Follow-up on Communicating with Students Outside the Classroom

Since I've recently realized that posting announcements to target students through email or RSS feed is no longer a very effective communication strategy, I've been exploring other options. I've looked into the use of Twitter (see earlier posts) for class and for staff development but it's still blocked at school (apparently indefinitely), so that's a no-go for now.   So I've created a Facebook Page for my students (considered creating a group or making it private but we'll see how this first run works)... in theory this means students are receiving and viewing reminders, updates, and articles I post but so far nobody has chosen to use this format to communicate with one another.  Stay tuned.

I've also provided students with a Learning Blog option for earning their writing assignment points.  Instead of writing formal papers submitted through turnitin.com and turning in extra credit reflections through Moodle, anyone who chooses the blog option will submit weekly posts reflecting on their learning, address the writing prompts and extra credit topics through their blog, and use their blog to demonstrate connections they're making between topics in class and what's going on the world (news, media, personal experiences).  About half of my students have indicated interest, so I am excited to see how many follow through.  Check out our blog collection and follow along.