flairandsquare.com

I am finding that more and mopre people are using Web 2.0 tools to collaborate. Tools like blogs and wikis are used to share knowledge and experiences and more people are using rss feeds to keep on top of everything. So I thought, I’d better give this a go!

So where to start?

Sites like pbwiki and blogger are a great place to start, but edublogs seems to have more features and add-ons. There are many teachers successfully using these tools in the classroom to upload/point to resources and engage students through collaborative discussion, resource sharing and to monitor and engage in student work.

Use of online tools, like Facebook, Flickr, del.icio.us and Lastfm are increasing in people’s day-to-day life. These tools are used to network with others, in order to learn, knowledge share and collaborate with like minded people, to keep in touch with faimly and friends easily, without having to be a web designer or programmer.

The demand for easier, efficient and more flexible ways of teaching and learning is rising. Interest in web-based learning and exploring new technology for more engaging delivery is increasing as the much discussed generation gap becomes more of an issue as Gen Y hit the workplace.

So, I made this blog to share my journey of discovery, research and findings with friends and colleagues. Since I’ve started many of them have also created their own blogs and wiki’s, started Facebook groups, uploaded images to sites like Flickr and much more.

How I Made this Blog….

I tried setting up with blogger, but I didn’t get the flexibility I was after. I wasn’t going to learn enough myself.

So I visited one of my favourite blogs to see how it was made. Veerle’s Blog is Powered by some blogging software called Expression Engine. It looked great, so I downloaded the software and read the instructions. It involved setting up an MySQL Database and configuring some php pages. Although I’ve worked with this type of technology before, I really didn’t have time to revisit it.

So I went hunting for a more simple option. I already have a web space (web hosting) and wanted to use my own domain name (flairandsquare.com) and download additional plug-ins and themes to use with my blog (because I’m a nerd).

The solution…

This is when I found Wordpress. You can sign up with Wordpress and get your own blog, with many themes and customisation readily available.

BUT, Wordpress actually offers to install everything to your web space for you for free - Install4Free (very handy). I provided them with my hosting details and within a day, it was all ready to go.

BlueHost is a great service if you want your own space. They’ll also help you with the set-up.

Note: once it has been installed, you’ll need to delete your old default page from your web space.

Once it’s all set-up, you need to log in to your new blog (with the provided details) and you are then free to explore the features of your own wordpress blog.

The first thing I did was choose a theme for my site. I chose the iTheme initially, which I downloaded after searching for free Wordpress themes (here are some good sites for them). It’s very cool (looks like a Mac desktop and you can click and drag the boxes in the sidebar on the right around), it took some configuring, but the simplicity that resulted was worth it I think. I’ve now moved on to a more complex theme as my knowledge of coding and blogging and RSS has increased and I wanted a more ‘magazine style’ layout.

The free WordPress Blog has many themes and plug-ins already set-up for you to use. WordPress is also the power behind edublogs, which I highly recommend for flexibility, creativity, choice of themes and plug-ins.

Things I’ve Learnt

• Make sure you choose a theme and set-up your plug-ins before adding content.
• Back your site up regularly while you’re building it (if you are using wordpress on your own server, otherwise, you don’t need to worry about this part)
• Create lots of profiles in all the social networking sites (listed below) and list your site in as many places, or on as many sites as you can. This will improve your blog rating and ranking in Google, as will visiting other blogs and leaving comments.
• Don’t do it yourself when there are so many good free options for educators out there that offer everything you will need.
• Explore, try, fail. Explore. Try something else.