Pedablogically Improving the World
I'm trying something new this semester. I set up a fairly massive blogging site for all four sections of my Theology 1120: Intro to Biblical Studies Course. The site can be seen at here.

Actually, Bart Everson in CAT helped me set it up, as the technological knowhow was beyond my current capabilities. I'm asking students to blog 2000 words per week in response to weekly questions that I have posted. I believe this will help them become better writers. Also, a theme in the blogs is in relationship to a project they implement to improve the world. You can read more about why I'm doing this here. That site also lists my criteria for grading these projects/blogs. I'm pretty enthusiastic about it at this point. In the end I think I will have a massive record of blogs that will directly relate to Xavier's mission statement, which reads as follows:

Xavier University of Louisiana is Catholic and historically Black. The ultimate purpose of the University is the promotion of a more just and humane society. To this end, Xavier prepares its students to assume roles of leadership and service in society. This preparation takes place in a pluralistic teaching and learning environment that incorporates all relevant educational means, including research and community service.

I'm a big fan of that mission statement. Anyway, the first blog has just been posted and unfortunately it wasn't so uplifting. Most of it consisted of ramblings about why 2000 words was way too much to expect. Even so, I think in the end it will be great pedagogical tool. Bart and I coined the term "pedablogical," pretty cool.