The to-do list grew thin.

To the left you will now find 17 of the blogs created by your classmates. I am proud of many of you -- you are already doing very well with this assignment.

Important reminder!

You may not post pictures of yourselves to your blogs. If you post a picture of yourself to your blog, you will not receive credit for the blog itself. This rule is designed to keep your World Wide Web presence as anonymous and protected as possible. You may, of course, put as much of your personality and perspective into your profile and posts as you wish; just remember to use your best judgment.

Note: Even if you have created a separate blog from the one you will maintain for this class, be careful that no one can reach that blog through your school one; if that is the case, you will be asked to delete the secondary blog.

Blogging into next week.

If you owe me a URL, email it before Sunday night. This applies to at least three of you, and it applies even to the individual who appears to have inexplicably spent Friday's class in the library. Sunday night, I will enter each blog into a list on this, the class' blog, and I will give you all a simple yes/no grade for having completed the following:

- the creation of your blog
- the completion of your profile (leaving out the restricted information about your location, identity, etc)
- the completion of an initial post introducing your blog and its focus

You and I will revisit this long-term assignment on Monday. I will demonstrate how to add images, links, etc to your blogs. You will also be responsible for adding all of your classmates' blogs to a list on yours by the end of next week.

At the same time, we will be moving forward in our study of the Internet. You will have a quiz on last week's lectures and notes, and we will look at search engine bias, Internet privacy, and the culture of e-speak.

We will also finalize many of the seminar presentation topics. Our first pair will present at the end of this upcoming week; I will discuss the process with all of you on Monday.

Internet Background.

The following link is to a Word document that contains a collection of information about the Internet and the World Wide Web. This comes from class discussion, my own notes, and then from the relatively few homework assignments I received. (Helpful hint: Not doing homework results in a zero, and zero's hurt your grade.)

A Little About Them Internets

You'll notice that it's a bit of background, a bit about URLs and web pages, and a smattering of statistics. You can't learn everything about this, so learn what's here.

I'll give you a heads-up before any quizzes, but expect one before too long. We are still setting up our blogs all this week, and then we are taking a look at a few other things; but the unit will only last another two weeks or so.

Harken, children!

This will help you:

NY Times: Blogs 101

It's an overview of blogging with a couple of great links to search engines. It also has blogs separated by genre, if you're looking for a second one for your assignment.

Bloggy lecture.

If blog can be both a noun and a verb, it can be an adjective -- hence the "bloggy" lecture notes below. Read it bloggily.

9.17 Lecture

This is a link from my BHS site, so you can also find the lecture through that. Remember that you are responsible for all of this information... which portends a quiz, methinks.

I will post quiz fodder related to your Internet scavenging later today, after I've culled enough useful info from your work and my notes.

As for today, listen in class -- but here's the condensed version:

1. Study the lecture notes
2. Read through last year's blogs and complete the questions provided in class about one
3. Search through my links, Google, etc to find another blog, and then complete the same questions for that

You're looking for what you want to emulate and what you want to avoid. We're in here for two days, and then we're back in the classroom to recap and review what you found. Don't rush! You'll be keeping the blog you eventually create (on Friday) for an entire semester, so take the time to prepare for it.

Finding blogs.

On Tuesday, you're going to be looking for examples of what you want your blog to emulate. You'll have to use the kids from last year's class, but you'll also have to wade into the wide, wide pool of online blogs to find another one.

The search engines on the left side of this blog are your first stop. I want to point out that the last one on the list (Weblogs, Inc.) has a list by genre on its main site. It's easy to find something there. For example, I found these two by clicking randomly with my eyes shut:

Nintendo Wii Fanboy
DIY Life

Happy hunting.

Weekly schedule.

Or, as the British say, "Schedule."

Monday, September 17
In the classroom (w/projector cart): Blog lecture w/examples of. Collecting Internet homework.
Tuesday, September 18
Room 170 Lab: Internet information posted online. Blog research.
Wednesday, September 19
Room 170 Lab: Blog research. Setting up blogs (if ready).
Thursday, September 20
In classroom (w/projector cart): Random presentations of blog research. Brainstorming ideas for blogs.
Friday, September 21
Room 170 Lab: Setting up blogs & making first entries.

You should head straight to Room 170 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.