EDTEC 700

Here’s the link to our final class archive.  Thank you all for an enjoyable summer session. http://edbreeze.sdsu.edu/p66634145/

Here are a few other links that came up today in class.

Thank you, Matt for finding the link about setting up multiple email addresses. http://edublogs.org/forums/topic.php?id=64#post-1391

Misty, for providing the link for Voice Thread
http://www.voicethread.com

Craig for the humorous imitation of the Common Craft videos.
http://toiletseatalert.com/

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I’ve received a number of questions about the assignments for this course. Here’s a list of everything I’m looking for.  

1. Your responses to my blog entries on this site.
2. Your individual wiki “smackdown” or comparison.
3. Your contributions to the group articles.  List your contributions on the Discussion page of each article you’ve contributed to.
4. Your 1 minute Podcast, which should be uploaded to your individual blog. 
5. The final project that you’ve set up.  i.e. the Blog, Wiki, or Site that you’ve created for your group. 
6. Your writeup of that project, which is posted to your individual blog.  Be sure to cover each step of the ADDIE Process.
7. Your presentation of the project, which is also known as your final podcast project.  (4-8 minutes)

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This upcoming Saturday will be our last session together.  I’m going to provide lots of examples of collaborative projects, and you’re going to tell me whether you think a blog, wiki, or podcast is the best way to do it.  

I’m going to share my feedback on what I’ve seen of your collaborative articles, and clarify any questions you may have about the final podcast. I’m willing to meet with people on a first come, first served basis after class, but will not be lurking online all day this Saturday.

I’ve (finally) put up more information about the podcast assignment. On that page, you’ll see 4 different software programs you can use to create your final podcast.

I have no problems with you finishing early, but you have until Aug 15 to wrap up all projects.

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You can create a flash player using gCast, Classroom 2.0, or Odeo. The flash players, or badges are a little bit of code that you can copy and paste into your page to share media. This ODEO player is much slicker than the audio plugin that comes with our Edublogs.

Classroom 2.0 is similar to a myspace or facebook profile, which is great if you’re into that. It’s a great resource with plenty of other good options, but I’m mentioning it looks like a good, teacher-friendly way to get the code to embed in another place.

Once you’ve got an audio file, you can upload it to your Classroom 2.0 page.  You’re allowed to upload a total of 100 tracks, each of which can be up to 20 mB.

Then you can click the Get More Badges link on the right side of the page and you’ll get a player that you can embed in your site. I uploaded a royalty free song from my computer. If I had uploaded more files, it would play all of them in a playlist. Note: The badge actually plays your playlist, which will work well if you want to play through all the student’s podcasts.  It’ll work poorly if you’ve uploaded your favorite Snoop Dogg track to listen to as you grade papers.  So plan accordingly.

You can share music and movies on the Edublogs.tv site, too. They also will generate the embed code to run audio or video players.

I used to recommend Odeo.com as my favorite podcasting resource, but can’t say it’s the best place to go. If you’re curious, you can read about their last 3 years in this techcrunch article. If not, here’s the way Odeo displays and episode of an ESL podcast. You, too could upload your files to odeo, then get badges that look like this. (I think they’re better than the badges from Classroom 2.0. )

Nothing required for you to do here… just including it as good info to know about.

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You’ve got 2 assignments where you’ll be making podcasts. The first is a 1-minute audio podcast.  Be sure to include your voice and some background music and/or sound effects. You’ll upload that audio file to your edublog as I’ve done below.  Listen to my sample for a little more information.

1minute

Here is a link to the Apple’s tutorial for Garage Band. It’s a good intro, but I hesitate to use it.  You do not need to make chapter markers, or an enhanced podcast.  You should not use iWeb to upload your file. (At least, not for this class)

Instead, you’ll create your podcast, save it to the disc, then insert it into your edublog using the add media button for audio in the edublog editing window.

I’ve made a brief screen movie that shows you more about using Garage Band.  Click here to view Karl’s tutorial.

For PC users, you’ll need to download the free audacity program.  Once you’ve installed it, you’ll need to follow these directions on how to install the LAME plugin that you need to export your podcast as an .mp3 file.  If you don’t install LAME, you won’t be able to get the .mp3 file that you need.

To help you get started using Audacity, these tutorials show you how to create a podcast with Audacity.

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Here’s a link to the archive of our session on 8/2.

In class we mentioned a number of changes to the timeline, which have been updated on the the schedule page.

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Thanks to this article on Larry Ferlazzo’s blog, I think I’ve found a great resource for teachers to use for podcasting or video podcasting.  Edublogs.tv just launched in July.  Typically I wouldn’t recommend something I haven’t had a chance to use, but the edublogs crew that has put together this wonderful blogging community has earned my trust.

The edublogs.tv site is very similar to teachertube.com, it’s a Youtube for educators.  You can upload your own video files (currently up to 50 mB, but moving to 100mB soon). Clever people that they are, the edublogs.tv programmers have added a feature that lets you grab any school-friendly youtube videos and import them into edublogs.tv, which (hopefully) your IT crew allows into your school.

At this point, your edublogs.org user account is different from your edublogs.tv account. If you plan on using video or podcasts in your classroom, this might be the tool you’re looking for.

Youtube has so many distracting videos, that it can be hard to use. In under a minute I was able to find a video this good. Hope you enjoy it, too. I think it summarized many of the points I wanted to make about the next generation of learners in a way that I found powerful.

Your prompt:
Leave a link to another good video you found on Edublogs.tv

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Sure, it’d be great to have your podcasts overlap with Billboard’s Hot 100, classic Beatles songs, or your favorite band, but as you know, copyright restrictions keep them out of the classroom. Be sure to use Podsafe music for your podcast projects.

Here are a few resources for free or royalty-free sounds. If you’re using Garage Band, it comes with a number of loops to use in your backgrounds.  If you aren’t, here are a few more resources for you.

• http://www.freesound.org/
• http://www.podsafeaudio.com/
• http://www.opsound.org/
• http://www.samplenet.co.uk/
• http://ccmixter.org/
• http://www.flashkit.com/loops/

No comment required for this post, but if you have better options for audio, please share them in the comments.

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Of course there are lots of ways to spend money on the iTunes Store, but there are also great resources available to download for free.  

You only need the iTunes application installed, you don’t have to have an iPod to listen to podcasts.  

If you like, you can go to iTunes U free of charge. You won’t get the prestigious degree, but you can view lectures from dozens of universities including Stanford, MIT, or UC Berkeley. 

You don’t have to watch the whole thing, but please watch the first minute or two of the iTunes U Tutorial. It provides a good introduction of the types of content that is available.  After that, you’re welcome to continue watching to learn how to download and subscribe to shows, but I’d like you to move on and look at the other podcasts on the iTunes store.  (iTunes U Tutorial) 

iTunes U isn’t the only place to find Educational Podcasts.  Click the Podcasts link in the iTunes STORE menu, and you’ll find more categories of podcasts.  There is a section for Kids & Family, an Education section, even and Educational Technology section. 

Prompt

For this assignment, I’d like you to go in and to listen to at least 3 podcasts, then share your favorite in the comments below.  

I’d like you to look at shows you could use with your class, though that isn’t a requirement.  Nearly all podcasts are informational, so find something that interests you or will be interesting to your students.) Tell us what you listened to and what you like best and why.  I know it’s hard to link to the shows in iTunes, so I won’t ask for that, just give us the title of the show and the category it’s listed under. 

Tip: Click on the “See All” links to view your choices in podcasts more efficiently.

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Sometimes too much control is a bad thing.  Sitting at your desk in front of a microphone can be intimidating.  It’s tough to start talking to yourself without feeling like your cheese is sliding off your cracker.  Powerful editing software and lots of background music gives you unlimited options, but is it too much?

Consider the alternative.  You can set up your account with Gcast , Then log in and configure your pin number. After that, you dial the phone number they give you and your files get published on the web.

Here’s my quick sample I did from my cellphone. (If you’re wondering, you are able to delete a recording and start again before your podcast is published online.  It’s so easy, I know you’ll be able to figure it out. )

After about 5 minutes, my audio file was available on my gcast page. I clicked on a link that promised to help me add my podcast to MySpace, and was directed to a page with player options for what you see here.

You’ll see that my gCast page allows you to pick which tools you’d like to subscribe to the podcast with… iTunes, a few different feed readers, or an email subscription.  I’m not sure that I’d use that feature, though.  I’d probably embed the code in a class web page instead.

So is the quality great?  Not really, but imagine sending out a voicemail to all your students (or their parents) in just minutes.  It won’t win an academy award for sound production, but it might just be the right tool for the job.

Interested in other ways to podcast by phone? Click here to learn about 3 other tools you could use.

Comments are optional on this post. If you check it out, I’d love to see a link of what you made.

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I thought I’d point you toward a few good wiki resources.  If there are wikis I don’t know about, but should, please add them to the comments.  

The Classroom 2.0 group has fantastic user community.  (If you’ve never seen them you should check them out.)  The users have created this wiki resource with resources for teachers looking to use Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.  

Gold Star for Trina, who did a great comparison of Wikispaces and what may be my new favorite wiki software… WetPaint.  They’ve created a site called Wikis in Education with good info on how others are using wiki in the classroom.  If you’d like, check out the AnatomyWiki that was created using this software. (aka Anatowiki)

Finally, here’s a link to Stewart Mader’s book, Using Wikis in Education, that is if you’re old school enough to read a book.  If you’re not, you can visit his blog.  I’ve linked to an article that I thought was particularly good called The State of Wikis in Education. 

Bonus link:  The Facebook group for Using Wiki in Education.

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I’ve been reading your wiki comparison articles, and for many of you, I’ve included some comments at the bottom of the page.  If your page doesn’t have comments yet, it will soon.

I’d like you all to begin posting to your blogs.  I want to learn more about your projects so that I can know what you’re thinking about when we meet on Saturday.  I won’t be looking at them until Friday afternoon, so you’ve got a little time.  I won’t be posting more to this blog until after our class session on Saturday.  Instead of responding to my posts, please begin working on your own.   

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Your comparison of 2 wikis is due tonight, so I won’t give you an additional assignment to comment on.

(Special thanks to Marty whose Wiki Smackdown article has this picture.)

Even though not all of your articles have pictures of angry kangaroos, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen of your articles.  Make sure your name is added to the Authors page in our group wikispace and that your comparison is finished by midnight tonight. 

This saturday we’ll have a brief lecture on Podcasting, then I’ll be meeting with you all to learn more about your projects.  

Visit the Office Hours wiki page to sign up for a time slot with me.  (Note: there aren’t enough spaces for me to meet with all of you. If you’d like to meet on a day other than Saturday, email me and we’ll set something up.)

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There are people out there who think Wikipedia should be banned.  Senator Ted Stevens, believes you should Ban Wikipedia in all schools and libraries. This is the same man who famously described the Internet as a “series of tubes.” He doesn’t have what you could call cyber street cred, so he’d be easy to dismiss, but he’s not the only person taking action. 

A librarian in Seattle has hung up signs that read “Just Say NO to Wikipedia.“  Apparently she thinks students use it as a definitive source for information, which isn’t the case according to this study. There are school districts all around the country that have banned access. Any of you locked out?

For this post, I’d like you to take a stand in the comments, and back up your reasons why wikipedia should be banned, or why it should be allowed.  Maybe you think we should teach Wikipedia and use it as an opportunity for students to cite sources, and improve the free encyclopedia, like this professor.

Hat tip:  My inspiration for this post came from Will Richardson’s post on the topic, which has some very interesting discussion in the comments.

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I’ve enjoyed reading your comments about being Pioneers, Settlers, or Colonists, the classic roles that people play in adopting new technology.  I really saw that exercise as a warm-up for the links I’m sharing with this weekend.

Wikis need to be adopted by a larger group to add info from multiple vantage points, and to take care of their collaborative pages.  One of the first wikis I set up was for my fellow EDTEC students back in the dark ages when we took comprehensive exams instead of doing the portfolio presentations you all will do.  I created CompsWiki as a place where anyone could share resources they have to help other students pass the exam.  My vision was for pages that restate the theories we’d need to incorporate into our responses along with sources we could cite to back up our points. I set it up my first semester in the program with the help of a friend who was taking the comps the following semester, so my goal was to grow CompsWiki for the next 5 semesters until I’d be using it.

Imagine leveraging the knowledge of 5 semesters worth of grad students notes.”How could it fail?” I thought.

CompsWiki ended up being “My” wiki to help other students. I was the kind of Pioneer that wasn’t joined by Settlers or Colonists. We all have grown used to accessing information from the web, but adding info to it is something altogether different. The 90-9-1 theory states that 90 % of a community just reads a wiki, 9% contribute occasionally, and an enthusiastic 1% of the people do the majority of the editing.

The article I linked to above is a new resource from a site called Wikipatterns that has different ways you could set up your wiki to tweak the adoption patterns a bit.  If I had known some of these, perhaps I could have have tweaked the numbers so that it was more like 80-16-4.

Prompt:

Read the 90-9-1 theory, then look through the people adoption patterns and anti-adoption patterns at the bottom of every page.  Especially Wiki Champion, Wiki Gnome, Vandal and Wiki Troll. Like pioneers, settlers, and colonists, it’s important to understand that these personality types will be part of your wiki community.

You have two options for your prompt.

a) Tell me which of the Adoption patterns could I have used to make CompsWiki a more collaborative wiki.

b) Tell me about a wiki idea you have, and describe some of the patterns you could use to get people on board.

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I hear the first step toward recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. We’re EDTEC students, and we like to try new things. Why learn about emerging technology? For some of us, it’s just because it’s new.

I buy a new iPod just about every time they come out with a new one, and you know what? I’m proud of it. I understand the way I am, and have (nearly) convinced my wife that it’s a good idea to buy new things as they come out. After all, it’s how I make my living. People don’t hire consultants to tell them about things that are common knowledge. It’s knowledge of what’s new that keeps my business afloat. 

When it comes to adopting new technology, there are 3 basic types of people. Jeremiah Owyang describes pioneers, settlers, and colonists as such:

Pioneers
Obsessed and enamored with the technology, this individual is always adopting the latest social technologies. This individual is fickle with tools, won’t establish loyalty to websites, may move when they see colonists adopt the tool.

Example: Often experimenting with products in their beta stage, this person will quickly move on to the next tool as fast as adopting the second.

Settlers
These second generation adopters look for key market or network indicators before adopting a new technology. This person is less enamored with the new technology, and more interested in the value that it provides.

Example: They may trial tools after seeing several people in their network mention or trial the tool, and may adopt after a beta or trial period is over.

Colonists
Colonists are the mainstream adopters, they are often our parents, non-techies, and the everyday people we meet. They adopt these tools due not because of an internal desire to stay cutting edge, but often because several people around them make it an attractive destination and the they see the utility to the communication. They are not late adopters.

Example:
Joins Facebook because colleagues, family, and friends are using it.

Prompt

Read the rest of the article, then in the comments tell me if you think you’re a Pioneer, Settler, or Colonist, and what makes you think so.  I think at heart I’m a pioneer, but I find my value as a consultant really comes from playing the role of the settler. My clients ask me things I need to know as a pioneer, but the real value comes from knowing what these tools can provide, which is what the Settlers and Colonists want.

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A news reader allows you to read everything that’s happening on a Web site without ever viewing it.  Without my newsreader, there is no way I’ll be able to see what you all are posting to your blogs for this class. You’re all teachers.  Could you imagine visiting all 20-something of your student’s blogs every day to see if they posted or not?

Again, I’m going to look to the commoncraft guys for a description of RSS.  Enjoy this introduction,  then click to see the remainder of the post.

…read more

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I’d like you to watch this screencast about the evolution of the heavy metäl ümlaüt. The screencast is a few years old, so the current wikipedia entry has changed since then, but it’s a great look at how collaboration is happening on these articles.

The discussion pages are fascinating to me, and are a critical ingredient in the success of Wikipedia.  It can get heated because it’s Wikipedia’s policy to keep a neutral point of view (NPOV) and people tend to have strong opinions about certain articles. After you’ve watched the movie about the Evolution of a page, look at the discussion around the Evolution article. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes of the world’s encyclopedia.

Prompt:

Go back and look at what you contributed in class on Saturday. Has your entry been accepted or rejected by the community?  Look at the discussion page for any info, then tell us what happened. (Please insert a link to the page you’ve contributed to.)

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Sadly, this is a true story. I popped over to my own blog today after our class to write a quick post, and when I signed in, I saw that I had 53 comments waiting for moderation. All of them are spam.  What happened?

I don’t post to my own blog very often, and don’t get very many comments and that’s fine with me.  For all of you thinking of creating a class website with wordpress/edublogs don’t use the # of comments you get as an indicator for that blog’s success. I set up a wedding blog with wordpress and even though there weren’t a lot of people commenting on it, nearly everyone told me how much they enjoyed what we put up there.  Participative 2.0-Web sites are a new idea, so people don’t really know how to do it, yet.  Your student’s parents may love your blog even if they don’t say share publicly with the group.

Sorry, that’s The 90-9-1 rule, not the reason my commenting blew up overnight. Here’s what happened.

You don’t have to worry about upgrading the software if you’re using Edublogs, which is really nice.  They upgrade the multi-user version of wordpress for you each time a new one comes out.  I have WordPress installed on my own server, which allows me to customize my own themes and plugins. It also means I have to upgrade it when new versions come out.  Luckily my hosting company makes it über-simple for me to upgrade, even though it’s still a manual process.

I deactivate my plugins, upgrade the software via Dreamhost’s admin panel, then re-activate my plugins.  I just upgraded from 2.5 to 2.6 but forgot to reactivate the spam plugin, Akismet.  I got 50 comments in about 12 hours.  yuck.  Luckily cleanup is easy.

You don’t have to upgrade your site, but you do have to activate your spam filter, Akismet.

The Akismet plugin needs your API key, which is like your own wordpress password.  There’s no prompt or response needed for this post, just click here to learn how to get an API Key. (You’ll create a wordpress.com account, then find it on your new profile, which is a bit of a pain.)

After that, it’s easy. Go back in your wp-admin panel, click Plugins and activate your Akismet plugin.

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Thanks for a good session.  Good luck in Wikispaces this week. Here’s a link to our recording.

Here are my slides from today.  

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I’ve enjoyed reading all of your comments.  I’ve been blogging since 2003, but am quite sure that I’ve had more comments in this week than I have in 5 years of blogging.  Of course I realize that you all are posting because it’s a requirement, but I’ve really enjoyed checking your comments each morning. (Hang in there, Ken)

Since we’re meeting tomorrow, I’m not going to give you much to do today.  I want you all to be fresh and ready to discuss.  I’m looking forward to getting everyone together at the same time.  We’ll be going into Wikispaces, so be sure to have your account set up prior to the start of our class tomorrow.  (like it says on the schedule.) Click below to read more. 

…read more

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Isn’t youtube great?  I know it’s probably blocked in your district, and can be tough to use it in the classroom, but I love the fact that we can find, make, or share videos with other people from around the world.  There are lots of youtube spin offs, like Teachertube.com is a youtube for educators. Or check out Hulu.com to watch popular TV shows and movies on demand.

One of my favorite videos are the paper illustrations made by Commoncraft. You can visit their Web site, or their Youtube channel to find more, but here are their explanations for Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts.

Please watch all three videos prior to our class on Saturday.  

Blogs in Plain English
 

Wikis in Plain English

Podcasting in Plain English

There is no prompt for this post.  Comment as you see fit. 

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Yesterday’s screencast showed you how to manage your links and how I set up the links to everyone’s blogs.  Hopefully you aren’t having any trouble moderating or leaving comments on your classmate’s blogs. 

Now that nearly everyone has added the email addresses you used to register for edublogs.org, I’m going to to add you all as members of this blog. You won’t be able to post to this blog, but one you’re a member your comments will appear immediately after you write them.  

Since I’ve disabled registration on this blog, it will keep out anyone who’s not in our class. I used Jing to quickly illustrate the two step process.  (Click the image for a closer look.)

Note: These settings are a bulletproof way of keeping out unwanted comments. If you change your setting to match mine, your classmates will not be able to comment on your blog unless you add them as users of your blog. 

There is no prompt for this post.  Comments are optional. 

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You know from the title of this class that we’ll be talking about podcasts and vodcasts, but here’s an example of a screencast.  A podcast is an audio file, and a vodcast is a video file, but a screencast is a narrated screen recording made with something like Adobe Captivate, or Tech Smith’s Camtasia or Jing.

I have a brief 3 minute screencast that I made with Camtasia.  It’s intended to show you how I added all of your blogs to the right column of my our class blog.  In the video, I show how to add a new link, how to manage your links and a little bit about the Blogroll widget.

Click here to watch. 

What’s not in the video is the difference between categories and tags, but this article does a good job of explaining it.

Prompt

1. Add a new link to the sidebar of your site.  By default you all have links to wordpress.com and wordpress.org.  Add a link to this blog (edtec700.edublogs.org) and any other links you’d like.

2. Visit at least 10 of your classmate’s blogs and leave a comment.  If you have something meaningful to say in response to their initial post, please say it.  If you have a great link that you think they’ll appreciate, go ahead and leave it there.  If you don’t have either, just leave a comment that says “Hi.”  The reason for this exercise is to get everyone some experience moderating comments on their blogs. 

You all should get a number of comments in the next 48 hours. Approve anything that isn’t spam. I’m doing a follow-up post tomorrow on some of the settings.  

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Should you be blogging?

Well, of course, I’d say that you should be blogging because you have assignments.  (Just to clarify, each week you are required to respond to my entries on this blog.  A reminder that you need to have your Edublog set up and have your first post written by midnight Tues.  You have until Thursday to respond to my daily posts.)

But what about after this class is over?  Should learning professionals be blogging?  This post has links to prominent edubloggers and their take on the question.  What are they saying are the advantages to blogging?  What do you think?  

Prompt

In the comments section, please list some of the reasons why you should blog or some reasons why you shouldn’t be blogging.  If you’d like some inspiration, read Tony Karrer’s post on the top ten reasons why you should or shouldn’t blog. 

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A short post from me today, because I want you to spend time reading some of 2007′s top Edublogs.  Visit the EdublogAwards.com Web site, and look for a blog that interests you.

There are 14 categories for different Edublogs.  Visit the links on the right side of the page to see the nominees for any of the categories that interest you, then follow links to the best blogs in that category.  I want you all to spend time looking for blogs that suit your interests and pick some of your favorites.

Prompt

In the comments field, I’d like you to share your top three Educational blogs.  Rank them #1 – 3 along with a brief summary of the blog’s strengths. I’d prefer that your choices come from this list, but you can nominate any other Educational blogs you feel we should know about.

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Internet Explorer

One of my pet peeves is people that call this icon “the Internet.”

Yes, it takes you to the internet, but no, it isn’t the program that runs it.  Internet Explorer (IE) is just one of many tools you can use to browse pages.  This post explores a few of the alternatives, and hopefully you’ll see some parallels between the tools we use to go online and what’s happening across web communities.

If you’re a web developer, you know about web standards, which are specifications for the way code should be written to work across all sites.  If you’ve done much web design you know that the world’s most popular browser, IE, is not standards compliant.  This means you have to modify hack your code to make sites work.

We won’t have to deal with that since we aren’t really doing web design.  The blogs and wikis that we set up will work equally well in both browsers, but it is one of the reasons that the Web’s coolest kids aren’t using IE, they’ve switched to Firefox. 

Firefox

Mozilla’s Firefox is an open source web browser.  Unlike the Microsoft browser, Firefox is a group project.  It’s a collaborative effort that you could be a part of.  The firefox community is open to anyone who can improve the way the browser works.  Open source means that the code is available to anyone.  It can be improved upon by anyone with a fresh idea, and the coding skills to make it work, unlike Microsoft that considers its browser to be company information and guards it’s proprietary code. 

Firefox is the preferred web browser for so many because it supports web standards and because it offers new features that IE doesn’t offer.  The Firefox community has created hundreds of plugins that add additional features to your web browser. One of my favorites has been adding control of my iTunes without having to leave the browser.  

Flock

This is another open source browser.  Flock bills itself as the Social Web Browser or the Web 2.0 browser.  It’s taken the code from Firefox and added support for Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, and even integrates with your blogging software.  I can see what my friends are doing across these various communities and receive updates without visiting those sites. Even if you don’t have accounts with the services I just mentioned, you could use flock to write to your old Blogger blog or your new edublog.   Flock’s home page has links to the support you’ll need to set it up. 

Prompt

I’d like you to install Flock and spend some time using it.  If you’ve never installed Firefox, do that too.  I’m not saying you have to stop using IE, but this summer you are a student of the Web, and should be familiar with these 3 different ways to access it. 

In the comments field, tell me what you thought about Flock.  Is it too much to handle? Or do you think this is going to change the way you go online?  Which of these browsers is your favorite?

(Mac people, Safari can be your fave, but please try the mac versions of firefox and flock.)

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Throughout this course, we’ll be looking at both the benefits of new technology and the risks that come with using it.  Blogs and Wikis are vulnerable to spam, so your settings are a critical part of set-up.  As I’m writing this, you all are posting comments on our first post.

I used Jing to make a quick screencast of the comments panel, that you can view here, but here’s an even better resource. This article gives you directions on how to set up a blog that is both secure, and easy to comment on.   After you’ve read it you’ll understand why I need the email address you used to sign up for edublogs. 

Prompt:

Your prompt for this post is an easy one.  Please add the email address you registered with to the comments section of this post. 

Bonus Link:

And since many of you are having trouble getting your avatar visible on your site, and on this blog’s comments, I thought I should link to this article that teaches you how to do it.  

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Here’s the link to the archive of our first session together.  This site is really the best resource for information, but if you’d like a copy of my slides, you can find those here.

There is no prompt for this post, so you don’t need to comment unless you’d like to. Thanks for a good session.    

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This post is my chance to introduce myself.  I’ve been teaching classes in our department since I graduated in 2006.  It’s the second time I’ve taught learning through blogs and wikis, and the third time I’ve done the podcasting class. However, it’s the first time I’ve combined the two, which is going to be a lot of fun.

I’m a self-employed eLearning consultant and contractor.  I make a lot of Captivate movies, and eLearning modules.  My business, Speakeasy Consulting, focuses on corporate learning and development, so even though I’ve had some experience in the schools I know that I’ll be learning from you all. This is a course on collaborative learning.  The way I look at it, we’ll all be helping one another learn.  This is a group effort.

I taught ESL during the 5 years I lived in Korea and Taiwan.  While I was there, my students called me Teacher Karl (which usually sounded like Teecha Kawl).  I’ll jokingly call myself Professor Karl now that I’m teaching classes online, but I don’t have a doctorate, and am not really a professor, so you don’t have to call me that.  It just cracks me up.

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We’ll be using Edublogs.org for this class.  If you’re familiar with WordPress, you’ll recognize the publishing software.  If not, don’t worry.  There are a number of wonderful video tutorials to help you get started.

I chose Edublogs over some of the other multi-user blogs for educators, because they’re free, they’ve got great support, stable software, and a thriving community.

Sign up now.

Your First Post

Once you’ve set up your blog, I’d like you to write an introductory post.  Tell me a little about yourself.  Be sure to include what you teach, your experience with blogs, wikis, and podcasts, and at least one idea you have for a final project in this class.  Use the article, 10 ways to use your edublog to teach as inspiration. (Don’t worry, you aren’t committed to it for your final project, yet.)

Your Prompt for this Post

When you’ve finished your first post, enter the URL to your blog in the comments section below.

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