Assessment 3

Here are some things I want you to think about when you are creating your blog, or ammending it as you should already have it up and running by now.

First of all make sure that your target readership and purpose is defined clearly on the sheet provided.

Did you use the blog creation tools efficiently?

Did you use the blog creation tools effectively?

Is the design of your blog consistent with the target readership?

Is the design of your blog consistent with it's purpose?

Are the blog contents kept up to date?

Are the contents of the blog relevant to it's target audience? (do you stray off topic?)

Does your blog serve as an effective information tool?

Does your blog have a significant amount of posts?

Does your blog contain a veriety of media? (Text, Graphics, Video, Audio, Links)

Assessment Schedule

I think it is time to get the assessments organised, even thought the SQA still have not given me a final draft of the assessments.

Next week (13/11/08) you will be doing Outcome 1, which involves finding and reviewing different types of blogs. I know you have done this before but that was just practice.

The following week (20/11/08) I will be getting the paperwork for Outcome 2 done and dusted.

This leaves only Outcome 3 and the restricted response exam paper to do. The exam will be done after the Christmas holidays and I should have theory notes for you by then on the topics you should know. I will let you know next week or so when I decide to give you Outcame 3.

In the mean time continue to update to your own blog, comment on others (not sure you have been doing that really) and make your blogs look good using whatever techniques your little hearts desire.

Outcome 2

It is now time to get the ball rolling on doing the outcomes.

Outcome 2
Create a blog to perform a specific information task.

For this outcome I require you to think of a suitable topic to create a blog about if you have not done so already, design and create the blog and keep it up to date until the last week (ish).

What I require from your blog is a significant number of posts using a veriety of different media. I will have an assessment sheet for you at the start of the class with more detail on it but i would advise you to get your thinking caps on now and get a good broad topic to cover.

If you have trouble then I will help you. If you take the mick then I will pick a subject for you and trust me when I say you will probably hate it.

Today's Task

What I would like you to do for me today is:

"Discuss the features which characterise high-quality blogs, for example: usability;
navigation; structure; connectedness presentation. Usability covers areas like ease of navigation, ease
of finding information, visual appeal and ability to recover from errors. Navigation includes
backtracking, timeline navigation, search facilities and threading. Structure includes concepts such as
linear and hierarchical structures, timelines and semantic blogging. Connectedness is concerned with
links, particularly top other blogs and newsfeeds, but also to the Web in general. Presentation covers
the visual and typographical aspects of blogs."

For each of the points mentioned describe what these sites do well and what they don't. Simple.

Create a new word document and write your findings there. Remember to state the name, url and what the blog is about.

Blogs

http://www.johnmayer.com/Blog
http://www.empireonline.com/empireblog/
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/
http://www.needcoffee.com/
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/

Almost Forgot

Sitting this morning watching the Rangers Leeds game from 1992 it dawned on me that I forgot to tell you, my lovely students what, you will be doing with your class time. The answer is...NOTHING! GO HOME! I AM SICK OF THE SIGHT OF YOU!



Only joking. What I plan on getting you to do is look at 5 blogs of varying topics that I will choose for you and you are going to review them. Looking at these blogs will give you an idea how to structure your own because i still think a few are struggling to get to grips with what it is i am asking of you. If you still don't get it...ask.

The blogs I wish you to review will be posted on here later so check back later.

Also I will be looking into the whole customisation of the blog as well so you can make it look all pretty if your little heart desires it.

Questions?

Feel free to ask any questions about this class on here. If your shy or think it is a stupid question just come to me.

This week I will be mostly teaching...

...you lot!

Thursday has rolled round once more and your wonderful blogs class is about to begin (or has begun, depending on when your reading this). I am hoping to secure a room for the entire class time but if not it will hopefully be the same as last time in that we can head round to 312 ofter lunch.

I am hoping to introduce some sort of structure to the class in that the first part of it will be for you to add to your blog, read this fantastic one and catch up on any blogs you are tracking. The second part is where I will teach you new and wonderful things from the world of weblogs.

What I will have for you today is some stuff on the bloggers code of conduct and i will see about teaching you to use the buttons you see at the top of the window when you are writing to your own blog.

Notes should be available in the next couple of weeks.

Welcome

Welcome class to the first post on this fabulous new blog. Over the course of the next 17 or so weeks you will learn all about blogs and their uses, types of blogs, technology relating to blogs and so on. I do apologise for the poor first lesson with myself but it couldn't be helped. As time progresses i will have material that you will be able to access online edtailing what I have already taught and maybe some further reading. Using this blog I hope to tell you what you wil be doing and you could use it to catch up on what you may have missed. Comments and questions (if this supports it) can be posted on here to me if you so wish.