January 19, 2015
This week, we’ll look at some blogs, see what parts are what, then delve in with you getting your own blog up and running.
Monday: Martin Luther King Day and, as it happens, Professional Development Day for teachers.
Tuesday-Wednesday: Blog introduction, we will look at a few examples and where to find what on the WordPress site. If you are behind on your TED reflection, it is up to you to complete it outside of class. You may use this lab before school, lunch or after school or you may complete it at home.
Discuss posting and commenting, Home page and About page and their type of content. There may be time to explore WordPress sites for ideas.
Thursday: Begin creating blogs, tackling minor tech problems and learning things as we go. You’ll have a handout for steps, but instructions are also under the Projects tab of the DigiComm site, too. Set up username, password, blog name; choose theme, write tagline, explore widgets.
Friday: Continue working on blogs. Changes to theme, tagline and widgets can be made later. Draft introductory post on home page, bio information for About page in Google docs, share for feedback, revise. Post intro content to Home page as posts –> add. Post bio content by going to About page and edit page. About is a static page. You have to edit its content to change it.
Finally, post the TED video reflection as a new post to the Home page, along with a link to the video (or, posting from home where YouTube isn’t blocked, you can embed the video where the frame shows in your post).
You’ll find a Tech Use Survey in the DigiComm Shared Google Drive folder. Please complete it sometime this week to help me in planning for this semester’s class.
Underlined items are items for the gradebook. Standards are listed under the Standards tab on the DigiComm Home page.
The TED video reflection will be graded on Speaking & Listening standards 10.3, 10.4 & 10.5, regarding analyzing Svitak’s speech and presenting your speech. The written part of the assignment will be graded on Writing standards 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, & 10.6.
Creating a blog will be graded on ISTE Communication & Collaboration standards 2.a & 2.b as well as Tech Operations & Concepts standards 6.a, 6.b, 6.c & 6.d.
Since each of these assignments, the TED reflection and creating a blog, is graded on two standards, they will each receive two grades, resulting in four, total. We will discuss my standards-based grading system next week. Until then, explore the Standards tab as it relates to each assignment.