.
TESOL 2003
Electronic
Village Online
Session

Our Syllabus

onlinemag
YahooGroup Site

2003 EV_Online

Session
Moderators:
Sandy Peters
Anne Davis
Julia Karet

Creating an Online Magazine for Student Writing

Welcome | Members | Syllabus | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4
Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7

Week 1: Getting started
This week we will:

  • get acquainted with each other,
  • learn about our YahooGroup site,
  • consider the benefits of publishing student writing online for both teachers and students.

Getting acquainted:
Hopefully some of you have already sent in your bios and photos, and we have made a good start on the community page. We want to encourage the rest of you to do the same.

For this to be a successful, interactive discussion session; however, we need to do more. We need to get to know each other a little better. We'll use the Members link on our YahooGroup site to do that.

Assignment 1:

  • Go to our YahooGroup site <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/onlinemag/> 
    and sign in with your username and password.
  • On the yellow bar at the left-hand side of this Yahoo site, click on the Members link to see the list of people who have signed up for the course. You can write to any of them by clicking on their e-mail addresses. 

    Study the list of members, select at least two, and send each one an e-mail introducing yourself. Tell them who you are, why you are interested in this session, where you are, what you do, and what your interests are. 

    Write to more people if you have time. Write to everyone if you want to!

  • If you receive any responses, respond to the members who sent them.

  • Don't forget to return to this site after you have finished this assignment. There's more to do.

Learning more about this YahooGroup site
You are already familiar with the Members link, having used it to do this week's first assignment. Now let's take a look at the other YahooGroup features we can use in this session.

Activity:

  • Go to our YahooGroup site <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/onlinemag/> 
    and sign in with your username and password.

    Explore the links on the yellow navigational bar on the left side of the page to see what you can do.

  • Click on Messages to read what messages group members have posted. If you want to send a message to the group yourself, click on the Post link under Messages. (You can also post a message by emailing it to onlinemag@yahoogroups.com.
    .
  • Visit the Files section. When we want to contribute files to the group, this is where we go.

  • If you want to, click on Photos and post a photo of yourself there. You can post the same one you sent for the community page, or you might like to send a different one.

  • Click on Links. We've already bookmarked our web pages in this section. You can visit them by clicking on the links. If you have a web page of your own, please bookmark it here and write a short description of it.

  • If you click on Calendar you will see the timetable for tasks and assignments as they are posted.


Considering the benefits of publishing student writing online
Why should we publish student writing on the Web? What is the value of using this publishing medium?

Assignment 2: Read the following article:

Publishing Student Work Online: Investigation, Assimilation, and Self-Expression
http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/may98/dcon0598.htm
Written by Cathy de Moll, President of OnlineClass in St. Paul, Minnesota (Published as a Direct Connect Editorial)

After reading the article, post a message to the list, discussing some of the questions below by emailing onlinemag@yahoogroups.com.
(You can also use the POST facility on our YahooGroup page, but emailing to this address is faster.)

  • What do you think motivates a student online; and conversely, what 'unmotivates' them?

  • In your view, what would make a successful online magazine?

  • Post an opinion you have about online learning for someone to respond to.

  • What are some good questions that we could be asking you about this process?

  • Publishing online…publishing offline…….What is the first thought that comes to your mind?

  • What would be the topics of articles you would want your students to write for an online magazine?

Return to:
Welcome | Members | Syllabus | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4
Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Our YahooGroup Site | 2003 EV_Online