Assignment #2, Second Task

By now you should have completed the requirements described in Assignment #2, First Task: Your weblog should be set up to allow other people to leave comments and links, and you should have visited several other course weblogs and used commenting to begin a conversation within our course network. When you comment, be sure you have an entry at your site linking to the material you are writing about and that you post a link to your entry at your colleague's site. There is an example on our course weblog demonstrating how to do this. You should also continue using your weblog to write about issues related to the course: I expect a minimum of about 350 words per week.

If you have not completed the things described in task one, please do so right away. And as always, if you have questions about any of the above, please let me know right away.

Plan to complete the second task of assignment #2 this week--by Friday 29 September. The task is as follows:

1. Create a list of links to all our course weblogs (both student weblogs and this general course weblog) in a sidebar on your weblog (as opposed to putting them in an entry). For Blogger users, this will mean editing your template as I have demonstrated in class. You may copy and paste the list of links from the course site, either by using the text I emailed to everyone this weekend or by copying and pasting the source code direct from the website as I have demonstrated in class. When you make changes to your template, be sure to preview the changes you make before accepting them, otherwise you might cause some problems with your layout.


2. In a separate list in your sidebar, add at least a few links you have found and that you think are relevant to the course. This will mean creating a separate heading and then adding links under that heading. I will demonstrate this in class, but in general the easiest way to do this is to open your template, then copy the course link list you already posted in your sidebar and paste a second copy in your template just below the first, then edit the heading and each link one at a time. Again, I will demonstrate this in class this week. Consult your weblog help service if you get stuck.


3. Finally, continue using your weblog to post your thoughts on issues related to the course and, using commenting and linkback, to enter into discussions with other course participants. When you comment at another person's site, be sure you have a referral entry at your site (so I see what you did). Expect to write about 350 words per week related to the course.

Remember that there will be another task on assignment #2 for next week, and that the next graded review date for your weblogs is Friday 6 October. Please let me know if you have any questions.