 Site=Ease of access
 Topic=General view/Global region or country
 Research Depth=Varied sources (4 to 10)
 Narrative=Descriptive aspects/textual content
 Narrative Structure=Can be designed as a series of
posts (hopefully, comments will occur!)
 Links=Relational to subject (3+)
 Images/Video=Enhancement of subject (5+)
 Presentation=In-class/Full Group/20-25 minutes
 Evaluation Rubric

6. Human Trafficking Blog

7. Germany and Social Media

9. Single Subject Blog
 Individual project
 Single topic

10. E-Portfolio
 Career-oriented
 Media-infused
 Accessible
 Descriptive

11. Summary
 Weblogs are effective tools for creative expression.
 They provide discovery learning and research
opportunities.
 They enhance the use of multi-media.
 Blogs are sites that permit open participation and
collaboration.
 Blogs are excellent venues for an e-Portfolio.
 http://massmediazone.blogspot.com/