Blogging Lessons?
I had to prepare one of the IT rooms at work earlier — make sure everything is working, plugged in (unplugging the network cables seems to be a hobby of some of the kids), clean up sweetie wrappers, etc. Did it in about 20 minutes and then went to speak to the Head of Science. I came back to check up on things to see 30 kids each with their own WordPress weblog being taught how to write a book review...
Why didn't I have lessons like that when I was in school?!
On Fri 12th May 2006 @ 20:36, Karl said:
I'm sure I told you months ago, our hands on support consultants run a "blogging for teachers" course at our school using WP.... Most of the kids find it funny - "WP? Do me a favour..WHY are they using THAT? That is SO crap.." etc. Along with "Teachers are too old to have weblogs, thats just sad.".
On Fri 12th May 2006 @ 20:54, Rosemarie said:
*dies*
On Fri 12th May 2006 @ 21:04, Nikki-ann said:
Well, if it was anything like when I was in school... it'd be because we rarely had a computer to ourselves and we never had that many lessons with computers! Still, if I'd have been doing blogging in school... I probably wouldn't be doing it now!
On Fri 12th May 2006 @ 21:12, Vera said:
Oh I dunno... it's not that hard to use WordPress, so well why waste a lesson on it. As a matter of fact I had an exam which was supposed to show what I've learned throught the 4 year computer science classes... well more than half of it consisted of things we DIDN'T learn at school (like working with Ms Word). Still... you don't have problems with WP, heck you've made your own CMS
On Fri 12th May 2006 @ 21:17, Kira said:
I think that's pretty stupid. Nobody should be forced to have a blog, and only people who really want to should have one, and figure it out. They shouldn't HAVE to learn how to blog or else it will corrupt the blogging community into the original few bloggers like you, Jem, and Rosemarie, and change it into "OMG! EVERYONE HAS A BLOG SO I NEED ONE TOO! DADDY! PAY FOR MY LESSONS!"
On Fri 12th May 2006 @ 23:10, Jess said:
That sounds fun. We waste our IT classes on Excel and how to steal copyrighted images. It's really stupid. Hence why blogging classes sounds fun, I guess.
Although I'm not sure I'd want to see the weblogs of some of my classmates. I think of all the netspeak, disussions of fashion and lots of other boring things that could ensue... argh.
On Fri 12th May 2006 @ 23:10, Jenny said:
.. *copies Rosemarie* *dies*
On Fri 12th May 2006 @ 23:33, Jenny said:
All of my K-12 education did very little with computers. I remember one particularly horrible class where we had to write a 12 page research paper just to demonstrate mastery of MS Word margins... However, I have had a course or two at University where assignments were either uploaded to a website (C++) or published to a class blog (some fluffy meaning of info tech / media and the arts courses).
On Fri 12th May 2006 @ 23:34, Chans said:
It's only because of cool lessons like that I want to go back to school lol. Even though it might not be that hard to use it's a hell of a lot better than trying to pass time in a math class
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 01:02, Carina said:
That's awesome :O. I'm in the eighth grade and we haven't had any lessons like that. In sixth grade, we all learnt how to make 'webpages'. I was still in the Neopets phase then but knew basic CSS.
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 01:09, Joni said:
Heh, the internet didn't even exist when I was in school, it was new while I was a college student. At least they were being taugh something good like WP and not some crap like Front Page (or worse, My Space...*shudders at the thought*).
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 01:18, Belinda said:
Dude, that is so awesome!
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 01:19, Stephanie said:
Hum. I know some people think it's stupid, but it's much better than anything my teachers ever taught me in any of my tech classes. Our HTML 'course' sucked... I was the only one who produced a decent looking page (which could only be made with clip art, har...) and then we were taught Dreamweaver. Blech!
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 02:04, Kathleen said:
That's pretty awesome. But that would never happen where I live. I live in a freakishly conservative area of the country and things that were trendy five months ago in the rest of the world have just reached my town. Myspace just caught on; Wordpress will take another year at least.
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 02:29, Shannon said:
Ha. I think I blogged not long ago about Blogging for Dummies. I want that book. Here: http://tinyurl.com/htu4a Ha ha. Anyway, if anyone's wondering why my site URL is my Xanga right now (yucky yucky coding on Xanga sites, but...), it's because my hostess can't host anything but fanlistings anymore. I'm looking for a host... yeah... I want to take that class. And I don't think that anyone in /this/ area (where I live) will ever catch on to WordPress.
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 02:31, Shannon said:
Oh, but in computer class for seventh grade, we used Dreamweaver. And we /had/ to make pages... with tables... and no editing the HTML (the editor couldn't be found or something...) OR adding any CSS. So I had a really ugly table page... with using only HTML...
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 05:20, Meggan said:
How... interesting. I can't quite decide if that's awesome or lame. Ha, at least some of you were taught Dreamweaver. I had to make a website using Frontpage, back in 1999. I refused to use the "features" and insisted on hand-coding everything, but Frontpage persisted in inserting its own nonsense everywhere. Gah.
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 10:44, Carina said:
This year we also made 'websites' (I'm in eight grade). My teacher told everyone to use dreamweaver but I got away using desktop FTP and Notepad
. A lot of people just littered 'blinkies' onto their pages. Mine, I'm proud to say was the only one that was valid xhtml strict and was the only one using CSS. Well, that's not exactly true. People used colored scrollbar codes they copied and pasted and I wrote some CSS for a friend of mine.
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 12:10, Lily Grace said:
I'm envy with those kids...
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 15:07, Carly said:
I didn't even know what html was until 6th form, and I ignored css cus I didn't understand it, and didn't think it was even important. Only certain people were allowed to study IT at GCSE in my first secondary school and I'm pretty sure it was to do with where you live. I knew more about computers than any of those idiots. Look at me know, I even mastered what CSS is for. woo.
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 18:06, Maggin said:
Wow, we don't have lessons like that here :O The lucky kids, but what we do get to do is make our own webpage. Basically re-telling some of us what we already know. Very boring. And the teachers are so horrible at it I had to help them -.- Not saying that Im good
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 21:07, Vixx said:
In my day we barely had computers. My IT lessons consisted of constant reboots and run // doc shit that no-one could ever do. Plus the computers were about five foot high. I'm so old.
V xx
On Sat 13th May 2006 @ 22:10, Frosty said:
Damn, I wish we could do that... In my Info Proc class, our 'webpages' had to be made with freaking Contribute, not even Dreamweaver! (Big problem with Contribute = no direct html editing, at least Dreamweaver has that) People were using tables and font tags all over the place, it was like standards slaughter in there...
Lucky bastards... *goes off to grumble*
On Sun 14th May 2006 @ 03:10, Bubs said:
This is off-topic, but I was reading your 'Customising Form Fields' article on Tutorialtastic and wanted to point out that fieldset {border: 0;} will not remove the default border in Opera. However, fieldset {border: 0 solid #000} will
On Sun 14th May 2006 @ 15:18, Xeronia said:
Blogging lessons? Wow. What has the world come to? What happened to painstakinly teaching oneself how to use Wordpress?
On Sun 14th May 2006 @ 16:03, Mariah said:
Seems like everyone is pretty divided over this one... I'm going to have to go with the fact that its a bad idea. Lets add more boring blogs to the internet. (Yes, I know, I'm a boring blog... FEEL THE HYPOCRICY!) If someone wants a blog, they should learn to do it themselves, classes would be just... weird. I never thought it was that tough to learn. Though as long as its being taught correctly, whats the problem? We learned to design webpages in 6th grade... with frontpage. Mixed feelings I guess. Happy mothers day everyone! Even if you don't celebrate it.
On Sun 14th May 2006 @ 18:15, Paola said:
The only read computer classes I've had, I've had here. Last year our teacher refused to follow the GCSE course, so we learned Fireworks, Flash, Dreamweaver and HTML (all of which I already knew). This year, however, it's pure Excel, Word, etd. Boring. I wish we had a class that involved WordPress and nice stuff.
On Sun 14th May 2006 @ 22:19, Shannon said:
Actually, it'd be more interesting, I'd like it/I'd take it. But, it'd (yeah) be pretty useless. Wordpress is too user-friendly/easy-to-use to have classes on.
On Mon 15th May 2006 @ 10:35, dandyna said:
Jemmie, sorry I would like to ask you how did you make the skip to content link in your previous layout? I saw it is an important element in Web2.0 well made websites and a requisite when it comes to validation. As always, you'r ever forward us, humble human beings
On Mon 15th May 2006 @ 18:25, Sandra said:
Wow! I would have loved a class like that! It's not fair *mutter*
On Mon 15th May 2006 @ 20:47, Chrissy said:
Maybe they can be taught to write interesting blogs. I see way too many bland and boring blogs out there these days. It makes me sad.
On Mon 15th May 2006 @ 21:03, Sarah said:
Yes, why didn't we have lessons like that? Damnit!
On Tue 16th May 2006 @ 21:34, Malin said:
Wtf? That's not right. We should have had it too! *sniffles*
On Wed 17th May 2006 @ 09:01, Jordie said:
WTF+LOL+OMG Super Combo, 1500 points. It's not surprising though. Magazines have been outputting all sorts of crap about these AWESOME NEW OVEN-FRESH THINGS CALLED BLOGS, not taking into account that blogs have been around for quite a while. I'd hate to see it become the next big trend.