Ready to Go!

All of our blog/research journals are now in place.  I encourage you all to check on each other's blogs and leave your comments and questions.

The projects are on: go!

Monday, 3 Jan: How to create a blog

1.  Before creating the blog:  You need to set up a way to have regular access to this blog, because I will post updates and you will also be able to link to other students' blogs through this page.  One way to give yourself a regular link to this blog is to put it in your bookmarks toobar. (Directions are similar for PCs and Mac: At top of page, click "bookmarks"; then, "add" or "bookmark this page"; then change the option underneath to "bookmark TOOLBAR" then click "done."  If you don't choose this method, you should use some other way to make it easy for yourself to access this site regularly.
2. So, blog creation: go to this link (blogger.com).  It will ask you to login to create a new blog.  You should first try to login with the ncf.edu account.  If that doesn't work, to to the "register for an account" also using the ncf.edu email.  Once you have registered, the site will walk you through the steps to create a blog, which is basically deciding on a name and a template
3. One of the first things you will able to do on this new site is create a NEW POST.  You do this by clicking "new post" which brings you a new page with an empty title and text box.  Test this out by putting in a text title and writing a test message in the box.  Then, click "publish post" and, then, "view post."  You will obviously want to edit this entry.  This you can do by clicking on the small image of the pencil at the bottom of the entry.
4. Knowing how to edit a post is important, because the first thing that I want you to do on this blog is to write an entry about what you are doing for the ISP.  What is your research question?  How will you proceed to address it?  What books will be important for the project?  What tentative theses do you have about the research?  How exactly will you break up your time to address these questions?  These questions direct you to write (or revise) a proposal for how you will spend the 4 weeks of the ISP working on your project.  Begin this now.
5. When you have finished, send me an email with the link to your new blog.  I will post a link to it from this site.
6. A note about security option:  If you would like your blog to be relatively private (not viewable by anyone who searches for it on google), follow these steps: When viewing your blog, click on the tab for "design" (next to tab for "new post"). Then "settings." Scroll down and you will see a series of questions.  To both "Add your blog to our listings?" and "Let search engines find your blog?" click "NO."  These settings will still allow visitors (like the other ISP students working with me) to see your blog, but those visitors would only be able to find it if you give them a link (they couldn't stumble on it accidentally in an internet search.)