In this assignment you will set up and maintain your very own blog using a domain that I’ve set up especially for this class. This blog will serve as a public journal of your experiences as we work through the class and experiment with various educational technology tools and techniques.
Here’s how you can get started!
- Check your e-mail – you should have a message from “admin@globalblogs.org”. This message contains a URL, a username and a password.
- Visit the URL in the e-mail and wait for the page to load
- Check out your new space! Pretty boring, right? Click the “Login” link on the right to make some changes to the site.
- Sign in using the username and password included in the e-mail referenced in step 1
The first thing you will want to do once you’re blog has been established is to log in and begin to jazz it up. The blogging software that we are using in class this year is called “WordPress” and it has a number of really great features, including the ability to completely redesign the entire look and feel of your blog.
Once you have logged into your blog you will be at a screen called the “Dashboard” – from here you can make changes to any aspect of your site. For example, if you would like to change the layout and design of your blog, click on the “Appearance” link on the left side of the screen. From here select “Themes” and choose one that fits your personality. Once you’ve selected a theme you can us the ‘Visit Site’ link at the top of the screen to see your new design in action.
Blogs can contain “posts” which are akin to public journal entries. You can create new posts by expanding the “Posts” menu on the left side of the screen. From here click on “Add New” and start typing! If you’d like to make changes to any posts that you have written you can do so by clicking on the “Edit” link under the “Posts” menu. Posts will appear on your blog in reverse chronological order, with the most recent post always showing up as the first thing people see when they visit your blog. You can view your blog by clicking the “Visit Site” button at the top of the Dashboard.
If during the course of your experimentation you ever lose the “Login” link and can’t get to your dashboard you can always go there directly by typing in the full address of your blog with “/wp-admin.php” added at the end. For example, if your blog name is called “myblog” your administrator login page is located at “http://myblog.globalblogs.org/wp-login.php”.
We’ll be using your blog every day to document your assignments in class. Your overall task with the blog is to experiment with this new medium and decide for yourself how useful this kind of structure would be in your teacher / administrator / student role(s). Here’s what I’ll be looking for throughout the semester:
- You should post at least one entry per day to your blog, resulting in at least 9 total postings.
- You are encouraged to visit your classmate’s blogs and to comment on their postings. It might be a good idea to add links to your classmate’s blogs on your own blog.
- All of the practical software assignments (Web 2.0, Digital Imaging, Digital Audio, Digital Video, etc.) should be posted to your blog along with documentation of your process. WordPress supports password protected posts, so if a certain item is sensitive in nature you can always restrict access to a particular post.
- Most of all, have fun!
PS: You’re going to want to update your administrator password & contact information once you log into your blog. You can do this by clicking on “Users” and then on “Admin”
Assignment due on Class #2
- Add each of your classmates to your blog’s “links” page. This will allow each of you to access each other’s page and quickly share information. You can do this by clicking on the ‘Links’ panel inside your blog dashboard. Here’s a listing of each of your blog addresses:
- Add a link to our main class blog to your site as well (http://mallorca2011.globalblogs.org)
- You’ll notice that, initially, the links you added don’t show up on your blog when you view it using a web browser. You’ll need to tell WordPress to add in a “Link Widget” to the sidebar of your blog — this will cause your site to draw from your library of links and place them in a spot of your choosing. Hint: Use the ‘Appearance -> Widgets’ menu to add in a link widget.
- Once you’ve set up links for your co-students go ahead and add in at least 3 links that you find useful in your work as a teacher or administrator (i.e. Edline, school website, resource site, etc).
- Write a brief introductory post that welcomes people to your blog and gives a little bit of context as to who you are and what interests / intrigues / annoys you about educational technology
Video Tutorials
