Blog Assessment: 70% of final grade

You are required to have 20 Blog entries by the end of the course. There are 15 blog entries built into the schedule which gives you 5 extra ones that you need to complete at some point on a topic of your choice that deals with the material being covered in this course.

Blogging is different than writing papers. It's more casual, more personal. I encourage you to spend some time reading edublogs (Your Google Reader) to get a feel for how others write and reflect on their learning. The most important part of blogging is remembering to link to your sources. If you reflect on class readings remember to create a hyperlink to the web site where the book can be either downloaded or bought. If you talk/reflect about something someone else wrote make sure you hyperlink to their blog. Without hyperlinks blogging is just writing. With hyperlinks blogs become conversations. (You can read this article I wrote for more about conversations and blogging)

Score	1	2	3	4
Idea & Content	The ideas expressed are not original, often confused and are not connected to discussions around education or ed. technology.	The ideas expressed are not necessarily original, and are not usually connected to discussions around education or ed. technology.	The student expresses some original ideas. The majority of ideas are related to education or more specific to ed. technology.	The student has many original ideas and expresses them clearly. The great majority of ideas are related to education or more specifically to ed. technology.
Post Frequency	The post frequency is well below course expectations.	The post frequency is slightly below average.	The post frequency is slightly above average.	The post frequency greatly exceeds course expectations.
Writing Quality	Posts are of very poor quality. There is little to no evidence of reading other information in order to form new meaning of the topics at-hand.	Posts show a below average, overly casual writing style with a lack of attention to style. Students pay little attention to other reading and mostly regurgitate previous personal views.	Posts show above average writing style. The content demonstrates that the student reads moderately, and attempts to synthesize information and form new meaning.	Posts are well-written, and are characterized by elements of a strong writing style. The content demonstrates that the student is well read, synthesizes learned content and constructs new meaning.
Community	Students do no show evidence in any participation in the blogging community, or the course community, through the use of weblogs.	Students rarely participated in the blogging community. Most, if not all, participation was limited to the weblogs of other classmates.	The student participated moderately in the blogging community. There was some evidence of out-of-class participation.	The student participated actively in the blogging community via comments on other weblogs, and citing others in their research and writing.
Use of Enhancements	The student did nothing to enhance or personalize the weblog space.	There is very little evidence of multimedia enhancement and the student blog is primarily text-based.	The student enhanced their weblog to some extent using video, audio, images or other add-ons.	The student greatly enhanced their weblog space using video, audio, images or other add-ons.
This rubric is adapted with permission from: Ecmp355 and http://www.ryanbretag.com/blog/?p=462

Blog Comments: 10% of final grade

Blogging is nothing without comments. You are required to comment a minimum of 20 times on other classmates blogs. Comments help to start conversations or keep conversations going. Comments are more than complements, they help both you and the blogger reflect on what is being written, what you are thinking, or helps to push your thinking in a new way. I encourage you to read comments left on other edublogs to get a feel for what I'm looking for.


Podcast: 20% of final grade

Create a successful podcast and link it to your blog. Simple right? The podcast can be on a topic of your choice. It can be you talking about something you read, reflecting on what you are thinking about teaching and learning, or an interview with someone. I'm more interested in you learning the skill of producing the podcast than the topic covered.