1. Some personal background…

• I began blogging at blog.garven.com in 2004, and I have used course-related websites since 1994.
• See “Blogging, tweeting, facebooking, etc.” for further historical/philosophical perspectives and various other caveats and cautionary tales.

2. Some sociological consequences to consider…

• The web encourages a more collaborative and interactive learning environment by transforming the professor’s role from “sage on the stage” to “guide at students’ sides”.
• The web does not render faculty members obsolete (notwithstanding a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article to that effect). Social media complements, but does not replace, the classroom experience.

3. Canvas versus WordPress

• I use Canvas for two purposes: 1) pointing students to my “self-hosted” (WordPress-based) course websites (located at fin4335.garven.com and fin4366.garven.com) and blogsites (at risk.garven.com and derivatives.garven.com), and 2) posting grades.
• Generally, I find that these sites are more flexible and easier to use (for student and professor alike) than Canvas.
• Some good news for Baylor faculty: Baylor provides hosting and technical support for WordPress, and most of the capabilities that I show here (e.g., posting via email and automatically publishing the same information on Facebook and Twitter) are available at http://blogs.baylor.edu/site-registration-instructions.
• For WordPress support at Baylor, contact Lance Grigsby via email at Lance_Grigsby@baylor.edu or by phone at extension 4553.

4. What about Facebook and Twitter?

• Quoting from the Chronicle of Higher Education, “You hunt where the ducks are… Facebook and Twitter are where… students are.”
• Thus, I republish my course-related blogsites (risk.garven.com and derivatives.garven.com) on Facebook at the following addresses: https://www.facebook.com/finance4335/ and https://www.facebook.com/finance4366/ and on Twitter at the following addresses: https://twitter.com/fin4335 and https://twitter.com/fin4366.