AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: D'Arcy Norman posting
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 09/12/2004 07:12:09 AM
-----
BODY:
We step directly into ongoing discourse, and must somehow get our bearings. But why not begin with this bit from today's blogstream?
D'Arcy Norman has a posting <a href="http://commons.ucalgary.ca/weblogs/dnorman/2004/09/10/thoughts-on-stephen-downes-iti-keynote">Thoughts on Stephen Downes’ ITI Keynote</a> and this morning Boing Boing informed me that it had a reference (a link-to and comment on it had been made in another blog) by <a href="http://www.stigmergicweb.org/jaa/archives/2004/09/darcy_norman_on.html">Just Another Ant</a> (stigmergic wanderings):<blockquote>I'm sensing a bit of a movement away from the paradigm of large repositories of static learning objects towards an approach to online learning that embraces spontaneous activity of learners and learning communities. D'Arcy and Stephen both mention Brian Lamb and Alan Levine's paradigm of <a href="http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SmallPiecesLooselyJoined">Fast, Cheap and Out of Control</a> as an effective way of organizing online learning in actual practice.</blockquote> So I went to FC&OoC and started looking around. I think I'm a <a href="http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SmallPiecesLooselyJoined/FenceSitter">Fence Sitter</a> ("...the choice between "centralized" and "distributed" methods is a false one. For one, it is clear that both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses. For another, there is no "universal user"... different people respond differently to online environments. Finally, the worlds are converging... it won't be long until "central applications" support the tools and protocols such as weblogs, wikis and RSS -- it's already happening -- and at the same time distributed tools are evolving to interact with each other in increasingly structured ways."). I sense a <a href="http://home.wlu.edu/~blackmerh/bloggery/karass.html">karass</a> at work, to which I probably belong.
The point here: I'm able to include myself in a conversation, if only as a listener/lurker, and in fact it turns out to be a Conversation, loosely joined... My immediate problem is how to help my students and colleagues to the essentials of this process without getting bogged in details.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----

--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Templates? What now?
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 09/15/2004 09:48:34 AM
-----
BODY:
Wythe asked if I knew anything about tweakage of MT templates, and I really don't. Here are some resources that may be useful:<blockquote><a href="http://www.mediatinker.com/blog/archives/007806.html">Illustrated MT templates</a> (Kristen McQuillin)<blockquote>The MT default templates contain four kinds of code: CSS, HTML, MT tags, and Javascript.
If you're new to all this, you're about to learn that it pays to make a careful study of the code. Once you understand the way it works together, it's pretty easy to modify your MT templates to display almost any design you want. </blockquote><a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/04/09/movable_type_templates_tutorial">Movable Type Templates Tutorial</a> (Mark Pilgrim)
<a href="http://www.easterwood.org/hmmn/archives/000639.html">How to add a "sidebar" to your blog</a> (Easterwood)
<a href="http://fireweaver.com/savvy/screensavers/03.blogtemplates/tutorial.html">Tweaking Your Blog's Templates with Dreamweaver MX</a> ("Today I'll show you how to import a blog template into Dreamweaver so you can edit it visually.")
<a href="http://class.blogcap.com/reading/">Blogging Basics With Movable Type</a> (an online course, with useful freebies. 'Class Readings' says "students only" but the links work...)
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Wythe Whiting
EMAIL: whitingw@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.113.120
URL: 
DATE: 09/15/2004 12:04:17 PM
Thanks Hugh,

In browsing through the links you posted -- it seems like the 1st link "Illustrated MT templates" holds the most promise for customizing the look of your blog page. The site by Mark Pilgrim had many expired pages.  Now, I only need about a 5 hour block to delve into the code again ...
-----

--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: more on stylesheets
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 09/15/2004 10:55:24 PM
-----
BODY:
I just found <a href="http://www.movablestyle.com/">movablestyle.com</a>, which offers downloadable styles that one can try out. Lots more advice via a <a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=%22movable+type%22+style+sheets">Google search</a>...
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----

--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: another good source
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 09/16/2004 06:58:52 AM
-----
BODY:
Information Technology Services at Pomona College has an excellent summary of <a href="http://www.its.pomona.edu/about_its/help/help_sheets/HTML/weblogging2.htm">Advanced Weblogging with Movable Type</a>. It's probably Intermediate, not Advanced, but there are answers to lots of MY questions!

-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----

--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: superconductor
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 09/16/2004 11:28:47 AM
-----
BODY:
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon Udell's blog</a> is a perpetual source of interesting techy things, and frequently has trenchant observations and summaries on the IT world. Today's posting on <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/09/16.html#a1077">medbloggers</a> (interesting in itself, of course) includes this excellent summary:<blockquote>The blogging medium is a superconductor and amplifier of awareness. </blockquote>
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----

--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Blog history in quicktime
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 09/22/2004 10:09:18 AM
-----
BODY:
A nice 3-minute summary of <a href="http://blogumentary.typepad.com/chuck/2004/09/blog_history.html">the history of blogging</a> by Chuck Olsen --<a href="http://www.pepysdiary.com/">Pepys</a>, Committees of Correspondence, etc. (download the QuickTime and play locally)
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----

--------
AUTHOR: Wythe Whiting
TITLE: Email functioning
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 09/28/2004 12:31:25 AM
-----
BODY:
In my blog preferences, I have a box checked that is supposed to have the system notify me by email me whenever a student posts to my site. Although there have been lots of student posts, I haven't gotten any email notifications of them. Has anyone else gotten this email notification function to work?
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: blackmer
EMAIL: blackmerh@wlu.edu
IP: 69.68.127.172
URL: 
DATE: 09/28/2004 06:18:03 AM
Hmmm... I see that I have the option checked too, and I've never had email from commenters either. I'll have to contact the MT folks and see if any light can be shed. I suppose it's possible that upgrading to MT3 might be part of the solution... 
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: blackmer
EMAIL: blackmerh@wlu.edu
IP: 67.76.90.228
URL: 
DATE: 09/28/2004 05:35:05 PM
I've done some looking around, and conclude that it may be necessary to look at MT code. The hack at http://www.kalsey.com/2002/08/comment_notification_hack/ suggests to me that the relevant code might be commented out... or perhaps this line may need to be added:

MT::Mail->send(\%head, $body) unless $author->email eq $comment->email;

...on the other hand, this phpBB solution looks pretty daunting:

http://trikuare.cx/mt/archives/000425.php

This is when we need a tame geek with time on his/her hands...
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: blackmer
EMAIL: blackmerh@wlu.edu
IP: 67.76.90.228
URL: 
DATE: 09/28/2004 05:47:31 PM
Another route:
http://jayseae.cxliv.org/movable_type/notifier/index.html

...but I'm not sure it's really what Wythe wants.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Wythe Whiting
EMAIL: whitingw@wlu.edu
IP: 67.23.157.24
URL: 
DATE: 09/28/2004 11:20:21 PM
Hmm, I've scanned through your links -- the last one appears the most promising, but requires MT 3. New version coming soon?

You would think that if you can check a box in the preferences, the function should work.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Wythe Whiting
EMAIL: whitingw@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.113.120
URL: 
DATE: 10/04/2004 04:38:27 PM
I think I discovered the issue. You have to click save and then rebuild on the same page as the options you select. My email notification is now working.

I may now try to work with the patch you cited that does not email you when you post -- only when others do.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Wythe Whiting
EMAIL: whitingw@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.113.120
URL: 
DATE: 10/06/2004 10:01:30 AM
Here's the fix: check the notification box then SAVE then REBUILD the site. REBUILDing is the key. Notifications are coming in for me now. This is good, because now I don't have to monitor the site for posts.
-----

--------
AUTHOR: Wythe Whiting
TITLE: 
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 09/28/2004 11:30:24 PM
-----
BODY:
Hi Hugh, I noticed that the URLs in your posts were not hot-linked. You may need to check the "auto-link URLs" in the URBLOG prefs to enable the function. This is for people like me who are too lazy to cut and paste the URL. Thanks.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Hugh
EMAIL: blackmerh@wlu.edu
IP: 208.33.157.223
URL: 
DATE: 09/29/2004 06:20:05 AM
Thanks, Wythe... sure enough, I'd forgotten to check both the allow-HTML and the auto-link URL options. I was wondering why it didn't want to do my bidding when I posted stuff.
-----

--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Spammers outrun
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 0
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 12/01/2004 05:32:16 PM
-----
BODY:
...for the moment. Take a look at <a href="http://home.wlu.edu/~blackmerh/bloggery/xspam.html">a short screencast</a> (probably need to use Internet Explorer, alas...) to see how.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----

--------
AUTHOR: fu
TITLE: Chinese film
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 12/16/2004 11:46:15 AM
-----
BODY:
I found Zhang Yimou's recent movie Shi mian mai fu very interesting. But I don't know if there's a DVD with English subtitles?
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: rush
EMAIL: rushm@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.164.9
URL: 
DATE: 12/16/2004 11:48:43 AM
so this is my first commetn.  oh boy!
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: rushie
EMAIL: rushm@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.164.9
URL: 
DATE: 12/16/2004 11:49:17 AM
oops.  sorry for the typo
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: fu
EMAIL: fuh@wlu.edu
IP: 137.113.164.132
URL: 
DATE: 12/16/2004 11:50:57 AM
Where did you see my posting?
-----

--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: fighting comment spam
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 12/18/2004 04:56:07 PM
-----
BODY:
It seems that lots of people are being affected, and Sixapart is working on fixes. Meanwhile, here's <a href="http://www.elise.com/mt/archives/000246concerning_spam.php">some advice</a> on steps to take. I'm hoping to upgrade our installation to 3.1, or perhaps it'll be 3.2 if they release a fix...
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----

--------
AUTHOR: Wythe Whiting
TITLE: Blogging at W&L
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 01/11/2005 09:18:19 PM
-----
BODY:
It just occurred to me that the IT dept. may be pitching blogging to the wrong crowd if they want this stuff to take off. Blogging seems to be the kinda thing that students would gobble right up -- especially given the popularity of online face books that took off here last semester.

I know other universities setting up software so that any student can set up a blog. Why not here? Does nobody see this technological wave coming yet?

What’s your take?

-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: blackmer
EMAIL: blackmerh@wlu.edu
IP: 65.40.127.195
URL: 
DATE: 01/11/2005 10:18:48 PM
If we could solve the spam problem... and if anybody in IT or UC thought it was their job... (remember, it's just me so far, with some technical help from Patrick Harris, and there's NO buy-in from UC, none at all). The University of Minnesota <i>Library</i> has done a wonderful job of setting up campus-wide blogging, but I don't think W&L has the requisite vision to see what it's good for.

Interested students would do better to explore the blogspace afforded by bloglines.com, or even by Microsoft --they'd have a lot better support!
-----

--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: Six months of experiment
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 0
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 04/14/2005 09:37:10 AM
-----
BODY:
As far  as I can see, only Wythe and I have done anything at all with Bloggery. I certainly found the medium very productive in both courses (<a href="http://bloggery.wlu.edu/anth230/">Anthropology of East  Asia</a> and <a href="http://bloggery.wlu.edu/ccsinm/">Cross-cultural Studies in Music</a>), and once I'd figured out how to cope with the blogspam problem, it wasn't too much trouble to manage the blogs. 
Like a number of other edgy apps and pedagogical innovations that I've explored in recent years, few faculty seem to 'get it' in the sense of seeing how they might do things more productively by exploring the new utility or approach. GIS suffered a similar fate, and the source seems about evenly divided between (a) deficient institutional support and (b) incuriosity. I'm tired of fighting both of those battles.
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----

--------
AUTHOR: blackmer
TITLE: The Upshot
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 2
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0
PRIMARY CATEGORY: 

DATE: 07/25/2005 03:44:45 PM
-----
BODY:
Finally at the end of July I get around to adding up this experiment, and concluding that it was a glorious failure, with some local success. I (reluctantly, and with eyes rolling) judge that there's essentially NO interest in the medium at W&L. Now why is that? What could/should I have done differently? 

<b>bloggery.wlu.edu</b> ran through the 2004-2005 academic year, on a cast-off machine in my office, and supported 20 blogs. In an effort to provoke interest, I did an October IT Forum presentation and a December Faculty Institute hands-on workshop, and both of those activities resulted in requests for blogs to be set up... but nothing came of most of them. 9 of the 20 had no use at all; Wythe Whiting, Hongchu Fu, and I were the only users with any student involvement. 

A few stats:

My blogs:
Urblog 13 entries 12 comments 18 authors
Anth230  143 entries 207 comments 25 authors
CCSinM 120 entries 49 comments 20 authors
EAS190 19 entries 7 comments 7 authors
Intr296 14 entries 49 comments 10 authors

Wythe's blogs
Cogblog 13 entries 897 comments [mostly spam] 3 authors
Society of Thought 15 entries 3 comments 7 authors

Hongchu's blog
Lit295 10 entries 3 comments 26 authors

Speaking for myself and my students, blogging was a very useful addition to the courses, but that's because I put a lot of emphasis on their experiments with the medium, and made specific assignments for postings and comments. 
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----

--------