End of this blog..

I've stopped posting on this blog now, class finished. Sadly the stats didn't change much as several just didn't come back to class (some just couldn't see the relevance of this subject in the rest of their course). I learned a lot though and would change things if teaching this subject again - main point to get across before any of the subject itself is the 'Why' and 'What can I get out of this'!

Welcome back

to those just returning after a long break from class. Good to see you; glad you're carrying on with studies!

Useful blogs

Keep youself informed, connect with the world around you, learn, find work... just some of the reasons why you should be keeping your blogs up-to-date and reading others. Check out the blogs voted most useful for April09

Class update

Some stats for this week:
18 started the class:
3 have withdrawn
3 have successfully finished already
3 have just one final piece of work to complete
only 2 in today (May Day holiday everywhere else!) but they're getting a lot done in the peace & quiet!
Of the remaining 7, 2 are still coming to class fairly regularly (just having the extra holiday today I guess!) and the others will struggle to finish if they don't come back soon...

Why does everything grind to a halt on a public holiday?!

Finding blogs

You can find blogs on Google - type in an area/name that interests you

Class progress to date... can you guess who hasn't been turning up?!

Progress

Not seen some students for weeks now; must have been a cracking Easter break!
Others have now completed the Weblogs unit - can concentrate on others who need to go back over what they've been learning.
Unfortunate that weblog.com seems to have gone completely, so couple of blogs have disappeared with the site. Sadly, this is the down side of relying on the 'cloud' (storing everything online).

Welcome back!

Just back after 2 week break... not been much blog activity for a while, so no top 5 this week. Only 8 weeks left to finish this course so time to think about individual planning.

Different activity this week

Moved away from PCs for the first half this week - flipchart activity to demonstrate blogs and a newsfeed aggregator. Also discussed what makes a good blog (regular posts, mix of media, etc) and why blog anyway (share information, collaborate with others).

Unfortunately, only 8/18 in class today... for those who were here, what did you think?! Tell me if this helped you to learn, or if you'd like to suggest another activity for next time.

Top 5

Lee - regular posts, range of media
Beany - regular posts
Sarah B - regular posts
Michelle - regular posts
Ross & Matt - made their first blog posts for this class!!!

Newsfeed Aggregator

Bloglines.com is another aggregator site - very good for keeping up-to-date on multiple blogs (you can pick from subject areas) without having to open each site separately. This would be an alternative to Google Reader.

Top 5

Lauren M - very detailed postings
Duncan - detailed posts
Michelle - keeping regular updates
Vicky - keeping regular updates
Sarah B - keeping regular updates

Kalum, Ross & Matt will be making their first posts (since the class started) today! Who knows, maybe they'll even appear in next week's top 5.

Top 5 - and games!

This week's top 5:
Lee - keeping regular posts, reflective
Beany - keeping regular posts
Sarah B - keeping regular posts (and updated mid-week)
Vicky - keeping regular posts
Carrie - starting to keep regular posts

Also, following suggestion that you need to use games to learn theory, I've created a few to get you started http://www.teach-ict.com/xml/fionap/student.htm

About Blogs

Blogs have been around since:

Go and ask 'what is a newsfeed' - see if you can find out what a newsfeed (or web feed) is, what does RSS stand for, and what's an aggregator (or feed reader).

I'm using Google's web based application for this:

pay a blog host?!

What's the difference between a free blog and one you pay for? Check out blog.com

Link for theory

You'll need to know some theory about blogs, comments and RSS - good place to start at blog.co.uk

How are you progessing?! Still too many white spaces in there!

Top 5

Progress chart is already showing a growing difference between those who are actually working on this unit and those who have yet to start!

Top 5 blogs this week:-
Beany - keeping regular updates
Lee - keeping regular updates
Sarah W - made a good start, interesting blog
Vicky/Sarah B - keeping regular updates
David - created blog, good first post

Beany also comes out top for best evaluations; also liked Vicky's inclusion of a comparison with other evaluations. For those still to make a start on evaluations, these are the people to speak to!

This week's Top 5

Videos bombed last week - need to think of another means of getting multimedia onto blogs! Some are already embedding pic's though. Also, trying to hold attention of all in class just doesn't work... again need a new line of thinking here! Comments welcome from the class.

Top 5 blogs for this week:
Lauren M - created blog, great first posting with lots of detail
Beany - keeping up regular posting, fixed layout issues
Carrie - created blog, good first posting but need to fix images
Sarah B - keeping up regular posting
Vicky - starting to keep up regular posting

This week's top 5

Beany - created blog, posted comments & pictures, started following 1 blog
Michelle - established blog, regular postings
Sarah B - updated blog pic, replied to comment
Lee - created blog, made first posting
Matt - created blog, made first posting

Getting ready for next class

Going to use video cameras this week - looking to add different types of media to blog updates, not just text. Doesn't look like anyone's posted to their blog since last class... and only 5/15 responses to my quiz in class last week. Will give some thought to what motivates! Still time left to get into this week's top 5... maybe a choc bar for top blogger would do it (or is that corruption & bribery?!)

16Feb09 class

Class was much more settled this week - most got quite a lot of work done (designed/created/updated blog, reviewed 1 of 5 types of blog).
Link from AOL homepage today might be of interest for 1 of the 5 blogs to be reviewed: http://uk.autoblog.com/

This week's top 5

Not been much activity in blogs as yet - most still have to create or make their first posting! Top 5:
Graeme - created blog, made a good first post
Joe - created blog, made a basic first post
Sarah B - created blog, made a basic first post
Vicky - created blog but yet to post
Michelle - good design, interesting topic

Passing this unit

What you need to pass the Weblogs unit:
5 x Evaluation forms - you'll need to review 5 different types of blog
1 x Blog design form - showing what's going to be in it/who it's for
URL of your Blog - which must be updated regularly (every week to end of course) and include different types of media
List of Newfeeds - created an aggregated feed and track 5 different types of blog to end of course
20 question multiple-choice test
That's it! Really not much to fit into the 15 weeks that are left in the course so we'll make it more of a competition in tracking progress. Think I'll go for a 'top 5' list of your blogs each week; maybe even a voting system like the charts to make it your top 5!

Bebo interface is quite different (apart from background/skin!). There the Blog is apart from the various widgets whereas in Blogger you can have a poll, quiz etc within the blog.

The social updates, text speak, notice of groups joined, etc found in Bebo really don't count as part of the blog. Figure I'll get class to create a separate blog in class next week.

New Blog!

I've taken over this class in wk3. Opened a new account in Bebo and starting using the blog in there. Thinking that gets lost in the social networking part of the site, I'm now trying out Blogger. First impression: the text editor in here is much more user friendly/more features - no surprise really since this is a dedicated blog site rather than the whole social interaction deal.