Playing with Blogs Jason B. Jones Associate Professor / English jonesjason1@ccsu.edu

Why Blogs? Blogs are about writing , reading, quoting, and linking .

Why Blogs? Informality permits risk.

Why Blogs? Blogs are a gateway drug for social media.

Playing with Blogs Part I: Ivanhoe , a game of interpretation Part II: Why Twitter? Because I’m too old for Facebook

Part I: Ivanhoe , a game of interpretation

Part II: Why Twitter? Because I’m too old for Facebook

Ivanhoe: What I wanted More frequent, lower-stakes assignments

Ivanhoe: What I wanted A relaxed way to practice interpretation

(Interlude on Interpretation) Can think of interpretation as a series of moves Look to biography, to various contexts Look at form Rewrite or repopulate the text Challenge its assumptions . . .

Can think of interpretation as a series of moves

Look to biography, to various contexts

Look at form

Rewrite or repopulate the text

Challenge its assumptions . . .

What Is Ivanhoe? A game invented at U of Virginia Role-playing game centered on a literary text Need not be played on a blog.

A game invented at U of Virginia

Role-playing game centered on a literary text

Need not be played on a blog.

My Version of Ivanhoe Groups of 4-5 Students play on a blog Is usually first in the following sequence: Ivanhoe  explication paper  critical paper

Groups of 4-5

Students play on a blog

Is usually first in the following sequence: Ivanhoe  explication paper  critical paper

Examples Wilde/Shaw Dr. Seuss Jane Eyre I Jane Eyre II

Wilde/Shaw

Dr. Seuss

Jane Eyre I

Jane Eyre II

Ivanhoe: Advantages Students read / re-read the text! Masks give different students voice. “ Trivial” ideas bear surprising fruit. Blog format makes it easy to keep track of contributions

Students read / re-read the text!

Masks give different students voice.

“ Trivial” ideas bear surprising fruit.

Blog format makes it easy to keep track of contributions

Part II: Why Twitter? Because I’m too old for Facebook

What is Twitter?

Why Twitter? 140 characters = good discipline

Why Twitter? Real-time feedback about teaching

Why blog? Experiment with voice.

Why blog? If you talk about it, they will find you.

Why blog? Make the ivory tower transparent: To one another To students To parents/alums/prospectives To citizens

Make the ivory tower transparent:

To one another

To students

To parents/alums/prospectives

To citizens

What do I need? Blogs are free—Blogger, WordPress, etc. RSS reader / blogreader / news aggregator

Blogs are free—Blogger, WordPress, etc.

RSS reader / blogreader / news aggregator

Is there a test? http://jbj.wordherders.net On Twitter: jbj On Delicious: jbj On Flickr: jbj