Celebrating my Students’ Blogs

My first year Creative non-fiction students are asked to write blogs. Part of the purpose of using blogs rather than a more conventional “journal” or just individual homework assignments is that the blog is public. They can read and comment on one another’s work. They can see the best, and I find that they work [...]

Advice for Novelists

I was talking to one of my students yesterday about the process of writing a novel, suggesting that if she thought she had a novel in her she should a) just get on with it and b) probably do some research to help her fill in important textural details. As internet felicity would have it, [...]

November is Writing Month

I’m participating in National Blog Posting Month. I may do my daily postings on my “other” blog, the one I don’t make public to everyone, because it’s easier to write personal stuff every day! However, if my students in Creative Non Fiction take up the challenge, I shall post in here as well. If you [...]

Sunday Rant – A Plea for the New Media

Are there any Math teachers out there who still refuse to use a calculator? Who still use a slide-rule and memorize times-tables? To me, that’s the same as the way many of my colleagues, not just in my department, but everywhere, seem to be in a state of denial about the importance of new developments [...]

Thinking About Audience

One of the reasons I make my students keep blogs is that it forces them to consider an audience. If they write a journal on paper or in a Word file, they know that I am the only person who is going to read it; write that same document in a blog, and they know [...]

Happy New Year!

If you are a teacher or a student, you may feel, as I do, that the “real” New Year, time of fresh starts and hopeful beginnings, is in September, not January. As we embark on this year, here’s wishing for good luck and great success for all, whether you are a brand new student, a [...]

Of Romance, Ferrets and Plagiarism

Apparently the Romance readers and writers blogs were abuzz some time ago with news that one of the hottest writers in their genre had been caught with her pants down (so-to-speak) having stolen word-for-word material from a non-fiction article about ferrets. Ferrets? You may well ask. The author of the ferret article has written most [...]

My Favourite EdTech

I was an early adopter of educational technology, and have tried many different platforms and tools, from Flickr to del.icio.us, from LMSs to wikis. I like wikis a lot, and want to do more to explore their educational uses. The great thing about wikis is that they allow students to collaborate and create something of [...]

BBC Writersroom

Relatively new to the blogosphere, but with a lot of potential, is the BBC Writersroom, a group blog with contributions by writers of BBC drama. It gives some great insights for those interested in writing for radio or television.

Stephen Fry Hath a Blog

And he’s a techno geek!. Who knew?