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#Janetter not showing new tweets update#

Modelling, which played a role in my decision to use a publicly accessible platform, seems to have also been meaningful as most of the class agreed that they took ideas for formatting and organization from posts that they deemed excellent.

#Janetter not showing new tweets how to#

Embedding YouTube videos is remarkably easy and students figured out how to upload their own pictures and embed them in their posts without any coaching.Д«y the end of the semester, 2/3 of the class reported that they preferred writing in a blog or electronic format compared to вЂњtraditionalвЂќ papers. The WYSIWYG editor in the CAC is relatively intuitive, but first-timers could use a primer in what the various symbols in the editing window mean. The level of engagement on the part of students quickly rose, and by the end of the semester, the all students challenged themselves with sophisticated integration of audio, video, and a variety of active links to sources well beyond what I had hoped.

Over the next couple of months, I began to demonstrate in class how to apply various styles and images to posts, first by looking at what we have quickly come to expect with online reading (hyperlinks not long URLs, embedded videos, headings) and then how to achieve these ends. My own first model post had included many active hyperlinks, text styling, and some images. So much for my theory about having students write in a more familiar genre! I had left the first monthвЂ™s post entirely up to them, to see what formatting and media they might be able to add on their own. A few things I learned: most of the class did not follow a blog or read blog posts regularly before taking this class. I вЂњcheck inвЂќ with my class regularly using an iClicker system to get anonymous feedback that students might not want to volunteer. Still, entering details was tedious wonвЂ™t someone write a script that will import calendar items (ical or google calendar)? Or batch create recurring calendar items?

#Janetter not showing new tweets update#

I wonвЂ™t lie: it took a few hours to enter events, but after the initial push, I could update it with new events as I discovered them. Having a calendar that I could update regularly with new events was very helpful for them. To help students find concerts, I created an events calendar that would list upcoming concerts in a side widget on the main blog page, but also all events in a larger monthly view. Students especially appreciated that the weekly listening assignments came from YouTube, and inserting videos into pages on the CAC could not be easier. I organized the website with a detailed menu that included all of the usual course items. The CUNY Academic Commons fit this course perfectly. By writing reflections about concert experiences, recording reviews, and musician profiles, I hoped to make this course integrated with the New York scene and help them feel connected with a community of musicians and listeners who care deeply about music-not just an arcane topic sequestered in a classroom in the Bronx. My goal with this course was to give students opportunities for meaningful experiences with the new music scene and to engage with that music deeply and personally. CUNY students are incredibly fortunate to live in what is arguably the most exciting city for new music. My decision to use a public, open, and accessible platform was also informed by the course topic: Music Since 1945.

I hoped they would find models not only of writing about music, but writing in a digitally-engaged way that would develop skills valuable well beyond semesterвЂ™s end.

I hoped that by creating a community of writers on a public platform, there would be less friction between what students read and what they wrote. With that in mind, I developed a course on the CUNY Academic Commons that would use the natural blogging feature of WordPress to permit students write about music in a way that might be seen as more вЂњnaturalвЂќ to them. Fortunately for me, nearly everyone is interested in reading about music in some way or other, so there is plenty of engaging writing to be found on the internet, and models of highly informative, well-researched, and carefully crafted pieces abound. Just what is a good research paper and do students know what this genre looks like? Where would they read good models? Sending them to the elite academic journals of my discipline (musicology) is unlikely to inspire confidence in budding writers and musicians. One of the great challenges that comes with undergraduate academic writing in the disciplines is the question of genre.