Publications CMS almost ready for the first 5 weeks of school. Woohoo!

Working in Moodle has been both challenging and rewarding. I have nearly completed my Publications CMS for the first five weeks of school. The only difficulty, like others experienced, is that two of my PDFs won't upload. Hopefully Dr. Ingram will figure out the problem I am having so that I can upload both documents, check all the links and submit. Then I can focus on packing for vacation.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this class the past few weeks. I've learned so much about different technologies and their uses. I've also completed useful projects that will be implemented into my Publications class and has been attached to the CMS in Moodle, which I hope to develop further and use it throughout the next school year.

The projects that I know I will use include:

• the WebQuest
• the Podcast
• the Instructional Website
• the CMS

I will also continue to use the RSS feed and tailor it to my needs at school. In fact, I will use it for some of my classes where I will encourage students to blog for different purposes.


Truly, I didn't find my time with Twitter useful, but part of that is because I didn't keep up with it and found it just another site to check. I use Facebook far more than I think I'd ever use Twitter.


All in all, I appreciate the insight of Dr. Ingram and my classmates into all the different technologies and their purposes in a wide array of topics and fields. It was an enjoyable and worthwhile five weeks which I'm glad I endured at its pace.

Almost there, but more fun ahead

I thought this week was going to be crazier than it has been. We leave for vacation this Thursday evening and I'm planning a day of sleep on Thursday so I can drive through the night on our way to Nebraska, Colorado, then Utah. Looking forward to the mental break and time with family.

Before leaving, I still have a few more things to accomplish. I am officially done with one of my two classes, and only have the CMS ahead of me in this class. I am happy to say my Instructional Website is finished (at least a work in progress kind of finished) and I will be able to use it to help deepen my journalism students' understanding of the nine ethics of journalism. I will be linking this to the CMS I am creating in Moodle for my Publications class.

I'm excited to finally be able to focus on the CMS. It's something I've been wanting to do and am glad to have the opportunity to build it for use next school year as I plan to use a blended approach to teach my Publications class. This will also include the use of Yearbook Avenue for yearbook production and Progress Book for assessments. In a way, I wish I could just do everything in Moodle like I did in a class I took spring semester, but I'll have to make do to meet the needs of students and administrators.

Off to work on the CMS so I can get it finished by Wednesday evening and prepare for my vacation. More to come as I get things finished up. Later...