How weather affects blogging

One would think that blogging would be independent of weather, much like newspaper and mail delivery. However, when weather closes airports and floods roads and basements, blogging suffers, probably because bloggers are sandbagging or debating options for the next flight home. I hope all of you and your favorite people are safe and dry. We are but there have been distractions.

I received an email with a blog blog that I am forwarding not so much for you to read in detail but so that you can see another use of blogging.

http://wcetblog.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/forging-the-future-how-much-affordability-can-higher-education-afford/

More from me after this morning's class.

Blackout by Wikipedia and others

I don't frequent Wikipedia but it does offer some quick information from time to time, such as the population of Tanzania. Today I visited the site to learn more about the blackout. Legislation is always hard to understand and this is no exception. I suspect I could find ways to argue both sides of this issue but it seems as if this may be an ill-constructed piece legislation missing the mark and causing more chaos then order.

I did submitted a letter to our representative suggesting that education, what we're trying to do here at WOU, is more important than regulation. Take a look. Today only. What do you think?

Subscribing with RSS and Atom

Some of you have been trying out the email subscriptions and similar features. Most of us can activate a subscription by clicking on "Scribe to: Post (Atom)" which should sets up something in you email or aggregator that notifies you when a new blog entry is posted. I use that to monitor your blogs.

There are also options where readers can enter their email addresses, or you can enter it for them, and they receive an email when there's a new entry. Typically the recipient has to approve the option before the emails are received.

Below are a couple links that talk about using subscriptions and RSS's.

http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/howtoreadsitefeeds.shtml

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/04/rss-10-rss-20-or-atom-how-do-you.html

Subscribing with RSS and Atom

Some of you have been trying out the email subscriptions and similar features. Most of us can activate a subscription by clicking on "Scribe to: Post (Atom)" which should sets up something in you email or aggregator that notifies you when a new blog entry is posted. I use that to monitor your blogs.

There are also options where readers can enter their email addresses, or you can enter it for them, and they receive an email when there's a new entry. Typically the recipient has to approve the option before the emails are received.

Below are a couple links that talk about using subscriptions and RSS's.

http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/howtoreadsitefeeds.shtml

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/04/rss-10-rss-20-or-atom-how-do-you.html

Gadgets and tags

This is the week of gadgets. Think of it as an adult playing with children's toys not only for the joy of playing with the toys to to better understand how the toy works and why it brings joy to the child.

I'd like to see a blog list on each site with a link to my blog at least; so I can link back to my blog easily after reading yours. Also consider including links to your classmates' blogs. Also consider linking to other related blogs which may be a separate gadget for organization sake.

I see some calendars, with advertising no less, and some news feeds. A list of favorite websites may be a gadget option.

Consider adding tags to your postings so you can categorize or organize them. Have you wondered what the facebook, twitter, and other popular icons are on some blog pages? How would you use them?

Reading other Blogs

The first advice for writing a good blog is reading other blogs. I hope that you are indulging your instructor and reading his daily, or at least every other day. I hope also that you are reading your classmates' blogs. They are offering some great insights into blogging. I just read the reviews from Elizabeth ( ealligood11.blogspot.com ), also linked on the left of this blog as "Elizabeth's blogging world."

Thus ends Week One and Begins Week Two

It's been a great morning reading blogs and stretching, not too far, my creative juices to comment on some of them.

So the picture is forming. We've met most of our classmates, we've checked what others are doing with blogs, we've exchanged some ideas and reflections, we've gone beyond the "this is my first blog." We're ready to dig deeper into this media and technology.

That's the challenge for the next several days. When you're logged into your blog (in blogger.com) select Design and add some gadgets. You have opportunities to create links to other blogs and I would strongly recommend links to all your classmates or more easily a link to my blog which has links to the blogs of all the responding classmates. Yes, I'm still missing a couple responses.

Explore the gadgets. Try different ones. What do they do? How can they help me? How can I manage my students, my peers, my interests and my life better using some of these gadgets? Are you using "tags?" How could they simplify my complex interesting life (meaning your life is interesting, not mine)?

Enjoy you weekend. I'm about to shift gears and go bake chocolate chip cookies and clean the house for our Chinese guests these next three weeks.