Assignment Blog - Due 5 Nov

Start work on your blog for your assignment. Links to information to guide you, from previous blog posts are given below. Make sure you READ them carefully AND ask me questions if you are uncertain about any tasks or about submission.

• Question 1 

• Question 2 

• Question 3 

• Question 4 

• Question 5 

• Assignment Checklist

• Assignment Submission Guidelines

Your assignment is due on 5th November. A page with your Blog URL, full name and student number, as well as an assignment cover sheet needs to be submitted to the admin office AND all posts on the blog completed by the time of hand in. 

We will spend some times during our lessons doing work on these posts for your assignments, as well as additional tasks which will demonstrate the competencies required to pass this course. 

Assignment: Choosing a Blogging Platform

Your assignment for this short course is  to create a blog. the blog will be marked according to the following nine criteria:

1. Understanding of course material (course content) - demonstrated by the content of your posts
2. Use of more than two data types (text, pictures, video, music etc...)
3. Time management in completing tasks - whether you completed tasks in class timeously and whether you submitted the final assignment on time with all the tasks completed
4. Competence in navigating the Web effectively (demonstrated mostly through additional tasks given and submitted during class)
5. Use of Web 2.0 blogging software (demonstrated by the look and feel of your final blog, as well as by additional tasks done during class)
6. Initiative shown by including additional features to your blog that were not necessarily specified in any tasks (eg. gadgets or widgets to enhance your blog)
7. Data storage and manipulation - demonstrated through tasks done in class, as well as how you have used other sources to add value to your own posts (without simply copying their words)
8. Referencing - demonstrated through acknowledgement of all sources used through formal referencing style or through hyperlinks to the original sources. Note: None of your posts should be copied word-for-word from someone else. 
9. Critiquing of online resources - demonstrated by how your 'own voice' comes through in the blog posts, including disagreeing with other sources, or commenting on what others have said.

The assignment has five questions. Each one must be answered on a separate post on a blog you have created. In addition, I will be using the tasks I have been setting you for class to assess the criteria above.

Today's task will focus on criteria number nine and will involve doing some reading/research to help you to choose which blogging platform to use for your assignment.

Although we have been using blogger to learn about and practice 'blogging', there are a number of other really good platforms one can use. Do some internet surfing to find at least three different sources about the best blogging platforms to use. Create a "Google Drive" document to record your responses. In your document, create links to each of the sources. In the content of your document, summarise what has been said about these platforms by the different sources.

At the end of the document, indicate which blogging platform you will choose for your assignment, giving reasons WHY you have chosen it.  If you choose blogger, support your decision with good reasons that will demonstrate you have thought about it. Saying you have chosen it because it is 'easier' because you have been working on it already demonstrates laziness and not the ability to critique or reason.

Submit this task by sharing your document with me through Google Drive. Make sure you put your name at the top of the document, so that when I print it, I know whose work it is.

Plan a luxury dream holiday with the help of WIKI'S

Today's task involves gaining experience with online shopping and working with Wiki's (or collaborative documents).

Work in groups of NOT MORE THAN three people for this task. As a group, decide on a destination city you would like to travel to, if you had no financial restrictions.

You need to do this task using a collaborative tool like a wiki. Google drive is one example of this.
Pretend that all your group members are working on this project from different locations. (In other words, your collaboration needs to be through the Google Drive document.) One of you needs to create a document in Google drive and share it with the other person and with me. (I will demonstrate to you how to do this.)


Plan the following aspects of your trip and record the details of your plans in the Shared Document on Google Drive:

Holiday Details

• Names of people going on trip
• Where you are travelling 
• When you will be travelling (dates of leaving and return)

Air Tickets

• Airline used
• Price of return tickets for all travellers on the dates specified above

Hired Car

• Car Hire Company name 
• Price of hiring the car for the time period of your holiday

Hotel Accommodation

• Name of the hotel you are visiting 
• A link to the website of the hotel
• What it is about this hotel that made you choose it over others

Event or Adventure

• What you plan to do?
• How much it will cost?
• How long it will take? (all day, a few hours, more than a day... )
• Why does it appeal to you do this this?

In the document, you need to include your names, and to present the information above a table.  As you find information about the tickets, car hire and accommodation, record it onto the document. Once you have completed the task, one of you send me an e-mail, with your partner in copy, so that I know you have finished. 

Podcasting, Videocasting, Screencasting & Live Streaming

In today's lesson, we will discuss and then you will do some reading to answer the four questions that follow. 

• What is podcasting?
• What is video casting? 
• What is Screen casting?
• What is live streaming?

Read from the prescribed textbook or from other internet sources, to answer the questions on a post on your blog (pages 118 - 134 & 136 - 156). The content of your post should give a basic explanation of each of the terms and it should also be clear how the four terms are different from each other.  

In groups or three or four people, make a short video and post it on You Tube. If you are working on blogger, you have a google account, which means you have access to all the apps associated with google, like You Tube. Most Smart phones have reasonable video cameras to make the video. 

Create a link to the You Tube video on your post.