Thoughts on UCRS 1000

Syllabus is done.  Looks pretty good.  I may need to make some minor tweeks here and there, but it looks to be a really good semester.

I’m really excited about the first reflection I’m giving the students.  They have to write their own obituary.  I’m hoping this will be a fun way to get students thinking about where the want to be in the long term.  What they will have wanted to accomplish by the time they are in their 80’s or 90’s.  This might be a good place for them to start when thinking about what they want to do now.

Plus it will be kind of morbidly cool.  I may have to write my own obituary. :)

It turns out that Tumblr blogs default to public and there is no way to make them private.  However, you can create a kind of sister blog to your public tumblr that is password protected.  Here are the instructions I’m going to give class on how to create their tumblr blogs.

Tumblr Instructions

Creating a Tumblr Account:

1.       Go to: www.tumblr.com

2.       Type in your email address, a password and a unique URL for your Tumblr blog (it will be _________.tumblr.com) Be sure to pick something unique to you.  This is the URL you will email to me so I can find your blog. 

3.       Once your account has been created you will be taken through a step by step process to customize your blog.  Feel free to customize your blog however you see fit.  Just make sure I’ll be able to read it.

a.        During the customization process you will be asked to pick a theme (a theme is the general layout of your blog).  The first choices you are given are “premium” themes and cost money.  If you scroll down a bit you’ll see some free themes.

4.       Once you’ve customized your blog and emailed me the URL you are ready to start posting.  Along the top of your dashboard you’ll see buttons to post lots of different types of material including Text, Photos, Quotes, Videos, Audio, etc…Remember, you are free to post any kind of material you like, just be sure you are fulfilling the assignment in terms of WRITING too.

5.       Private Blog Posts:  If you want to post something that you don’t want others to see there is a way to password protect a blog.  What you DO NOT want to do is create a blog post on your regular Tumblr that is marked “private” I have no way of seeing this post and therefore will not be able to grade you on it.  You need to create a separate, password protected blog, for private posts.  This is how you do that:

a.         On the right hand side of the dashboard you will see the name of your Tumblr blog with a drop down arrow next to it.  Click on this.

b.       Now select “+Create a New Blog”

c.        Now fill in the title and new unique URL.  You will also need to select a password.  Because you will be sending me this password, it’s probably a good idea that you not use one of your standard passwords.  Choose something new and original, but also something that is personal to you as you will need to remember this password.

d.       From here it is up to you.  You now have a safe place to post things that you would not otherwise want people to see.  I will be looking at these, but just as a way to make sure that you have done them.  I will respect your privacy and keep any information I read here private.

e.     Please remember to email me both the new URL and the password.

Started work on the syllabus for class today.

Got sidetracked by ideas for Tumblr.  Decided to create a new Tumblr account just for this class (not that I use my other Tumblr account that much.  Just checked and there’s a year and 2 weeks between my most recent post from last week and the post before it…).  Need to start blogging more.

Will this be an acceptable way for students to share their thoughts and reflections?

Having trouble finding privacy settings…hmmmm….

More later…