Great progress
I’ve finished working through all of your drafts (though I am waiting for Katie to do a little more before providing extensive commentary), and I’m very pleased with the work I’m seeing. Some thoughts, given the criteria I posted earlier:
The “filling in” work you are doing is very strong. I see echoes of my doctoral exams in your writing: showing that you understand a position, its antecedents, and its problematics. Good.
Writing quality is excellent across the board. I saw a few typos and other glitches, and for the most part I let these go, since I didn’t know if you folks were planning to revise in Google Docs or take things back to Word.
We are doing pretty well on time, too, I think: with a little less than a month before the start of Fall classes, and two weeks before my soft deadline of August 10, none of you have an insurmountable amount of work left to do. August 15 is probably the latest you should let things go: that would give me ten days to get comments on your work.
Katie asked if we might get together one more time: you tell me. I’m happy coming to the QC sometime next week; Erin’s mom is gonna be in town Aug 1-9, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get a QC trip together then.
Finally, from a nuts and bolts perspective, I hope the use of the weblog and Google Docs is going as well for you as it is for me. I expect to use more of both in ENG 500. Working on that syllabus is next for me…
July 28th, 2008 17:04
If we all would like to get together once more, it would be a good way to finish up the summer. I have learned alot and it would be good to share some of the transforming ideas and experiences with you all.
I do find the g-docs is straight forward and the accessibility is great. After a slow start, the blog is really nice for its accessibility, the emails alerts, and the ease. I did end of bookmarking the site for efficiency and have become more comfortable discussing our projects in this mode. I still like to get together over drinks or coffee, but when limited by all the other obligations in life, this is really pretty cool–no wonder the kids love it!
Any day from the 1st to the 8th is great. We embark on our journey south in the wee hours of the morning on the 9th.
Katie
July 28th, 2008 20:22
I’m game for a meeting, but I’ll be in a workshop Aug 4 & 5 and then off to IN on Aug. 6-9. What about after 3 pm on Aug. 4 or 5? I plan on looking at your stuff, Katie, soon . . . sorry for the delay. I’ve been swamped with other work.
July 29th, 2008 12:23
I will email Erin and ask about the afternoons of 8/4 and 8/5.
Speaking of swamped, got that “Oh no summer is almost gone” feeling down here. I’m reading Katie’s second draft now in between staining the kitchen windows. Why I picked the hottest day of the year for that, I dunno…
July 31st, 2008 21:37
I’m now free all day Aug. 4 or after 3:30 or so on Aug. 5.
Just finished reading/commenting on your draft, Katie. Emailed or shared the document back to you. Not sure how this really all works yet, but I’m starting to LOVE Google Docs. I also emailed a question about the versions of the files, so I’m sure you’ve been swamped with my emails from today. Sorry! Been a busy, busy bee. As I said in my email to you, Katie, it’s really interesting to see how closely sections of our project relate. We need to have a good conversation about this before school starts! Based on my research, Speck (first name elludes me) would argue collaborative writing is great, but we also need face-to-face time (hard, I know).
August 1st, 2008 11:29
Erin would rather do Aug 5. Haven’t heard from Nan yet, though. I’ll email her.
August 12th, 2008 09:31
I’m not sure if you folks are checking the messages on this site or if everyone has moved entirely to Google, but just in case you show up here…
Compliments to Katherine and Katie on your great projects and to Bradley on your sure-footed guidance and course structure. It appears that we’ve all had a productive summer. I always learn a lot from hanging around schoolteachers.