Blog Post #12

I was speechless when I viewed the blog assignment for this week in EDM310. Dr. Strange did not assign his class a step by step assignment as usual, but rather he asked us to propose our own assignment for EDM310. I spent all week thinking about different ideas that Dr. Strange could use in his class, and I came across many excellent ideas through viewing previous EDM310 student blogs such as Carly Pugh's proposal of a YouTube playlist. After viewing various blogs and thinking day after day about what I should propose for EDM310, I was becoming very discouraged in my pursuit for an assignment. I wanted to create an assignment that would be more than just a one time affair, and I wanted this assignment to be a continuing effort and the centerpiece of each EDM310 student’s social and professional life! All of a sudden the idea occurred to me to create an assignment in which “blogging” would become the centerpiece of each student's personal and professional career, and in which social networking would become the tool through which each student would advertise their blog! Each student in EDM310 created their own blog when classes began, and the work that each student produced through blogging is extremely important for their future professional career. I want to see each EDM310 student continue blogging, but I do not want a student's wonderful class work to become hidden by their continual blogging brilliance. So my proposal to Dr. Strange is to assign a blog post assignment in which each student creates his or her own personal blog, not for one time use, but for CONTINUAL publications throughout their professional career!

The goal of my proposed assignment is for Blogger to become the theme of each student's social and professional life. Most people in the world today have a facebook or a twitter account, and my goal for each student is for them to utilize their most private social connections to catapult their new blog into a social popularity. Social Networks will not be the only aspect of this assignment. As stated by Carly, videos are an extremely important part of education, and videos add life and excitement to each blog. The second part of this assignment was inspired by Carly’s blog post. My plan is that students will take full advantage of the attraction that videos provide. Students who take part in this assignment will be asked to create their own video that they will publish through Facebook and Twitter. This video will serve as an advertisement to their newly created blog. The  video will explain the student’s reason behind creating his or her blog, and it will explain the student’s overall goal for that blog. In this assignment I will also encourage each student to continue using video’s in their blogs to enhance the “entertainment” aspect of their “brilliant” and informing post. The possibilities of this assignment are limitless, and each EDM310 student can use their blog to communicate various video assignment with their future students. Here is my assignment (written as if it were an assignment).


The Instructions

This will be a two part assignment that will primarily consist of Blogger, and the assignment will also incorporate YouTube. On the first day of class you created your own class blog, and through your class blog you would post your classwork. Now it is time for you to create your own "personal" blog that will be advertised through your existing social networking sites! This blog will be beneficial in communicating your ideas with fellow educators!

Blogger.

1) Open up Blogger and create a new blog. Follow the easy step below to create your new blog.
>Go to Blogger.com
>To the left of your EDM310 blog you will see a button that says “New Blog”. Click on that Button.
>You will then be asked to title your blog and create a URL for your blog. (Think for a moment about an interesting, catchy, and easily spelled title that will be easy to remember)
>After naming your blog click “Create Blog!”.

2) Now that you have your own personal blog make the blog your own by customizing it however you would like. Remember this is your own personal blog, and there are no requirements as to how you should set up your blog. Use the skills that you learned in EDM310 to make an interesting blog. Do not publish a post yet!


YouTube

Videos are an extremely important part of education, and this is mainly because of the visual and auditory benefits that they provide. Videos can add that additional attraction to your blog, and a video enhanced blog can be extremely beneficial in regard to education. The main aim of this YouTube assignment  is for you to create a video that will be published through the social networking sites that you use (such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+). This video will act as an advertisement that will invite your social acquaintances to visit your blog on a regular basis. Remember to tell the viewer why you are creating the blog, and what your goal is for that blog in the future. Keep in mind that you are trying to “persuade” people to visit on a regular basis!

1) Create an interesting video that will persuade your viewer to visit your blog on a regular basis.  
2) Post your video to YouTube.

3) Find your video on YouTube. DO NOT SHARE  

PUBLISHING YOUR NEW BLOG

Now comes the step which will pull your YouTube advertisement and new blog together!

1) Create your FIRST blog post that will inform readers who you are, and how your blog will interest them in the future! Follow the requirements in Writing A Quality Blog Post. DO NOT PUBLISH

2) Now incorporate one video from YouTube that will best exemplify your blog. Pick a video that will create a sense of attraction to your blog (It can be the video that you created for this assignment).

3) Insert a clickable link in your blog post that will connect your friends and future professional acquaintances to the excellent work that you did in EDM310. Also include a link in your EDM310 blog directing viewers to your personal blog.

4) Now PUBLISH your post....NOT DONE JUST YET!!

5) In order for this new blog to become the center of your social connections you will need to invite all of society to visit your blog! This assignment will be useless without this LAST STEP!
>Through using Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ SHARE the YouTube video that YOU created.
> Now SHARE a link to your new blog post. This will encourage all of your friends to read your newly created post. Remember to SHARE EVERY POST that you publish on your new blog with EVERY social network that you are involved with. By continually doing this your blog will become the most vital part of your professional and social life!

As I mentioned before, this assignment is designed to encourage students to continue blogging by separating their EDM310 work from their professional publications, and it is designed to link all of a student's social connections to one central location. Through the newly created blog each student will continue to share more in depth ideas with the same people that they communicated with through their micro blogging sites!

So the second part of Blog Post #12 was to do everything that I proposed in my assignment! Here is what I accomplished. I created my own personal blog "Redeeming The Classroom". I have shared my blog and blog post with everyone that I have ties with on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. I also published an advertising video that invited people to my blog.


Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my proposed assignment, and PLEASE leave comments below!