Blogger Problems
Busy, busy
Monday. I had a workshop with a group of early ed students today. I had some
time but not as much as I would have liked to introduce them to blogs.
They created a weblog in Blogger. Several
had problems finding a name and then an address that Blogger would accept. We
came up with some bizarre names but it would not accept them. Go figure. Then
when they got to posting they found that they had several blogs already
created. Lots of unusual glitches. I’ve not had problems like that with Blogger
before. It usually goes pretty smoothly. I use it when I have very short times
to introduce blogs. You really need time because you just can’t really explain
it thoroughly in a one or even a two hour workshop. Then you don’t get to see
them again usually for follow-up. I am lucky. I will get to see this group but
I’ll be teaching other technology but I’ll weave the blogs in where I can. I lost out
on an emerging technology workshop I proposed. The faculty members wanted
PowerPoint. Again, go figure….
I was wondering if anyone else was having the same kind of problems with
Blogger?????
September 12th, 2005 at 5:27 pm
You should have your own Linux server. You could use DotClear or B2evolution for your blogs. It would be a whole lot easier to create the blogs and you would have the entire control over them. My God, I sound like a control freak? Hihihihihi!!!
September 12th, 2005 at 7:44 pm
I was helping with a session that had something similar happen. The system was not liking names. It only created one blog when they finally got a name that worked though.
Aside from the technical problems, what I noticed that the people (in the session that I was observing) were not really understanding why the system was rejecting names and then they got frustrated with it. If there was time to work in smaller groups, I think it may have worked better.
You are luck you get to do a followup.
September 12th, 2005 at 11:25 pm
Funny you should mention your surprise at faculty staff wanting more on PowerPoint instead of discovering blogs. I have just found a pretty ‘off-the-wall’ comment/attack on blogs from a Scottish colleague on someone else’s blog. She believes that there is some kind of natural progression from PowerPoint to blogging, instead of seeing that effective blogging is probably easier than creating an effective PowerPoint. Her comment and my reaction to her comment is here: http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2005/09/smell_the_coffe.html
Do you get this, too?
September 13th, 2005 at 2:31 am
Hi Anne!
Yes, I can identify with your problem. I have many students using blogger.com as a reflection and process journal. I am also using it for a couple of different projects this year. Sometimes it just seems to glitch. Today two students had to create new blogs due to technical problems. The other night, when creating the Podcast Bangladesh blog (see http://www.podcastbangla.blogspot.com) it came back with an error that podcastbangladesh in the name was not acceptable, hence the final abbreviated name I have settled on. The former of course now comes up as an error on the web page. Despite these minor inconveniences I am still committed to supporting and promoting blogging and weblogs in the curriculum. I am also pleased to say that I have finally started a bloglines feed site so I can remember to read your blog more often! Thanks Anne.
Cheers, Julie