The First Post (not The Last Post)

One thing that I thought it would be really cool to do is use blogs for the 531 grammar and writing course. We have a free writing component to the course, specifically to encourage writing fluency, but the paper free writing task tends to lend itself to a plethora of compare and contrast essays, graph and chart analyses, assessment specific writing tasks, and not a lot of fluency or fun.

The only thing that has been holding me back is the actual logistics of the thing. How do I get students to set things up? Should we have private blogs? Would it be better to have a group blog than several blogs joined to each other? Can we limit viewing privileges?

After going to the "wiki" presentation earlier today, I started to lean towards wikis (wicked!) but now I can see utility in both texts. I can use the wiki for edited work, and blogs for fluency and free writing. I can link them together.

However, I have still to convince the learners that this is a Plan. I can think of a good reason for the wiki: showing off polished writing samples to program heads. How do I rationalise the blogging? Can I just say, "But it's fun!"?

What do you think?