As Blackboard brings new possibilities for e-mail exchanges to Presbyterian College--e-mail between teachers and students or among students, asynchronous or in real time--journals, a proven idea, have a new application. Toby Fulwiler, editor of The Journal Book, now in Thomason library, states the idea behind journals, logs, notebooks, or field notebooks: "When people write about something they learn it better" 9).  Journals, he adds, give students "a place in which to write informally yet systematically in order to seek, discover, speculate, and figure things out" (9).

Journals get students thinking, according to Ken Macrorie in the Foreword. Usually not graded on the mechanics of writing, journals or logbooks help students "learn to write and write to learn in ways that constitute thinking in the most productive sense of that word," he adds. Characteristics of good journals, Fulwiler says in the Introduction, include frequent entries; long entries; self-sponsored entries; and chronology, the writing of an entry at a particular time (3). E-mail makes tracking chronology easy since the technology dates entries, making it hard for procrastinating students to get away with writing multiple entries the night before they are due.

The Journal Book includes ideas used by teachers in many disciplines: English, history, music, art, philosophy, physics, chemistry, math, sociology, and political science. Henry Steffens in his chapter "Journals in the Teaching of History" offers ideas for journal entries that would apply online as well as traditional journals:

1. Entries written as homework related to reading assignments. Knowing they have to write for five minutes about the reading, students reported that they became more active readers (223). If online entries about the readings are due at least an hour before class, the professor can preview the entries to see what the class needs help understanding. Professors can read some entries to the class to spur discussion.

2. Entries written in class to start or redirect discussion. Five-minute writings at the beginning of class "can transform the opening of class into an active discussion group" (221).

3. Comparative entries. Students can compare readings with previous readings or readings with class discussion (224).

4. Entries to develop ideas for research paper topics. Journals are a good way to help students work on their extended writing assignments. Students can formulate research paper topics and experiment with plans for a paper (222). Early feedback from the teacher or other students in Discussion Boards on Blackboard can help students write analytically.

5. Entries at the end of class. Writing at the end of class or after class allows students to draw conclusions or to explore ideas the class will discuss at the next meeting (223).

6. Personal entries. Students can express questions, speculate about course material, and make connections to other courses or to their own experience (225).

Team Journals: Jean Graybeal makes a case for group journals that would apply to the use of small group discussion with the Discussion Board or Virtual Classroom tools of Blackboard. Graybeal found that team or group journals encouraged students to express dissent with course ideas, reveal their own deep confusion, and grow in self-awareness as they compared their own thinking processes with those of others in the group--all ideas they might not have expressed to the teacher (306). Additional benefits of the group journals were the affirmation and reinforcement students gave ech other and the building of community as the group became a team in and out of class (309).

Fulwiler, Toby, ed. The Journal Book. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton Cook, 1987.

Graybeal, Jean. "The Team Journal." Fulwiler 306-311.

Macrorie, Ken. Foreword. Fulwiler.

Steffens, Henry. "Journals in the Teaching of History." Fulwiler 219-226.

Writing Centered 02