Week Roadmap
to do list
  1. Read about blogging
  2. Learn about RSS
  3. Try Bloglines (optional)
  4. Read all new discussion posts
  5. Complete the course evaluation
The Details
opening

Only two weeks left! Hard to believe, isn't it. I hope you've had a great semester. I've certainly been very pleased with your work.

Fun

Here's an incredible collection of photos of mountain scenery from the Southwestern United States. The photos are 360 degree panoramas. You will need the free QuickTime player installed. Here's a partial panorama of the Grand Canyon, north rim.

Blogs

Weblogs, or "blogs" are an interesting web phenomenon, about which you must be conversant. To understand what blogs are and how they work, read this article (PDF) I wrote with David Wiley from Utah State University. David is an expert on learning objects and social software.

Spend a few minutes at this site, and choose one or two articles to read. Also, try at least one of the tools.

RSS

RSS (really simple syndication) is a very important new technology for distributing information. You should be very familiar with RSS. To begin, read these RSS articles.

Try a Bloglines Account (Optional)

An aggregator (also known as a news reader or RSS reader) is a software program that collects news (RSS feeds) from all kinds of web sites. If you want to try this, go to bloglines.com and sign up for a free account. You may find some sites with RSS feeds that interest you. Note: don't get too concerned if you can't get it to work. This is an optional activity. It is more of an experiment to expose you to the next big thing on the Internet, which is RSS. If you aren't using RSS yet, you will be soon. So sit back, relax, and give bloglines a try.

I use a blog to post news about my work and about the field of IDT. The blog is called Teachable Moment. I will post some commentary here from time to time. Using Bloglines, subscribe to my blog by using this subscription link. (Note, this link will look like a bunch of jumbled text in your browser because it is not HTML. It is an RSS feed that you plug into your aggregator). If you don't understand what I'm talking about here, please read the RSS articles.

Here is my complete set of bookmarks from Delicious. Another neat feature of Delicious is that each tag or combination of tags has it's own RSS feed. So for example, if you want to see what I'm bookmarking as important or interesting, put this RSS feed into your aggregator.

More Blogging Resources

  • Wordpress : free blogging software. You must host it yourself. It's what I use for teachable.org
  • Edublogs : free blogs, quick and easy. Hosted by James Farmer.
  • blogger.com : free blogs, quick and easy. Owned by Google.

Complete Course Evaluation

Please take a few minutes to complete the official Course Evaluation. Some time this week you will receive an email with instructions on how to do this. Please do complete this online form, and I appreciate your feedback.
Get to
Know Me
get to know me

We had a really nice Thanksgiving holiday, at home. We invited a family to spend the day with us, and we just enjoyed being together. I certainly have much to be thankful for. I hope you had a wonderful holiday.

Final Word
final word

I encourage you to continue to interact with your fellow students. Having a good network of colleagues is one of the benefits of being part of a profession.

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions or need help. I'm not too busy to help you, and I enjoy talking with you. Have a great week!