apcampbell

We began the class discussing the Week 1 readings.  Emphasized was the importance of having a ‘voice’ present on the weblog.  Visiting a weblog without a voice is like visiting someone’s house when he or she isn’t home.  You can look at photos on the wall and magazines on the coffee table, but how much longer will you keep coming back to an empty house?  Blood’s 10 tips for a Better Weblog was reviewed.  We also took a look at Wrede’s diagram* to help us conceptualize the process of creating a personal learning community.

We then discussed and critiqued each learner’s ideas for how his or her interactive website will be used this semester.  In the process, we examined the main features of Manila and discovered how they could be used to accomplish each goal.  We also looked at solving a common problem with Manila: copying from Word and pasting into the text window causes many errors in the published text.  One possible solution is to paste from Word into notepad and then into the window.  This usually helps in diminishing the errors, but doesn’t eradicate them completely.  Any ideas on this?

Finally, we ended class agreeing to post our formalized learning plans for each weblog on the about page.  Bloggers will begin constructing  the content and cosmetics of their site and begin posting comments on the sites of others.  The idea is to first become familiar with the software and develop consistent habits of posting and commenting with one another before attempting to build a learning community outside of the institution.  A ship must be well built before heading out on the high seas.

*Update:  Wrede’s diagram seems to have either been directly inspired by Lilia Efimova’s research on knowledge worker spaces, or it is indeed hers.  This is unclear to me.  Thanks for pointing that out James!