Use of Blogs in Instruction? | Student-Recommended Web Resources Guide(s)?

[Gerry Mckiernan]

Colleagues/

The coming Fall semester, I will be collaborating with a faculty member
for a Semester Project assignment.  
For the project, several groups of ten students (or so) from a graduate
class _and_ an undergraduate class
in _different_  mechanical engineering courses, will be required to
address and propose reasonable solutions
for a real world issue.

In addition to a WebCT component for reach class, I've proposed the use
of a Blog to facilitate communication and 
documentation among the various project participants, as the two
classes will not formally meet.

In addition to a proposed Blog, I am considering the creation of a Web
Guide of relevant Web resources
that have been identified and recommended by the *students* (not The
Librarian (Me) {:-)).
The philosophy of this approach is that as part of their training in
proposing solutions to areal-world problem,
 students should Think Creatively  and Think Critically about The Issue
at Hand.  Within this framework, the role of 
the Librarian and Instructor is to provide guidance to the students in
assessing the quality/credibility/authenticity 
(not to prepare The Compilation of The Ten Sites]

I' d very much appreciate learning of Any and All instructional
activities that have employed Blogs in information literacy initiatives

in engineering/science/technology (or other disciplines)

AND

I would also appreciate learning of examples of Student-Recommended Web
Resource Guides that have
been Aided and Abetted by librarians, but not Controlled primarily by
The Librarian {;-)


Thanks in Advance!

Regards,

/Gerry 

Gerry McKiernan
Science and Technology Librarian and Bibliographer for Mechanical
Engineering
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu