Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

From last week: Twitter, Depot webcast recordings, blog survey results, bandwidth, and online collaboration tools

It’s Monday again–hope you had a good weekend. Here’s what you may have missed on our blog last week:

On Tuesday I continued my series on budget and time-conscious social networking with a piece on how we use Twitter at Stratepedia.

Also on Tuesday, Amber shared links to the recorded versions of our Depot webcasts from a few weeks ago. Amber’s session is the shorter one, if you’re in a hurry.

On Wednesday, Amber provided some results from her blog content survey from the week before. Amber and I have discussed the results and have some ideas about how to give you more of the content you’re interested in reading–watch for some teacher success stories and interviews in the coming weeks. I have some followup questions I may ask down the road, so I hope you’re not tired of answering survey questions yet.

On Thursday, Amber posted some methods you can use to test your Internet connections speed, otherwise known as bandwidth.

Later on Thursday I posted an important update to our terms of service for the Learning Labs–specifically, we won’t be creating new groups on the Learning Labs effective immediately. Sorry for the inconvenience.

But don’t worry–on Friday I offered five tools to use to collaborate online. This list is by no means exhaustive, and we’ll share more as we learn about them.

Lots of good web links were shared over the course of the week, too.

By Aaron | March 1st, 2010 |

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How we manage a social media presence on a shoestring, part 2: Keeping the audience connected

Last week, I began a series of posts about making your social media presence manageable, with a series of tips to help you make blogging a more manageable process. Now that we’ve written content, though, and are trying to build an audience, how do we keep them connected and let them know when we’ve got new material for them to read (or listen to or view, if you’re podcasting)?

If our blog is the core of our social media presence, then RSS is the technology that glues it to other services. RSS is typically recognized as an acronym for “Really Simple Syndication,” though I prefer to think of it as “Ready for Some Stories”. Simply put, RSS makes it easy for a reader to keep up-to-date when new content is posted to a blog, newspaper, or other site providing an RSS feed. Instead of you going to each site to see if it’s got something new to read, new content comes to you. We thus provide an RSS feed of our content, so people using a tool like Google Reader, NetNewsWire, or NewsGator can access our news stream anytime.

However, RSS adoption rates vary. Depending on whom your blog’s audience is, you may find that very few of your readers use an RSS reader (or even understand what RSS is). It’s important to make your information available to people via a variety of channels, as opposed to forcing them to adopt specific technologies to access and use your content.

Let’s start with e-mail. We provide a daily e-mail version of the previous day’s blog posts. It’s opt-in, and people can unsubscribe at any time. We use a free service from Google called FeedBurner to handle this. Essentially, FeedBurner listens to our blog’s RSS feed and collects information for each daily e-mail. No new blog posts for the day? Then no e-mail is sent. FeedBurner takes a few minutes to set up, but it’s worth the effort.

Our daily e-mail goes out around 7:30 central time each morning, so we schedule each day’s designated new content to publish around 6:45. This makes sure the new content we want to feature shows up at the top of the e-mail message.

Next up is other social networks. Facebook and Twitter currently rule the roost in terms of overall user bases. We have a Twitter account and Facebook page for users of those services to be notified of new content from us. I’ll talk more in-depth about what we do with Twitter and Facebook in a future post, but the key takeaway here is that the links you see on either to new content on our blog are all posted automatically through a great, free service called TwitterFeed. Create a TwitterFeed account, then point it to an RSS feed you wish to share. You can then schedule new items from that feed to post to Twitter, Facebook, and a few other social networking services automatically.

We’re thus able to spread the word about new blog content in four ways: Through an RSS reader, through a daily e-mail message, through Facebook, and through Twitter. As a blog author, I’ve only had to spend real time focusing on my content and not on distribution. For us as a group, this makes our social media presence manageable and allows us to reach readers using the delivery mechanisms of their preferences.

Next week I’ll dig deeper into how we use Twitter to not only share links to our own content, but share cool work and ideas done by others we meet online.

By Aaron | February 16th, 2010 | Comments

How we manage a social media presence on a shoestring, part 1: Our blog

For some time now, I’ve been meaning to provide some behind-the-scenes insight into how we maintain Stratepedia’s presence on the social media landscape. As you may know, we have this blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and other accounts to which we regularly post content. There are two of us primarily involved in feeding these accounts–Amber and me–and neither of us is a full-time social media manager. Nor do we claim to be social media experts (if we did, we could probably make quite a bit of money as consultants!). We just recognize that social media is a great, cost-effective way to help us spread the news about great work people are doing and how it relates to education technology. This series will show how we do it.

To kick things off, let’s take a look at our blog. What started off as a means to keep people updated on our services has become the most popular service we provide. The blog is the cornerstone of our social media presence–for the most part, fresh content we develop lives here and is disseminated via our social network accounts.

Since we have our own servers, we’re able to host our blog ourself using WordPress. WordPress is a popular content management system, or CMS, tuned primarily for blog publishing. It’s got its pros and cons, which I don’t have time to delve into right now, and there are definitely other options out there for self-hosted blogs. There are at least as many options for those of you who don’t have your own server, and need to rely on a hosting service to get your message out. Take a look at a post I wrote last November, detailing 5 ways to start blogging today, for a few hosting options. Most providers offer a free level that’s perfect for getting started, with premium levels as you add content or features to your blog.

Owning a blog is one thing, but how do we find time to keep it up-to-date with fresh content? Some suggestions:

Establish a theme: It may seem counterintuitive, but it’s actually easier to find things to write about if you contain yourself to a theme or common thread. This theme should ideally be something you’re interested in, because then you’ll be doing the research necessary for each blog post anyway. By blogging your own thoughts about what you read, you’re establishing yourself as an opinionated voice on the topic and making yourself better-informed about it through reflection.
Share the work: If I were responsible for all the content on this blog, it would get updated, at most, a couple of times a week. By splitting the workload, though, we’re able to provide at least one new post every weekday, not counting automated posts (more on that in a minute). Find a friend or coworker with a shared interest, and start blogging!
Set a schedule: If you want to become really prolific at blogging, establish a schedule and then stick to it. In our case, we have a roundup of the previous week on Monday (written by me), a general ed tech piece on Tuesday (me), a general ed tech piece on Wednesday (Amber), a definition of the week (Amber), and the Friday Five series (me). We trade sometimes. We also have guest contributors like Dave contribute from time to time–helpful when we’re especially busy or during vacations.
Write ahead: Want to know a secret? I’m writing this on Monday, but you won’t see it until Tuesday. Most blogging software allows you to schedule posts for future publication. Most of our new content gets sent out early in the morning of its publication date, for reasons I’ll reveal in a future post about offering subscriptions to your blog. If you’ve got some time today, and know you’ll be busy around the time you’ve scheduled your next post to be released, get a jump start on it!
Cheat where necessary: Every afternoon, around 2:00 central time, we publish a list of daily links. Here’s another secret: This is entirely automated. You know that research I alluded to earlier? As we find interesting items we want to share with others (and possibly write in more detail in a full-on blog post) we add them to our account on the Delicious bookmarking service. These links, along with any commentary we add, are provided in digest form daily on our blog. I’ll cover how we make this work in a future post.

Those are the basics behind our blog. Next week I’ll delve into the many ways you can subscribe to our blog to be notified when we’ve added content. If you’ve got additional tips or questions, please post them in the comments area below–I’d love to hear what you think.

By Aaron | February 9th, 2010 | Comments

From last week: The Stratepedia workshop, a new site for CRL, PDFs on Windows, apps, and tech blogs

Happy Monday! Here’s what you might have missed last week:

On Monday, we shared early details about the Stratepedia pre-conference workshop at the 2010 SIM International Conference. Hope you can join us! We also posted Amber’s latest Stratepedia desktop wallpaper, for your monthly computer sprucing-up.

On Tuesday, Dave unveiled the new-look website for the Center for Research on Learning. Looks great, Dave!

On Wednesday, Amber offered a few options for Windows users who need to create PDF files.

On Thursday, Amber defined apps. In other words–want to know what an app is? There’s a blog post for that! (Thanks, I’ll be here all week.)

On Friday, I shared a list of tech blogs I think it’s important for educators to follow. There’s lots to learn about technology from the consumer sector.

As usual, we added lots of links from these blogs and elsewhere, too. Enjoy your week!

By Aaron | February 8th, 2010 |

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5 blogs people interested in education technology should follow

One of our core beliefs here is that those with a vested interest in how technology will affect education (for the better or for the worse) is to look not at the education/instructional technology or corporate/enterprise technology sectors, but rather directly at the consumer technology field. This is how you’ll learn about the gadgets, games, and websites your students and teachers are using and playing when they’re not in a classroom. There are tons of blogs devoted to these issues–we link to many of them daily–but I wanted to highlight five I’ve found to be reliable and professional.

1. Mashable

A steady go-to whenever we need links to what’s new in social media, Mashable has provided great coverage for Web 2.0 and associated technologies for almost ten years. Mashable is also responsible for the Twitter Guidebook, the Facebook Guidebook, and an ongoing how-to series to get the most out of these and other technologies.

2. Ars Technica

Ars Technica, now a property of Condé Nast Digital, provides news on a wide range of technology-related interests. Ars Technica goes beyond the paragraph blurb about a new product you might see in other blogs–authors there take time to analyze trends and put new products through the ringer. They also have top-notch coverage on the effects of political and legal matters on the world of technology.

3. Wired Gadget Lab

Want to get your hands on all the newest gadgets and gear? I can’t help you there, but if you follow Wired’s Gadget Lab you can at least play with all the new toys vicariously. Current hot topics include e-readers, tablets, and mobile devices, with extra coverage on really hot items like the Apple iPad.

4. ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb covers many of the same topics as blogs like Mashable and Ars Technica, though often with a slightly different spin that’s not necessarily negative, but maybe provocative in how things sometimes get phrased in their commentary. I don’t always agree with their take on things, but ReadWriteWeb is still a good addition to your feed reader.

5. WebWorkerDaily

Even if you’re not a “web worker,” or someone who takes advantage of cloud computing to work wherever and (sometimes) whenever you want, WebWorkerDaily has lots of great tips for making your computer and the Internet productivity boosters. If you’re wondering how social technology tools might be put to practical uses, peruse WebWorkerDaily on an, uh, daily basis.

Note that these blogs don’t (usually) point out educational merits of new technologies. That’s our job, as education technologists, right? These should also serve as good reference points for other blogs you might enjoy. One nice thing about blogs is you can add them to your favorite RSS reader and watch them for awhile. If you get tired of them, just unsubscribe and move on. (Please don’t unsubscribe from the Stratepedia Blog, though!)

Have a great weekend!

Photo: stevegarfield on Flickr

By Aaron | February 5th, 2010 | Comments

5 ways to start a blog today

Did Amber’s post about blogging a few weeks ago inspire you to start your own blog? If you started one, great! If not, here are five places that make it incredibly easy to take the plunge.

1. Posterous

Posterous is, hands-down, the easiest way there is to start your own blog. If you know how to use e-mail then you’ve got all the technical skills required. Posterous requires no special software and doesn’t rely on confusing web forms–just e-mail your first post to them, and within minutes your new blog is created. Future posts can be added via the same method, and you can attach photos and other files to your e-mails to have them added to your posts. If you want to get a little technical, you can customize your blog’s look-and-feel or add other authorized e-mail addresses to create a group blog.

2. Tumblr

Tumblr is an example of a tumble blog or tumblelog–or, a mechanism for saving and sharing interesting things you find or muse upon as you tumble across the web. Tumblr recognizes file types and can automatically embed photos, videos, and audio–or, if you’d like, good ol’ words. One other neat thing about Tumblr is their support for audio posts–just call a designated phone number, talk away, and your message gets converted to streaming audio for your audience!

3. Blogger

If your blogging ambitions require it, or you’re interested in generating a little revenue from your blog, check out Blogger, a free blogging service provided by Google. A Blogger blog takes about five minutes to set up. A web-based interface is the primary means of adding content, but you can also post to Blogger via e-mail (some configuration required) or use a standalone blogging client that supports something called XML-RPC (pretty much all standalone blogging clients do).

4. WordPress.com

A popular alternative to Blogger is WordPress.com. WordPress’ feature list is similar to that of Blogger, as well as some advanced features for a fee. Perhaps the nicest thing about WordPress is its ability to control comment spam–yes, the spammers have even infiltrated blog comments, unfortunately–so you can focus on your content and not keeping your blog clean of questionable commentary.

5. Twitter

If you want to get technical about it, Twitter is a microblog framework. Blog away to your heart’s content, but keep it under 140 characters. Like Posterous and Tumblr, Twitter is easy to get started with and, thanks to a variety of third party tools, an excellent tool for sharing things you find online.

Blogging Research Wordle by Kristina B on Flickr

By Aaron | November 13th, 2009 | Comments

A guide to multimedia proficiency

I’ve been a fan of the blog Teaching Online Journalism. The author, Mindy McAdams, teaches university-level courses on journalism, and her blog focuses on using multimedia to tell stories. As someone with an undergraduate degree in journalism and a graduate degree in instructional design and technology, I think there’s an increasingly large overlap in the skills required of reporters and instructional designers. To this end, McAdams has developed a Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency, but it’s full of tutorials you can use even if you’re not a reporter.

The guide covers blogging, RSS, podcasting and audio editing, basic photography and videography, and photo editing; and ends with advice on keeping your own technology skills up-to-date. When possible, McAdams uses free tools as examples for each skill. If you work with technology as an instructor, student, researcher, or presenter, I highly recommend saving a copy of the guide and referring to it as you build your own multimedia skill set.

By Aaron | September 7th, 2009 | Comments

A Blog post about Blogging

About once a month the Edwards campus, which is part of the University of Kansas, hosts a lecture based on topics surrounding workforce development. These sessions are free, open to the public, and always deliver a great presentation. I really enjoy attending these sessions and today’s was, by far, my favorite.

The topic for today happened to be blogging and, more specifically, how blogging has evolved into a prevalent source of information. Dr. David Perlmutter is not only the author of Blog Wars but is also a professor here in our very own journalism school at the University of Kansas. Dr. Perlmutter had several great things to say so I’ll try to highlight a few pieces of his talk.

He discussed the efficient way that President-elect Barack Obama and his team dispersed information to potential voters. The 2008 election marked another milestone in the history of gaining presidential popularity. Franklin Roosevelt shared his message by hosting “Fireside chats” on the radio. John F. Kennedy communicated with Americans on the television. The Obama campaign gained popularity by interacting with society via Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. They also relied heavily on text messaging to remind voters to get active. People across the world were able to access very educated and well-informed discussions about his views using blogs.

Dr. Perlmutter also offered a few suggestions for starting or maintaining a blog:

A blog should serve a specific purpose. If you are starting a blog without a goal in mind it will more than likely be difficult for you to maintain a steady stream of content for your readers. A blog should maintain or increase productivity. Purposes can range from simply keeping family members updated on the kids’ activities to increasing knowledge and communication in a large corporation.
Remember your target audience. This segues nicely from the first point and serves as a guideline when choosing content. The sense of building a personal relationship can be quickly lost if you are writing to a faceless mass of people on the Internet. Think of what your audience needs or is interested to hear, whether it is your great aunt in North Dakota or an entire network of educators. (Hi guys!)
Feedback, feedback, feedback. The purpose of a blog is to promote interactivity. If a reader takes the time to leave a comment then you should comment back. This gives the blogger a position of authority and the reader a sense of importance. Dr. Perlmutter used this example: If you are having a conversation with someone, is it really a conversation if only one person is talking the entire time?
Update often. I know it can be overwhelming at times to think of new topics but you want your readers to return to your blog. Each post should work towards accomplishing your goal and keeping your target audience interested.
Set rules for yourself. You need to decide how open and honest you want to be. If someone writes “This product sucks.” on your comments section, are you going to delete it? Many companies gain credibility by allowing consumers to leave honest, detailed opinions for others to read.

You can see him talk about his book here:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c

David Perlmutter

Learn more about the Professional Edge Breakfast Series.

By Amber | December 3rd, 2008 | Comments

Sue’s blogging, and you can too!

SIM Professional Developer extraordinaire Sue Woodruff has started her own blog. Says Sue:

I’ve decided to document this year’s journey with a blog. I will invite other SIM professional developers to tag along. I am involved in adolescent literacy projects around the country, and I am going to share my experiences. (At least some of them.) I would like to pose questions and get advice, and I would love to hear from other SIM professional developers and instructional coaches. It is sort of an experiment. We talk about about making our teaching public; let’s make our professional development public, too!

I’m really glad Sue’s taken the initiative to start a blog and share her own perspective with others. Check out her blog for yourself to learn more. Don’t forget that RSS makes it really easy to follow along as she adds new posts–refer to Amber’s great RSS write-up to learn how.

How can I start my own blog?

Blogging is easy! Well, the technical part of it is, anyway–the writing part is as easy or difficult as you make it. Let’s get the technical part out of the way.

Sue is using Blogger, a popular, free blogging service from Google. (Sue, maybe you could leave a comment here or make a post on your blog about this process? I haven’t used Blogger myself but from what I hear it’s pretty easy to get started.) Or check out one of these options:

WordPress.com
TypePad.com (not free)
Tumblr (this is a neat alternative to regular blogs–Tumblr is tuned to sharing quotes, clips, and other materials you find online, or your own abbreviated musings)
Edublogs (I haven’t used this service myself; if you try it out let me know what you think)

There are tons more out there, of course; if you use a blogging service you particularly like let us know in the comments. Better yet, if (when!) you start a blog of your own make sure to tell us about it!

By Aaron | August 18th, 2008 | Comments