I wouldn't call it "forced," Barry, but "assigned." ;-)

I'm curious to hear how this turns out if you decide to go through with it; I have no experience with it.

However, having just come from grading short essays by my planning students, I would give anything--anything--to not have to read any more "writing" by those incapable of writing.

Next semester: oral presentations instead!

we tried it in a studio i taught a few years ago. for the first third of the semester - because we rode 'em - the students kept up with it. as soon as we stopped mentioning it constantly ALL activity petered away to nothing. they didn't engage with it at all.

i don't know that it was a bad idea, but i think we needed to actually use the blog entries in our studio discussions. if we had projected them and talked about the work that way, those who hadn't stuck with it would not have gotten talked about.

if it's a sidecar, not central to the work of the studio, i don't expect it to work.

I think blogging is used in academia mostly as a way to replace/supplement face time and real interactions/presentations.
Unless there were something that is very specific to the blog as a medium that you would be using in the studio, it might turn out to be not as efficient as producing something else.

I think it would be an awesome idea to have it assigned but at the same time anonymous til the end of the semester.

a few colleagues have done it. it worked very well as an assessment tool, because it is very easy to see the quantity of work output and level of self-reflection going on. Most of the blogs only lasted the length of the semester, but they weren't intended to last longer than that. in one case a single blog was set up for the entire group to post to. in another case, students could choose to make their blog private and accessible only to others in the group and staff members if they didn't want their work public. these were mostly first and second-year students, from memory.

During my sophomore-year studio (yikes... 10 years ago! on www.homestead.com which surprisingly still exists as a domain...!), everyone in the class was required to maintain a webpage with images from our projects. Those who were the most motivated actually drove it to the end of the semester, but most stopped posting after the first or second project (similar to Steven Ward's experience).

Perhaps you could start with baby steps... like require everyone in the class to tweet once per week about the class. This could also make it easier for others in the class to comment and discuss topics in a semi-informal way. (said from a non-Twitter user *shrugg*)



my favorite quote about blogging (actually, the title of a book): "No One Cares What you had for Lunch." It's a two-way street; 'forcing' students to write about things might not work so well, either.

I think you should take it further and have them set up a website for themselves. I would love the oppertunity to take some time and set up a website that could be an asset after graduation. I'm not sure I can find the time to do it right while I'm in school. It would be great if it was an assignment. I worry a blog is to informal and unproffesional, which is probably why they are not continued after the requirment is over.

Barry,

we've used it extensively for about the last 5 or so years in a variety of courses from the design studio to history with mixed results. And would be happy to talk more about it with you. Notwithstanding to answering some of your questions directly.

Design Studio - approx 50 students - posted briefs and links for research

History & Theory - approx 50 students - dialogue between students and lectures, blog posts matched course topics, became engaging, but participation was generally "scripted" and low unless cajoled.

I don't know if they learn about blogging per sae rather they feel the lecturer is more accessible - which can make a big difference.

We've used blogger, wordpress as well as specifically designed ones through private companies namely moodle

more if you need it

We were "assigned" to blog in a freshman English class. I feel like it wasn't very effective then.

The idea was for more dialogue between students - yet we didn't really comment on other people's blogs or even read them for that matter.

It was definitely one of those gotta-blurb-for-two-paragraphs-Monday-morning right before class kind of thing.

Then again, we were freshmen, in English class. Graduate architecture students might see more benefit in it.

I think the question becomes what is the stake for the students in gaining this experience/skill. Learning how to make a website (maybe with a blog in it via tumblr) can be more applicable in terms of making an online portfolio, cv, resume.

hello?

http://archinect.com/schoolblog/

i would suggest using the blog for 'their' growth/etc and make them look at it as a blog that can be used for further explorations. maybe they can use the blog to help land a job, it could show development/etc...

zug makes a good point about encouraging students to develop this as a tool to help them get a job in the future. Through blogging, they can develop a point of view that could lead them to becoming an expert in the specialty in which they want to work.

It's good for school projects to have tangible value beyond the last day of the semester (in addition to the knowledge gained through the semester, of course).

it'll work if you also contribute and participate on a very regular basis. This means not only commenting on all work, but also posting content. the students will see little value if they aren't getting feedback or if they are the only ones contributing.

I think its good idea, to record the progress of the design, like journal of design.

I used a blog for a class I taught last semester, and although it was promising, the biggest obstacle I found was teaching students *how* to use the blogging platforms. Although I use blogger for my own personal website, there are other platforms out there (i.e. tumblr) that are easier to use than others.

the thoughts i have is that anytime "forced" participation is required, many of the forcees resent it. although they may not blog about their resentment. secondly, is the work and or the thoughts of the students public? i don't know necessarily that the thoughts of a student in a studio environment should necessarily be available to everyone outside of the class. plus do we really need more bloggers? or do we just need better content?

there is too much information already on the web that no one cares to read about. why add more? (the irony of this statement is completely understood.)

but seriously, the internet is public. is there an audience for your students to engage? in my view there is too much information on the web and if you are having them add more just because they can, or even just to make your life easier as an instructor, then that reason is not good enough. i actually see the onus on you rather than them to justify the content.

We had to participate in a joint blog for our computer applications class in grad school. Participation was never really enforced, and comments dwindled quickly.

The problem was the relationship to blog content and course content. The theme to the class was urban analysis, so we created neat 3D diagrams of a town, stylized sections, some abstracted forms, etc. We were to post on our research findings and images. However, everyone instantly become consumed with the workings of the programs - the meat and potatoes of the class. We had to learn microstation, flash, and dreamweaver, which few of us knew - so the research took a back seat.

If you use a blog, encourage the posts to reiterate what the individual student is learning. Since it is a design studio, hold off on the reaction essays, and instead instruct students to describe how they've related their work to the readings, if at all. The posts should be about design process, thusly incorporating readings.

To me, a successful blog project would incorporate comments from you, the professor. Be sure to comment (rally up discussion) on the blog posts. You want to have students post at least once per week. But you should mandate the students to comment on another post at least once a week.

Assuming the students have a physical studio in which they work together, then the idea of a blog on which to cross polinate ideas seems a bit superfluous and needlessly time consuming. I fully support students learning from each other, but face to face conversations are about a thousand times quicker and more productive. Encouraging face to face discourse simulates the way a good office functions.

Has this been done before? Yes, it has, in many places: Harvard, Yale, MIT, Pratt, Columbia and being the ones I know about, I'm sure there are others. Here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/harvardgsd/
http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/PORTFOLIO/autonomoussites.htm
http://spiral-studio.blogspot.com/

etc, etc Just google them, not hard to find.

Learn anything about the fine art of blogging? What, like how to operate Wordpress or Blogspot? These kinds of sites are super user friendly - a competent student will master it in about 10 minutes.

A better way to foster communication between students may be to assign team design projects. It's difficult at first because most schools don't teach collaboration [relative to how much collaboration happens via necessity in the profession], but I feel better work comes out in the end.


So, in short, the real and sole reason for having a studio blog seems to be propaganda and self promotion, a la the AA.

smokety's point is right - we sort of assume that students in the 21st century are pretty tech-literate. some are, but you will end up spending a fair bit of time on the tech basics: uploading a video to youtube, editing your posts, etc.

Sorry 'bout the silence since starting the thread, I've been swamped with writing a grant proposal (I'll share the topic if we get the $$$).

The main idea driving a the creation of a class blog for next semester is that the studio is partnered with a community arts organization in North Minneapolis. The logistics of getting their students and ours together, limits collaboration and cross pollination. I'm thinking that maybe a blog will help bridge this gap.

The other main driver is providing information for the community - a website or blog could be a portal to share the student's research and design ideas with the community. Otherwise, the analysis and research will not have any life beyond the studio.

I've found that writing for the public consumption requires a different set of linguistic skills then those typically displayed in other academic writing assignment. As somebody who has spent more years of this past decade writing presentations/reports and marketing pieces, then writing scholarly articles, I wish to help the students develop their 'voice' and writing aptitude.

Our 2nd year MLA studio will attempt to tie together a range of professional skills that they have been learning and prepare most of them for their first foray into the LA job market. I've noticed that writing skills are not focused on by the studios leading up to mine, so I'm trying to find opportunities to integrate a variety of writing into the design process.

(okay, time to head back to writing that grant)...

maybe the blog is just meant to show the work being produced and leave the comments off. i would be afraid that once the community can comment on a regular basis along with other students, if might turn into a mess. too many cooks in the kitchen might cause a fire.

i have a few blogs myself and limit what access people have to them. it's more for the content than it is for the comments.

i will post them if needed or email me

Also, I found I also had to tell students what to do with a post. Often they did not say why they posted a link, or did not use tags ... which goes to say that blogging certainly has its own protocols, etc, etc in order to make it effective.