Connected Learning Presentation for the inaugural Living with Animals Conference at Eastern Kentucky University in March 2013. (http://livingwithanimals.eku.edu/)

1. Blogging Domestication
Amy Nelson Virginia Tech
Living with Animals Conference
Eastern Kentucky University
March 22,2013

2. Course Overview and Objectives

3. Read a range of things....
 Jared Diamond, Edmund Russell, Stiner and
Feeley-Harnick
 Bulliet’s Hunters, Herders and Hamburgers
 Tim Ingold
 Julliet Clutton-Brock
 Piers Vitebsky
 Virginia DeJohn Anderson
 Ken Shapiro, Jonathan Burt
 (Donna Haraway & Natasha Fijn)

4. Research Projects
 A species for
everyone
 integrated history of
a particular species
and human society
across the entire
chronological
expanse of their
relationship

5. Four Main Sections
1. Species’ Origins / Evolutionary History
(starting ca. 66 mya)
2. When did your species’ ancestors begin
interacting with humans? where? how? with
what consequences (for the animals and for
the humans)
3. How has domestication altered your
species?
4. Three historical moments in which your
species was especially significant to the
development of human society

6. Current Projects
 Team Ungulate:
◦ Horse, Donkey, Reindeer
 Team Fowl:
◦ Pigeon, Chicken
 Team Random:
◦ Cat, Goldfish, Honeybees

7. Blogging
https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/domesticate/

8. Beyond Reflection Papers

9. Blogging Assignment
“You are required to blog at least once per week about the
assigned readings, and you are required to comment on
another person’s blog at least twice per week. There is no
assigned length or format for your blogging. I just ask that
you engage the readings thoughtfully and substantively,
and that you explore and play with the many nuances of
the blogging modality. You might comment on the author’s
theoretical/methodological framework or relate the
assigned text to other readings for the course, other
perspectives you have encountered elsewhere, and the
thoughts, questions, and responses of your classmates on
their blogs. You may also respond to the text’s major
arguments in more personal terms, as long as you engage
those arguments carefully. Individual blog posts are not
graded, but will be considered holistically as evidence of
your general commitment to the course and its content.”

10. Longer, more insightful, and lots
more dialogue

11. Four Lightbulbs

12. 1. Students write better for an
audience of peers

13. 2. Full transparency: Post for your
grandmother and Albert Einstein

14. 3. The instructor should blog too.

15. 4. Quality blogging makes for even
richer face time discussions

16. Blogs and the Research Projects

17. Conclusion