From here on out I encourage you to track the writings of your classmates and comment on them where you see fit. You'll recall an earlier post about getting a reader to do that. Here I will provide the OPML file that you can import into your reader to get a subscription to each student blog. Right click on the link and then save it to your desktop. Then you can import that file into your reader. Right click here
There were a variety of approaches to the first reflection, some focus on the subject of the course, others on the writing, and a few on the nature of open ended classes. Quite a few of you weren't sure where the course is headed. Let's see if this coming week helps in gaining focus. If it doesn't, please bring up the issue in class because we should talk it through.
Some of you did want to learn about how to affect change in society at large and perhaps reading The Tipping Point over the summer created the impression that we'll spend significant time on change at a macro level. At the risk of disappointing you, I must tell you that we won't be doing that. Our focus will be on change in a small organizational unit - a class, a small company, some volunteer organization, etc. If you've spearheaded effective change in that setting the next obvious question to ask is this. If it worked here, why can't it work elsewhere? The very first think to do at that point is to get the word out about the change. Gladwell's book is there in the readings to get us to think through whether there are good ways to get the word out. There are no guarantees that after the word has gotten out that the idea will spread. The only guarantee is that if you don't get the word out, it definitely will not spread.
Apart from reading each other's writing, I ask one small thing. Please put a line space between your paragraphs. Text is best read online if there is plenty of white space around the text. That makes it stand out more. It will aid my reading, for sure. And it might help your other readers as well.
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Is there any particular reason you excluded your blog from the OPML file? Perhaps you did it with the thought that we would be looking at your site frequently enough that we wouldn't need a "reader" to tell us when you updated. It is easy enough to add your site to the reader- I was just curious.
ReplyDeleteI didn't give that much thought. You can add the course blog to your reader by subscribing to it. You already have the address.
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