Professor Tom Klein on Incorporating Blogs with Coursework

From Tom Klein,
Unlike the Prof.Camicao blog assignment, I give students the option of creating up to three blogs for 3 of the 6 major assignments in my Great Ideas, AS 250H, class. The six assignments ask students to write 6 "creatiques," one for each of the 6 major ideas organizing the course (monotheism, rationalism, science, democracy, the arts & humanities, and postmodernism. The "creatiques" are combination critique, summary, synthesis and creative leap, moving more toward a sustained problematizing than a neat thesis, exploration and conclusive wrap-up. They are encouraged to use multiple genres (art, poetry, letters, essays, music, editorials, etc) and to address multiple audiences (beyond me).
I do this because I believe, with Howard Gardner, that exposition and argument are NOT the only or primary ways of organizing thought, that all 8 ways of knowing (or is it now 9??) should be available to students. All of this kind of thinking suits the blog wonderfully, inasmuch as it's naturally multi-genred and moves audience far beyond teacher and school. At first, the students seemed rather stunned by the assignment, and the blog option. Now that they've seen what these can become, I think more will honor the option for future creatiques.
Great Ideas Course (AS 250H) Blog URL's
jamiehoover
tamijo
judaislam
opendiary D590808