Aggregation Blogs and e-Portfolios
In writing-intensive courses such as Advanced Spanish Composition (2013), I create a a central course blog, designed as an aggregation blog or “motherblog,” such as this one:
http://blogs.lt.vt.edu/span3106
The course “motherblog” receives the syndicated feeds of all class participants’ individual blogs in a way which allows students to see and comment on each other’s work. Each student blog contains their e-portfolio or digital portfolio with final drafts of the 5 essays they write during the semester, plus a reflection on their writing and drafting process. Student blogs are all different, but modeled on this blog model that I provided:
http://blogs.lt.vt.edu/span3106modelo
Many students had never created a blog so in addition to developing critical writing and communication abilities in Spanish, they are acquiring digital design skills in WordPress.