The Return

If you're reading this right now ... wow! Ben's Blog has been in a coma since, like, March and even then I wasn't reporting our day-to-day activities like I had been in 2005-06.

Bryan Wilson, one of my night students, asked me Tuesday if Ben's Blog was totally dead. That simple question got me thinking: what a shame. One of the most commonly used "features" of my classes has been totally abandoned, leaving my students, in a way, guessing. It wasn't my intention, and it's not fair to you.

So, Ben's Blog is back! It won't do us much good this quarter since we're at the end of the line, but Summer 2007 and onward will see the return of Ben's Blog. To help ring in the return, I've bounced around some ideas for the blog, and I'd really like to hear your comments about them (either here or in class).

Links for Students
Many of you have your own sites (myspace, facebook, etc.), and I thought it would be neat to link to them (only if you want, of course). This would allow for easier out-of-class contact with each other and would give you the opportunity to meet some other students who are ahead of/behind you in school.

Domain Name
I've toyed around with the idea of having my own domain name since I set this thing up two years ago. It would be relatively cheap, but still out-of-pocket. Let me ask you guys this (again, comment here or in class), would the average non-NSA-student out there be more likely to navigate to www.benbedo.com or benbedo123.blogspot.com? Or to maybe something else different entirely? (bensblog.com is taken!)

Downloadable Files
I don't know if this would be totally necessary, but I thought it would be neat to put up Powerpoint slides for download. I would only be able to do "last weeks" but it would help in the event of an absence.

RSS Feeds
Actually, this is available right now, but I thought of having a mini-lesson on RSS feeds at the beginning of school to show students how to have information from this blog "pushed" straight to their computers.

Forum?
This would require more out-of-pocket, but I thought this would make for a nice place to keep the classroom discussion going outside of class. Interactivity has been proven time and time again as a major motivator for learning and that is, after all, what we're all here to do, right? If I implemented this, it would be further down the road (I would have to purchase actual web space for a forum to happen).

Any Other Suggestions?
This blog is for you! I'd love to hear any ideas you have on how I can make it better!