SCoPE Seminar: Blogging in Professional Networks

Facilitator: Glenn Groulx
November 8-26, 2010

Description:
This 3-week seminar will cover blogging strategies for participating effectively within professional networks. Topics will include strategies for gathering information from various online sources, organizing these sources within blog posts, and connecting with experts and peers by engaging in way-making activities to explore, find and connect with others.

SCoPE seminars are free and open to the public, and are facilitated by volunteers in the community. There is no need to register. Just show up! To contribute to forum discussions you will need to create an account on the SCoPE site -- a quick process.

Direct link to Blogging in Professional Networks seminar:
http://urls.bccampus.ca/ssproblog

Wordpress Multi-User

Ever dream of running hundreds of thousands of blogs with a single install of WordPress? WordPress MU, or multi-user, is designed to do exactly that.

Several post-secondary institutions in British Columbia are using WordPress MU -- UBC, UNBC, Langara, Camosun... (I've missed some, I'm sure.) What's interesting is to see WordPress MU being used for for variety of purposes. We think of it as blogging software, but in fact it is a very flexible content management system (CMS) and is being used at these institutions for developing professional e-portfolios (see UBC's Faculty of Education e-portfolios for teacher candidates), maintaining department websites (see Langara's iweb), and managing course content and discussions. In fact Clint Lalonde from Camusun has begun to document the process of piloting WordPress MU at Camosun College, and he offers this advice about referring to WordPress MU as a blogging tool:

I’ve avoided using the word blog when I refer to these sites. I’ve found that the term blog carries with it preconceived notions, both good and bad. So, in order to avoid the whole “I don’t want a blog, I want a website” circular logic wheel that I have witnessed when people talk about WP as a CMS, I have been using the term website when talking about our pilot sites.

How to make a quick blog post

At Sylvia Currie's request (see the comments attached to her recent blog post, below), I've made a short slideshow tutorial on how you can QUICKLY and EASILY create a blog post here (or in any blogger.com blog).

Sorry, I couldn't get the slideshow embedded in this post. I guess blogger.com doesn't display flash (.swf) files. So...

Please click here to view the short tutorial.

If you have questions, post them to the comments box.

Learning in Hand - About Handhelds in Education

A blog & website by Tony Vincent.

"...an educator's resource for using some of the coolest technologies with students. ...Tony has documented much of what he knows about handheld computing and podcasting...you'll find useful software collections, the best webs links for handhelds, complete lesson plans, and an informative blog. ...Described by Edutopia magazine as a "tireless evangelist for the power of handhelds," Tony's specialty is creatively using handhelds for engaging activities. ...Tony is a teacher who wants to make education effective, relevant, and fun. He knows handhelds are small computers that can make a big difference in classrooms! He hopes Learning in Hand inspires and motivates teachers to use technology that students crave."

Free Technology for Teachers

A blog that you might want to subscribe to in your feed reader. "A review of free technology resources and how teachers can use them. Ideas for technology integration in education." Winner of the EduBlog awards in 2008. I was linked to the site for a specific article and ended up staying quite a while because there were so many interesting (and helpful) topics, esp. those in the "top rated posts" column.

Effective Use of Social Software to Support Student Learning and Engagement

A report of a study done in the UK.

"This study provides insights about the: educational goals of using social software tools; enablers or drivers within the institution, or from external sources which positively influence the adoption of social software; benefits to the students, educators and institutions; challenges that may influence a social software initiative; and issues that need to be considered in a social software initiative. ...Our investigations have shown that social software tools support a variety of ways of learning. ...The educator’s role is changing from being a provider of information to a facilitator or moderator, which raises training needs, workload issues, and adjusting to a ‘new’ way of teaching."

[the bold is my emphasis]

New on this page: Following + subscribe

I've just added a couple new things to my side panel: A Followers box and a new Subscribe link to replace the atom-feed link I had before. Both of these should make it SUPER-EASY for you to subscribe and keep track of What's New in PinkFlamingo's Resource Lists!

What's "Following"?

If you use Google Reader: After you click Follow, you'll see a folder in Reader called "Blogs I’m Following".

If you have a blogger.com site, you'll see the sites you follow in your dashboard.

More details in Blogger Help.

You can choose to follow anonymously (so your profile pic won't show up in my Followers box) or publicly. (Of course, I'd enjoy the public option, especially if I get a lot of Followers to show off here. ;)

Second Life in Education

SLED - Second Life Educators Mail List: Recommended by colleagues who are already active SL Educators. I hear it's a very active discussion list. Good place to start learning and getting some ideas from those in the field who are actively using SL for various education purposes. NOTE: The signup page I'm linking to isn't just for signing up. It also has some links to more resources and sites.

SLED Blog (K-20 Education Using The Second Life World): "This blog is written by educators and for educators, for those who are seasoned Second Life veterans and for those just starting out, for those who are die-hards and those who are skeptics. All are welcome. We hope you’ll read, enjoy, and comment on what you see."

WebAIM: Resources

WebAIM = Web Accessibility In Mind

A rich list of resources under the headings Popular Resources, Tools, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Simulations. The sidepanel has a Getting Started "Introduction to Web Accessibility", plus Community links as well as links to the most recent articles on their blog.

Posterous

Posterous - "The place to post everything. Just email us. Dead simple blog by email."

This is so fun! Instantly post anything on the web by sending an email. Attach files (many types, including .pdf, .html, .doc, .txt, image, video, mp3s) and that content will be embedded in your post. No need for membership, login, or anything! Just send an email and voila. The resulting post page has your own instant URL and lots of common blog features: the entry is dated, comments, subscription, tags, download links for the files you attached to your email, and more.

Here's a link to my own "prePosterous" first attempt, a quick email with attachments of a few file types. (I then signed up and created my own URL, but you do NOT have to do that!)

Have you heard about Google Lively yet?

My title's link is to Google's site at lively.com. What's Google Lively? George Siemens said, "A quick initial reaction: it’s Second Life distributed." Google says it's "a chat experience in which you can communicate and express yourself using avatars in your very own space. Choose an avatar and use it to make friends and chat. Create rooms, decorate them to your liking, and make sure to invite your friends over."

Google Lively is a 3D Virtual environment released July 8/08. You construct your own rooms, avatars, and furniture, etc. right in your browser window on your own website or blog rather than having to go to a specific 'game' site. As Tech Crunch said, "Well, this sucks for Second Life."

Here's an introductory video, then you can decide whether you want to link via my title.

List of 20 Education Blogs

Greg Ritter's Blog Habit post in educate/innovate explains: "I've decided to share a list of some of the educational technology blogs that make up part of my daily fix. What follows, in no particular order, are twenty of the best education blogs as judged by . . . well, me. It's a totally subjective list and it's by no means exhaustive, but all of these authors post regularly and all of them have introduced me to great new ideas at one point or another. But if you should get hooked yourself, you can't say I didn't warn you. ;-)"