New Semester

We are now officially in semester B!

I have 3 new groups of students.

One class is level 2. They are mathematics and computer science majors.

I also have two classes of level 5. One of the level 5 classes is mostly animal science and computation students. The other level 5 classes is a really good, mixed group of mechatronics, computation, and design.

I gave a power point presentation of how to set up blogger and gmail to my new students. The e-mails are already pouring in and I am busy setting up group e-mail lists and setting up the blogs to follow.

One of my goals for this semester is to set up class blogs that are student authored. I was inspired by DARREN KUROPATWA and his blogs and slidecasts. I hope that there will be a forming of community and a lot of collaboration on the class blogs.

The basic idea is that the students will be taking turns writing entries about what we are doing in class. The idea I got from seeing Mr. Kuropatwa's class blogs. It's a good idea and worth a try in my opinion. This would be an alternative to the learning diary or daily journal options.

One of the main reasons that I want to do the class blogs is to get the students to start reading what their peers have to say. Hopefully this will serve as a catalyst to more reflective entries and higher usage of the commenting function.