Having just finished a degree in literature and creative writing I absolutely think the use of sites such as HubPages should not only be enouraged but compulsory. Writers do not write for Writers alone. 3 years of getting firsts for assessments and good responses to class work can leave a student arrogant and out of touch.
The general public as they are are far more likely to read a celebrity biography than decent literature and students need to be aware of what their public want to read. Not that academia is irrelevant, far from it - but it needs to be a string to a bow rather than the bow itself - if you follow my frankly rubbish metaphor. How about asking students to post their classwork, poems, short stories, essays on hubpages - or edited versions of them?
Then they could bring in their work with responses from a wider audience leading to further discussion about how writing is relevant today? Eh?
That's a tough one.... I think they'd have to have funding for a copy editor to check out the authenticity and fact check the research, data. Unless the hub was written by a published professor/expert on the subject, and they could quickly check his credentials to confirm that the writing was of top quality and 100% accurate, I don't think they would, ...or would they? I'd love to know the answer to this one!
I teach at the university, I have complete jurisdiction over the curriculum and the computer tools that we used are archaic. Many of my students are top executives and they are appalled at the quality of the computer application. I would be happy to beta test it and I know my students would recommend it to the university.
The only tools Hub Pages doesn’t offer is 1. ) uploading PDFs – that would be a needed item and 2.) grading. The grading right now is so archaic it is hardly used.
So the changes needed MIGHT be minimal and feasible. Other thoughts, suggestions?
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.