Reporter Embarassed by Protester's Bogus Name

I've noticed that, too... students in "Writing for the Internet" have an assignment to blog an unfolding news story, so I think those students may be spending more time on their own sites and elsewhere in the blogosphere, and less time on NMJ. But that wouldn't explain where all the "Practice of Journalism" students are. Hello, folks?

A quick glance through the student blogs turns up several recent entries that have attracted four or more comments -- here are the ones I found. (If I've missed any other recent posts that have generated some interest, please feel free to post a link to it on this site.)

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/KateCielinski/000907.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AmandaCochran/000908.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/KarissaKilgore/000840.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferCilia/000832.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BrianMcCollum/000869.html

(And Brian is not in any my classes -- he's just blogging for fun.)

While this was hardly an exhaustive search, note that these same people appear on each other's blogs -- I think the most active bloggers have found each other, and are bypassing NMJ in order to interact with each other directly.

In the midterm portfolios, students repeatedly reported feeling disappointed that some of their best blog entries didn't attract comments from their peers. We've had more time to focus on blogs in "Writing for the Internet," and that includes occasionally devoting 20 minutes or so to in-class blogging -- that usually results in a burst of activity that sparks ongoing discussions. We haven't yet had time to do that in EL 227 "Practice of Journalism" since the NMJ site launched back in September.

Oh, and the humanities faculty members are discussing grade inflation and the definition of a "C" on Mike Arnzen's blog...

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MikeArnzen/000850.html

Dr. Jerz, what happened here? For weeks I would scroll through student writing, much of it clever and funny. Lately I've seen many entries from you, few from students. Are the students tired?