I just found a course that looks a tiny little bit like our course--except that Dr. Andrew Wood has put together a very nice website (unlike my yet-to-be built site), and that his course emphasizes analyzing visual culture, rather than writing with visual language.

The quick and dirty instructions I have been looking for can be found at the University of Michigan's library website. I have only looked at the PDF file on Working with Graphics and Clip art, but the site has documents on working with Word more generally and PowerPoint.

We could use the Discussion Board within Blackboard to communicate online for the class, but I am interested in introducing students to weblogging for a number of reasons:
• You can start your own weblog very easily, but you can’t start your own Discussion Board—weblogging could be a tool for life.
• Weblog tools usually make it easier to link to other websites, and that is a valuable component of communicating electronically in this class.
• Discussion Boards imply discussion—I say something, someone is supposed to respond. Weblogs can support discussion, but they also encourage posts that are simply informational in nature (e.g. Have any of you seen the Visual Thesaurus? Talk about visual language!)
• Many weblog tools have good search engines built in; the Blackboard Discussion Board does not.
• Weblogs are public. For some students, that is a negative, but I hope to convince you of the value of going public. We might be able to hook up with other classes working on similar issues, and future versions of this class can use our weblog as a resource.

I'd like to hear others' views on weblogging versus discussion boards--this topic is actually at the heart of my research interests right now.

Hm. Blackboard has a discussion area where we can do threads. Why not put all the website info on blackboard and set up a discussion for us there?

Hello! I think a website would be nice, just for the organizational aspect of it, but I like commenting on things too. How about both?

Hi. As I assemble the pieces of the course, I wonder: "If we use a weblog for the course, is a website necessary?" Thoughts? How do you like to access information?