Starting to pull together my Carroll blog pieces into coherent groups to provide material for testing Mike Nelson’s Print My Blog Pro plugin.
Inspired by the creative work being done by Michael Colin Nelson in developing a PRINT MY BLOG PRO plugin for WordPress, I am revisiting my 400+ blog pieces of the past 10 years and writing drafts of some new blog pieces. I am delighted to be a part of his private Facebook group of 50 bloggers from across the world interested in providing feedback to his efforts (and thoroughly enjoying getting to know them and learn from them).
Below are some of my earlier thoughts about writing and self-publishing with undergraduates. And here is a link to some more recent recommendations (click-me).
One of my (many) failings as a professor was underestimating what my students could do if sufficiently motivated, provided with a strong foundation of learning and skillsets, and given the time and resources to solve a problem or to accomplish a task. I was reminded of that failure when I invited challenged encouraged my student assistants to write a short book. Though I agonized over whether I was abdicating my responsibility by giving them minimal oversight, it readily became clear to me that the process that they were engaged in was an invaluable learning experience. When I would walk into “their” office area I would be ignored as they were debating which blog pieces to include, how best to manage communication flow, which tools they should showcase, what to include on the cover and the order of authorship. Oftentimes my presence was not even acknowledged not out of disrespect or rudeness but simply because then I was not needed. They knew of course, that they could contact me at any time either individually or as a group.
Michael Lehman’s thoughtful Linkedin blog piece “Leadership through Effective Delegation” very accurately describes what transpired (I wish I could say that I was aware of what I was doing at the time!)
- I clearly defined the task: Take the blog pieces we have written together this semester. Improve them. Use the tools I have taught you and create a book-publishing-ready document. Keep me in the loop at all times but bring me into the picture only when you need my executive guidance. I shall decide what book publishing program we use to publish your work (I decided to go with Amazon’s Createspace and Kindle Direct).
- I had an ideal team of students (two sophomores and two juniors) whom I had carefully trained, who know me quite well, and who work well together and individually and collectively with me. Over the year(s) they have earned my trust to do a job to the best of their abilities in a timely fashion. They are mutually supportive, excellent creative, problem-solvers who also know when to call me in for assistance. Though a leader emerged, without doubt, each of them developed leadership skills through working on this project. They also developed the confidence to serve as checks and balances for each other and me. A critical factor to our success was my having time to be available. It happens that this semester I am only teaching two classes (and two labs) in my specialization Statistics and Experimental Design.
- Our goals were “SMART”: Specific (write a book) Measurable (Google-Drive copy of the manuscript), Agreed to (we renegotiated when there was reasoned disagreement), Realistic (I had given them a foundation of writing to build upon), and Time-related (I gave them a slightly flexible target date but indicated that this project must be completed before the end of the semester). I had to remind myself that these are “only” undergraduates who also have classes, jobs, and, I hope a social life. And then I let them loose.
I shared earlier their reactions to the process.
Heartfelt thanks to Jane Hart for widening my understanding of Internet Learning Tools.
What fun it is to learn with and from present students, alumni, former students, and parents!
