Found this list which author, Owen Winkler, has spent much time and effort putting everything together. You will get a list of comparison for the features and functionalties of the existing server-side blogging software (these software have to be downloaded, installed and run from a server, unlike blogger.com).
Some fields may not be updated, but it is still very informative.
MS Image Resizer Powertoy
Download this powertoy to very quickly resize pictures taken with your digital cameras. You can select multiple files (by using combination of [shift], [ctrl] keys and left click) and do a right-click to resize your images all at one go.
Very simple, very fast, no need for photoshop or any other imaging software anymore. The pictures are automatically optimised for screen/web quality (good small files for web).
Grab it today!
3rd Edublog Workshop – Collated Inputs and Feedback
We have finally collated the inputs from teachers who have attended our workshop at Nan Chiau last week. Download it here.
The report is available in 2 flavours, one in standard word format while the other is in graphical mindmap format.
Please feel free to distribute and share the findings with your fellow colleagues 🙂
Hope to hear from you soon on your plans for implementation! Cheers!
Random Daily Writing Prompts Generator
Some of us may want to employ blogs for our students to practise their writing skills and we may want them to write on some topics of their choice or related to their interest.
It is not unusual for some students to come back to us saying that they do not know what to write about. Well, to get them going, we can ask them to visit website(s) that provides random writing prompts on a daily basis. This gives them both the ‘choice’ as well as something to start with. So, try it if you think it’s useful 🙂
An example: Writing Fix
read … reading … read … 050208
Just finished reading Blogging thoughts: publication as online research tool by Torill Mortensen and Jill Walker.
Though the article is written back in 2002, many of the things still hold true for blog, a genre as defined in the article. Looks like blog has more or less adopted its present form back then. Some of the interesting ‘findings’:
Blogger Pro, which provides more features, is available back then.
The Theory of the Public Sphere by J�rgen Habermas is used to describe/determine the private-public nature of blog.
One feel safe in his/her blog as you have total editorial control, and the posts are often short and unpretntious.
Rigours and formal citation practice in academic writing is practised in blogs through links. These links are random and it allows one to share experience (books read, website visted etc). These links are ‘vital to the genre‘.
Blog This by Henry Jenkins is the first article published on weblogs by an academic.
Expressing one’s thought in a blog may result in one losing his own ideas too early. This is one of the greatest fear of an academic, due to the current ‘reward system’ in the trade of academia.
The chornological arrangement of blog entries documents our thought processes. ‘Unedited, spontaneous, scrolling away‘ thoughts are always on the top of the page.
Popularity of a blog is determined by how often it is linked by other blogs/sites. Blogs tend to come together in clusters as they linked to each other.
The look and feel (visual appearance) of a blog is important.