An eLearning Experience
I have been wandering around the eLearning world for a couple of years now, picking up tips, discovering gems, creating content and discussing theory. Only now have I decide to blog my experience.
It is strange that I haven’t started blogging earlier, considering I have been planning on doing so for a few months 
It has been through joining Work Literacy – Web 2.0 for Learning Professionals that I have been encouraged to develop my online presence.
From ‘An eLearning Experience’ I hope . . .
- to share my half-baked ideas and get input from you
- to give back to the eLearning community
- to meet and collaborate
- to capture, develop and analyse
- to open up doorways, passages, tunnels or https connections
Now, any tips on using WordPress . . .
Tips for WordPress are easy to find… it took me a little time to grasp the difference between Posts and Pages (I’m using caps for emphasis), but now that’s second nature. Pages are for meant-to-be-static stuff. So, on my own blog, the stuff in the sidebar under “Background” exists on Pages. Not that you have to do it, but an About page is a good idea.
Even though it’s a Page, you can always go back and edit it, just as you do with posts.
I use WordPress and like its simplicity. I learned a lot from Lorelle at http://lorelle.wordpress.com/
I would also suggest paying the $15 and registering a domain name at wordpress.com. That way you get a permanent presence (URI) on the Web, which may not be important now but will be in 5 years when it’s too late.
Thanks Dave for the tip on Posts & Pages . . . This was causing some confusion! I have been following your blog for a while now and have just been back to check out your layout etc.
Also, the About me page is a good idea and I did start writing it last night – however because I have already spent so much time procrastinating about starting this blog I just wanted to get a post out there!!!
Thanks Harold . . . Lorelle’s site is great! Especially the list of Do’s & Dont’s (http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/the-dos-and-donts-of-blogging/) – very handy for someone starting out!
I will look into registering a domain name at wordpress.com – seems like a very good idea
Welcome to the blogosphere, Dave! I’ve been blogging personally for a couple of years, but just started blogging professionally a few months ago. I’ve been doing it mostly to maintain a space where I can demo the concept to people at work who don’t always understand web 2.0 concepts.
Looking forward to week 2 of the Work Literacy course!
Be sure to check out Twitter too. I wasn’t sold at first, but have found it to be a very valuable tool for my own professional development. It’s just a matter of finding the right people to follow.
Hi Collin,
Being able to demonstrate how web 2.0 works is also one of my motivations . . . it is a case of walking the talk!
Agree re Twitter, signed up a few days ago and loving it! I am mfubib on Twitter
As far as who to follow on Twitter goes, have you checked out 100+ learning professionals to follow by Jane Hart?
If not, it is available here:
http://c4lpt.co.uk/socialmedia/edutwitter.html
Welcome to the blogosphere, Matthew–I love that the Work Literacy course persuaded you to start blogging! For me, having a blog has been one of the most profoundly rewarding professional decisions I’ve ever made. I’ve learned so much through blogging and met so many great people. Blogging has also been an avenue to getting to work on a lot of cool, interesting projects, like facilitating the Work Literacy course.
Good luck with your blog–as Harold said, it’s definitely a labor of love!
Thank you Michele
Thanks for swinging by my blog – and for the encouragement on the launch of my website! It put you on my radar and brought me here.
Welcome to this space. I hope you learn as much from it as I have in the past couple of years. In fact, you will learn from it as much as you want to – the only limitation will be those you apply yourself. I know, I know… that sounds really cheesy, right? But it’s the absolute truth.
Congratulations on starting your blog. I’ve been blogging for nearly 6 months and I find it really rewarding on all kinds of levels. Can I suggest you get a clustrmap widget or something similar – it’s a real buzz when visitors pop up from around the world.
I’m enjoying the Work Literacy stuff too – no doubt I’ll “see” you there.
clustrmap widget is a great idea! I will look into it, thanks Heather. Still getting my head around wordpress, especially when it comes to adding javascript!
Karyn, it doesn’t sound cheesy at all!
Thanks!
Welcome, Matthew! It’s great to connect with more eLearning folks via blogging and twitter. There’s just so much to learn from each other — expanding the walls of the office (and my world) immensely.
Great start. Think you have the makings of a great blog. Some of the tips here from other bloggers are great for all of us to think about and incorporate.
Keep it up, I look forward to future postintgs.
Hi, Matthew. You can tell from my trail of comments that I started at your most recent post and worked backwards.
I also just started (literally) a personal blog for my friends and family using WordPress, so all the links and tips here are great for me, too. Thanks for blogging!
Are you using WordPress.com or hosting the site yourself? This blog is currently developed using WordPress.com however I am (behind the scenes) setting up a domain & hosting with the aim of developing my own site. Lots to learn!
I am using GoDaddy hosting. One of the nice things they offer is the option to let them install the shell of certain free applications, like WordPress. (I have let them install several free apps, like WordPress, Drupal, Moodle, and Joomla just so I can test them out.) Now I just have to add plugins and post content. I am going to use WordPress for my personal blog for my family and friends, most of whom are not tech savvy. For that reason, I can keep it fairly simple and still use it as a training tool to acquaint them with Web2.0 technologies. (www.davidfair.me) I figured this would be a good way to get my feet wet with blogging. It still needs work, but its rather fun to test new WordPress plugins and rearrange the interface. I’ll check out http://lorelle.wordpress.com/. I need all the help I can get. I’ll probably use Blogger to start a professional blog later this week as Tony Karrer suggests here.
Thanks David, I am looking forward to trying out some of the wordpress plugins.
Given that you are already comfortable using wordpress I would recommend continuing with that for your professional blog.
While Blogger is great for getting started (easy to use, rich feature set etc.) it seems to me that many people move from Blogger (where you have very little control over your site) to WordPress.
Thanks Tracy appreciate your encouragement
Quoting mfubib:
“Given that you are already comfortable using wordpress I would recommend continuing with that for your professional blog.”
Interesting that you say that, Matthew. I had just come to the same conclusion to stick with WordPress – though I would not say I am “comfortable” with it yet.
(I’ve only made one personal blog post so far.) Thank you for the advice. I’ll take it!