Assignment due Friday February 20 at midnight
Overview: Provide recent post info and recent comment info. Comment, comment, comment, comment.
This week I just want you to check in on Friday, reassuring
me that you're blogging well and commenting with purpose.
Tell me that you've completed the following:
1.Posted once already this week between Tuesday and Friday on your own blog.
Give me the post's date and title.
2.Been in touch with your personal commenting history.
List the blogs where YOUR comments have appeared consistently since February 3;
count your comments and rank them. The purpose of this request is SELF
assessment. You don't have to tell me what you see--just tell me that you did
review your history and thought about it.
3. COMMENTED as a blog-shaper on EACH of your group-mates’ blogs. Practice
being a DEMANDING reader (which is not the same as being a nasty reader). For
now, temporarily, set aside your friendly peer supporter persona and engage
intellectually with each bloggers’ agenda. Try to lead each blogger. He or she
doesn't have to follow but maybe . . . if you're persuasive . . .
Note: Do NOT skip or skimp on the commenting. (Dire consequences await you . . . . having to do with the G R A D E S.)
Assignment to prepare for Tuesday, February 24, due at the beginning of class
Overview: Work on arranging visual-verbal relationships in your posting space—using Picasa editing capabilities. Comment as a demanding reader; post as a community-responsive blogger.
1. Use Picasa (or other editor) functions to work on your visuals. Use your practice blog and/OR edit back posts or sidebars where visual-verbal relationships are not as finely tuned as they might be.
Pay special attention to the verbal-visual arrangement in the posting box. Keep track of what you do, as I’ll ask you to explain it to me and show me.
2. Big focus this week (again) is on COMMENTING and responding to COMMENTS. So read on carefully.
Some or perhaps most of you are imagining a community outside of this class. Good idea—this is exactly how you should be thinking. But for the forthcoming 2 weeks, I want you to imagine (temporarily) that your ONLY community is your group and maybe a couple of other followers from this class. I want you to experience having a lot of strong readers pulling you this way and that way by asking hard questions and perhaps leading you “off course” (or away from your thesis).
3. POST yet again. Between Feb. 17 and Feb. 24 you should have two new posts on your blog.
*** You should have lots of comments to look over now. Devise posts that respond to your commenters’ demands. Perhaps you’ll have to do some research!
Two posts are too much? No…..can’t be. Take a look at your past postings. Could you have broken some of these up into two? If so, do it next time. Short pithy posts are state of the art, but don’t skimp on the richness or content. Have you skimped on text? Skimped on visuals? Make correctives in your succeeding posts.
Continue to consider the following volunteer opportunities and let me know. Geoff has volunteered for the HTML demo, yet to be scheduled.
NEED VOLUNTEER(s):
Creative Commons
http://search.creativecommons.org/
Your job is to make this site useful to class members, maybe using class blogs topics/themes as examples.
NEED VOLUNTEER(s):
Alternative Templates
Your job is to showcase your best picks for alternative templates compatible with Blogger, e.g., http://www.pyzam.com/ and others of your choice.
Job description: How to roam efficiently through these sites. How to import the code and troubleshoot incompatibilities.
NEED VOLUNTEER(s):
Advanced Image
Editing
Are you somewhat competent in PhotoShop or other advanced image editing or drawing software? If so, develop a presentation geared toward novices who need more than Picasa or Picasa-like programs offer. I will need to find and load Department copies of the selected software on our projection machine—so I need prep time.
NEED VOLUNTEER(s):
Code
Your job would be to introduce basic HTML or CSS training for novices. Your presentation would be narrowly focused—providing a few principles but only enough to allow novices to spot and manipulate or add features pertinent to Blogger. Gear the presentation to the enthusiastic and intrepid novice. Use your practice blog to demo.
NEED VOLUNTEER(s):
Deep Blogger
Your job is to take classmates into some of the inner chambers of Blogger capabilities. This would entail consulting with me and classmates about what features not readily visible will enhance your site or your writing process. Start with http://help.blogger.com/
What else would you like to know or present?