SecondLife and Inter-Collegiate Collaboration: Intellagirl’s Rhetoric and Writing Course
My class starts tomorrow. I actually think I’m more excited about this class than I was for the very first class I ever taught back in 1997 (geesh I’m old).
There are quite a few unique concepts in this course:
1. Hybrid: The class will meet once a week in a face to face classroom here on campus. The other night it will meet in SecondLife (students will be at home using their own computers) on Middletown island.
2. Community focus: As we learn to write and conduct research in rhetorical situations we’ll also be learning about community:
a. how communities form
b. what communities we are members of
c. what our assumptions are about communities
d. how does one become a member of a community
3. Identity revealed: As we learn about communities we are members of we will also learn about ourselves as individuals as part of communities. It’s critical to see yourself in a Venn diagram sort of way to understand what parts of you are in each community, where the communities overlap, and how membership in each community changes who you are.
4. Joomla: Our course will be documented on a joomla site (http://eng104sl.intellagirl.com) that will house all of our blogs, links, and news as well as the syllabus and other course materials.
5. Gallery site: All the work in the course will have distinct visual components. Because of this, I’m hosting a Flickr-like site where students can upload pictures and screen shots to be used in their papers (linking to an image is easier than trying to include it in a blog entry). http://www.slgallery.intellagirl.com/main.php
6. Inter-collegiate collaboration: Dr. Bryan Carter and I will be working together to provide collaborative opportunities between our courses. He’s teaching a course with very similar subject matter so it should be easy for students to take advantage of the chance to peer review each other’s papers, do research together etc.
Oh, and it’s all happening in SecondLife, the most advanced, immersive virtual world around. Should be an exciting semester. Check back here for updates!
