Mary’s Blog

1. This semester I had learned a lot of things. I had learned how to use wordpress on edublogs. I had also learned how to add text only and audio only onto a site to make it easier for people to view the site. Also, I had learned about widgets and how to add them to my blog so information can be seen. I had learned the difference between external and internal widgets. External widgets are widgets that are found and added to the blog that are not available on the site in the design section. Internal widgets are the widgets that are available on the site and not the ones that you find from other sites to add. 

Two skills I believe I have learned and demonstrated this semester is that I learned how to add information to a blog through the widgets and I had learned how to add different things, like pictures, to my site. Some widgets that I had used were the text widget, the recent post, search, archieves, and email subscription. The text widget was used when I needed to add a code to get a picture up. The recent post was used for whenever I had posted something new and if someone wanted to read it, all they had to do was click on the name of the post. The search was used to make it easier to search for posts and pages, instead of looking through everything for one post. The archieves is a list of the past posts I had written. The email subscription was added so people can subscribe to my blog and get an email whenever I write a new post or page and they can be one of the first ones to know about it.

The other skill was adding pictures to my site. This was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. All I had to do was get the picture that I had wanted, and either get the site address or the code for the picture. Then, I had to get another text box widget and make sure I had a saved it before adding the information. After saving the new text box widget, I had to click edit and give it a name. Then, I had added either the code or the site address. After adding this information and making sure I had saved it, I had gone onto the site, just to make sure it was there. When I had gotten to the main site and the page I had added the picture to, it was there and that was the first time I had ever added a picture to my site. Now, I know how to do it and it wasn’t even that hard either.

I think I will continue to use these skills after completing this class, but probably making another blog, one just for fun. Then, I will hopefully remember how to do all this and be able to add more graphics other than just pictures to my site, to make it more interesting and making people want to come back to it. I think I will also continue to use these skills, plus the others I have achieved throughout this semester by being able to use the computer better than I am now and being able to complete projects better than now as well.

2. One project that I am proud of would have to be my technology autobiogrpahy. It had taken me a little while to get this done, just because I had kept running into problems while trying to complete it. The main problem was whenever I had tried to record myself talking and I would mess up a word or two and then have to start all over again. Eventually it had gotten annoying, but I had still managed to finish the project. Another problem was when nothing would go right. The pictures wouldn’t stay added or my talking wouldn’t line up with the pictures and when I would try to fix that, it would just get messed up again. I still managed to finish though and now my technology autobiography is on my site and another site as well called learningspiraltv.com

3. For the most part, I had enjoyed this class. I had enjoyed using the computer and learning how to do new things on here as well. I had also enjoyed learning how to use new sites and how to add graphics and other things on sites, as well as blogs. The projects were ok, I had enjoyed doing the projects of the advisor’s site and my technology autobiography, as they were very easy to complete. Even though at some points, I had wished the class could have been a little more fun, I did enjoy this class and I did have a good time.

My thoughts on having audio versions of my posts downloaded and subscribed to through i-tunes is that I think it is a good idea. In my opinion, I think it will work out and people will download it to see what I have to say and my opinion on certain topics that are brought up. Also, I think it would be easier to see what I have to say this way, rather than sitting there waiting for the main page of my blog to load, and then waiting for the reflection and/or other posts to load and then commenting on them. To me, this seems like it takes to long just to make a two sentence comment to the post and the audio for the downloaded version seems like it might work out much better.

Working with the tables worked out very well. Now, when someone goes onto my blog and they see the table, the link can easily take them to other work that I was part of, including the power point tutorial.

My thoughts on the process of making the table was that it easier than it had seemed to be and adding information in was very easy as well. At first when reading the instructions, it seemed like it was going to be hard to make it, but when it was all done, I realized just how easy it was.

It was an instant success as all we had to do was go onto the site and copy the needed code. Then, paste the code in the box on the blog and the table was there. Adding the information too was an instant success as all we had to do was delete the information already there and just add our own information. I think this had to be the easiest thing we have added to our blogs so far.

What went well during this process was that I had managed to find an advisor to work with that given all the information that was needed and other information on top of that that was added to the site to try and make it better. What had not gone so well was that I had started later than everyone else just because I had to change the advisor I was working with a couple of times. A couple of suggestions for next year would be to give a little more time for students to work on the project to insure that the students get their work done on time, with all or almost all of the information added that is supposed to be there.

The sections that I believe I am the most proud of are the home page and the About Spanish Class page. They both provide enough information on the page and the needed information for students.
The home page, Bienvendios, greets the students that come onto the page. it is written in both spanish and english for the student. There are also two pictures on the page. The first one is a little joke comic picture. It is at the top of the page, kind of like to welcome the students with a little laugh. The second picture is under all the text. It is a picture of the spanish flag.

The next page would be the About Spanish Class page. There is more than enough information on the page to tell the students about the class. It talks about everything from homework, to arriving on time, to the rules of the class. There is also a picture at the top of the page. It shows the spanish culture, with everything from food to dancing and there are 16 small pictures put into one picture and it shows the whole spanish culture.

This week I accomplished adding content to two of the three pages added to my advisor’s site. Also, I had changed one of the pages and had made it into a category and added information onto that as well.

Make sure you look at the page About Your Spanish Class, as there is finally information added onto the page. There is quite a bit of information added on and it is very informative. Also, make sure you look at the category Spanish Opportunities as there is information added there as well.

Next, I plan on hopefully finishing up the site and being done with it, with all the needed content and also helpful content that will help the students for next year.

I have completed adding most of the needed content to the page, as well as adding content to all 5 pages on my advisor’s page. I am now trying to finish the site with all the needed information so I can be done with it.

The change to Wordpress, I think was a good one, but also kind of a bad one. It’s a good one just because, it looks much better than the old Wordpress. It seems to have a different kind of feel to it when you first get onto the page.

But, I also think it was a bad change, just because I had gotten so used to where everything was on the old Wordpress that nothing now is where it was. I have to learn where everything is all over again. Also, it was kind of confusing at first with the change because when I first got onto my page, I didnt know where certain things where that I had needed. I just hope I can learn everything I need to of where everything is in the time I have left to work on my blog.