How To: RSS Reader: Keeping Track of Your Colleague's Blogs and Other Websites, Too!

The best way for you to keep up with postings on the various blogs of your classmates would be to register and use Google Reader, which is an RSS feed reader. You don't need to know what the heck this means to use it though. I've typed "Google Reader" as a hyperlink to get you started. If you already have a Gmail account (not the VCCS watered down version), you'll already have a feed reader account. There are other readers available, such as one through Yahoo! mail.

Basically, an RSS feed reader allows users to feed updates from various web sources onto a single page. Let's say you enjoy skimming through six different blogs a week, but sometimes forget one or another. Now you'll be able to see all updates on a single page by using one of these readers.

How do you know when you can add a page to your RSS feed reader? Simply look for something like this and click on it:



Image um..."borrowed" from these folks.

The Sketchbook Project

Want your artwork work in a museum?

Click here.

American Library Association's Banned Books Week - Extra Credit

September 26−October 3, 2009

Click here for more information.


For some videos related to Banned Books Week, click on the following links:

100 Banned Books (2008)

Banned Books Week: Puppet Book Banners


Extra Credit: For 10 points extra credit choose a banned book, read it, and write and post a 500 or more-word response to why you think this book was banned (think historical, cultural, etc. context) and why you believe it should not be banned.

Blog your response and email me the link to that specific response by 1 December 2009.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Hispanic Heritage Month

This month is Hispanic Heritage Month!

Your next Extra Credit Opportunity for 10 points is this:

On Thursday September 24th in the Pungo Auditorium at 12:30 pm is "Praising Our Hispanic American Cultural Patchwork" presentation by Dr. Gabriela Christie Toletti.

Attend this event and then create a new blog post and write 300-500 words on your reaction and response to Dr. Toletti's presentation. Do not summarize, but think and react to what she's presented. Again, do not summarize. Respond. I want your beautiful thoughts!

Blog your response and email me the link to that specific response by 15 October 2009.

Learn more about how TCC is celebrating on this page where I got the image.

How To: How do you know if you've received a comment on your blog?

To set up email notification to inform you that you've received a comment on your blog, you'll want to go to "settings" and then "comments" and scroll down until you see "Comment Notification Email", which is where you shall enter whatever email address you use frequently.

As I assess your work on your blogs I will likely leave some sort of comment for most of you, as time permits.

Still Blogging?

To my students past and present,

If you continue blogging past the end of the semester I encourage you to email me or post a comment on this post to let me know.

If you create any new blogs (not used for English 111 or 112) please let me know and I can include an additional links list for future students, as well as for myself, because even if you've finished my course, I'm still interested in your writing and how you express yourself.

How To: Adding Images, Adding Links, and Citing Images

I've recently had multiple students asking how to add images and links and how to cite images, so here is some quick "how to" information:

To add images: If you're not using an image you own, I suggest going to Google.com and click on "images." Once you've done this, type in some keyword(s) of what you want to search. Peruse the images and once you've found one you like, click on it, and then press "See full size image." Then copy that URL (web address).

Now you can go back to your post, put the cursor where you want the image and then click on the little blue picture frame in the toolbar and once that new window pops up, paste in the image URL into the white box that says...URL! Then read and accept Terms of Service, check it off, and click upload and your image should appear. Make sure to give credit to the author or source of the image. Plagiarism is not acceptable.

To add a (hyper) link: After you've written your post and saved it, you should highlight whichever word(s) you want to act as a doorway to your hyperlink. Then click on the little image of the chain link over the globe and paste in the URL (web address) of the site you want to link to, like I'm doing here for TCC's site.

To add links lists: From the dashboard you can click on "layout" and then click on "add gadget" and then click on "link list." Then you can title it something like, "Favorite Web Pages" and add those links.


To cite your images: When you have the post open, you click on that little chain over the globe image and then add the address of the image you are citing, unless you are the author of the image, then you can simply cite yourself with a parenthetical citation crediting yourself. The same idea of an MLA parenthetical citation applies to any images you do not have the actual web address for. Please note that the link to the image source does not comply with MLA standards, but is acceptable for this assignment.


Additionally, you can do a Google search for this same information in case mine does not make enough sense (which my lessons don't from time to time...) or you can try Dummy's Guide to Blogger.


Students should email me with any further questions. Do not post any comments with questions in them as you will probably not receive an answer until the semester is long over. Questions are what email is for.

Students, what should I write about here?

I'm aware that some of you actually read what I've posted here, yet I don't post very often these days.

Part of me wonders, what is it my audience wants? Well? What do you want? Do you want to know more details about my policies as an instructor? My experiences with teaching? What I'd like to do in my classes if given free reign? Experiences as a student? What I think of the higher education system?

Please comment. Give me ideas. Write me a prompt. Help me satisfy your brains.

Mmm. College brains. So syrupy.

Blog Posting #6: The Future

Hey Class,

All your grades will be posted by tomorrow at midnight. Exciting, right?

For those of you who are sticking with the "college experience" over the next three or four years, or however long it takes, I hope by the end you'll come to appreciate 105 by then if you don't already.

For those of you who've decided this semester was enough with institutionalized schooling, there's a lot education out in the world in what you choose to do and how you live. Schooling is not always necessary, but for many of us, it opens doors to opportunities we unfortunately might not otherwise have. Whether in school or outside of it, I hope the writing, speaking, and other skills you've either learned or enhanced will allow you more opportunities in life, or better results for the opportunities you have.

Anyhow, if anyone needs to contact me in the future about whatever, you know how to find me. Want me to recommend to books, movies, places to look for research for school or entertainment, feel free to get in touch. Should this blog be deleted, there's plenty of ways to find me if you're smart enough.

Thank to all for a great semester,
Paul

Blog Posting #5: Why are you using the scramblers?

This entry is more like a letter to my class rather than a blog entry where I rant about this or that. Well, it's both of these things, actually.

All 18 of my student's blogs are private blogs that the general public cannot access. Only invited classmates and the instructor, and perhaps some friends, can view these blogs. Yet some of you use the "word verification" option regarding people leaving comments. As Dawn Armfield mentioned, word verification can make it very difficult for learning impaired readers to leave comments. Now, as impaired as some claim I am, I don't believe I'm to the point where my ability to read has been affected, but even I cannot make out the letters on the word verification scrambler. Whoever came up with this ideas for word verification had a good idea, expect some of the actual "codes" that readers are supposed to decipher are impossible to read. It took me till the third try to leave a comment for one of you. Three times may be a charm, but I'm you're instructor, not some internet stalker. I was about to leave another comment, but was discouraged by the thought of facing the eye scrambling torturous word verification monster again.

But to get back to the point, this is really a logic thing. You know, related to that word we all love, logos. Well, if only your classmates and I can leave comments, why enable word verification?

Apparently I need to incorporate more lessons about that sense that is supposed to be common.

-Paul