Another Week Has Flown By

I can't believe another week has gone. I just can't seem to get everything done I'd like to with this subject. I have spent a deal of computer time working on my Hot Potatoes quizzes for my next Task. But like Moon I am feeling pressured to get some subject specific reading done. Trouble is there's just so much of it out there.

You could get swallowed up by this stuff if you're not careful.

On that note I am going to shut down this computer and do some recreational reading for the rest of the day.

Onwards Into the Valley of...

After my 'drop-in' session on Friday I was inspired to tackle Hot Potatoes BUT not Friday night as I wanted to watch the Australia vs NZ rugby league match. Poor New Zealand what a drubbing! I found myself praying they'd get one try so that they didn't go home a bunch of zeros.

Anyway Saturday morning early but not so bright I downloaded the latest Hot Potatoes and commenced teaching myself how to use the various portions of the program only to be stopped mid type by the fact that I hadn't registered. I have sent several emails trying to get them to waive the fee because I will be using it for education purposes only with no commercial gain... still no joy just another confusing email. I did manage a couple of mini quizzes which I dutifully saved as html docs as well as the other.

Today I loaded them into my new website in Dreamweaver. They worked well as did a crossword I built with another program I bought a while back. I tried to link my Webquest to the new site and had no joy... In the end I binned it all. I'll think about it for a few days and have another go. I really need to rest now as it is nearly 5pm and I must look fresh tomorrow for my poor students. Can't go in suffering from Compu-lag can I? I feel I have achieved quite a bit this weekend but realize I have loads of work to do this coming week. Thank goodness it's Anzac Day on Wednesday. I'll be able to do a bit more in Dreamweaver and also start catching up on my readings.

That's it for now.

The Saga Continues

It's all been a bit of fun really, costly fun admittedly but fun none-the-less. I have actually learnt a lot of new skills that I probably would have avoided if everything had gone as smooth as glass like last time. Last time refers to 5 or so years ago when I built a website as part of an undergrad course for which I received a 7. :) If I recall the uploading of the site was a guided one and you really didn't learn anything about the actual uploading. The object of the exercise back then was to write an excellent website brief for your 'client' and then build the website in Photoshop would you believe in a million little nightmarish slices; create a template and build your site from there. The architecture of the site was the key. If your informational architecture was right then you had a great user-friendly website.

I tried to keep all this in mind when I built this Quest in Dreamweaver. Time will tell how user-friendly my Quest is when my students actually use it.

Not much of short story is it?

I've uploaded my Quest to my new BigPond webspace. I will be using this space later for my English To Go website; however for now it has my Quest on it. I have also trialled different FTP software called Ipswitch... bit of an omen as I live near Ipswich! It works like a dream with the BigPond site. The beauty of my BigPond site is that I can keep tweaking it... well why not as I am paying for the privelege... not that I'm not paying through the nose at QUT but there it seems you get to load it once and pity help you if you stuff it up because you can't touch it again.

Several STD calls later I found this out though it was pretty obvious to me this at 6am this morning when all I seemed to be able to do was add more folders without correcting a darn thing. Anyway I've had a chat with the powers that be at CSO and a very well spoken fellow whose name I have forgotten cleared the lot and saved it to a new folder for me - [in case there is anything there I may need later]. Now I am free to upload again from scratch but somehow I don't think I'll bother as it all seems rather pointless if you can't go in and change something... like what happens when a link changes and the one you have in your file is no longer valid?

That aside I feel relieved to be able to go somewhere on the web even if I had to pay for the domain space and find my Quest... now my students will actually be able to use it... when I write the rest of the program that is.

That's it for now.

Thought It Was All Too Easy

I took a look at my Quest today on the computers at work and oh dear some glitches showed that didn't at home. Rushed home after my visit to the hairdresser to tidy up the files and reload them to the site... hmm can't get on to the sight can I... temporarily unavailable for the past 2 hours or more... naturally it is bothering me. I'd like to work out why my changes didn't take last night when I did them. And there are one or two things I still need to add to the Quest namely the references and credits... groan... another sleepless night I see! I hope I have better news tomorrow.

Draft 1 of My Webquest Is UP at Last

I thought building the WebQuest was an onerous task until I tried to load the #*!$#* thing. After a couple of hours of 'INTUTWITT'



I phoned the experts in the IT section of QUT only to find out that 'They Who Should Know' don't even try to load via Dreamweaver. The lovely young person... can't reveal gender due to political correctness... oops I suppose 'lovely' and 'young' are discriminatory terms too... well the IT guy put me on to File Zilla... and I loaded it all at several clicks of a black neutered mouse feeling oh so clever... Of course it didn't work did it. I kept typing in the URL from the How To Do It sheet I'd downloaded from the CLN618 site.



In my usual... 'this is the only time I have to do this and I will do it one way or the other' style I googled where can I load my webquest free? After an hour or so trialling a few sights I decided to throw cash to the wind and buy some webspace off BigPond... too bad they take 24 hours to set up my web space. Oh well I guess I can load my web pages there AND my WebQuest at a later date.



This post is actually taking me hours as I have been fiddling around with my WebQuest. There are a couple of changes that simply wont TAKE and it's driving me insane. I have literally deleted and reloaded the entire Webquest 4 times today... I think I'll live with the niggly errors for now and take a fresh look on Friday. I have actually been home dying of some obscure virus all day and of course didn't rest but worked on this wretched thing... now I shall be just as ill at work tomorrow... not happy Jan... and neither will my colleagues be when I drag my weary self in on the morrow.

Oh yes and by the way I finally found where it was on the QUT website. Just a couple more slashes and dashes and whaaaalaaaah I found it...

It's Working!

When you introduce a new concept to your students and they start to use it on their own there's nothing quite like it. This morning I read one of my student's journals and was pleased to see that she had given me the link to her new blog. It is in English and Vietnamese as she wants to use it with all her friends. When I think of how cautiously she approached the idea of setting up a group blog in class I am extremely pleased to see that just two weeks later she's setting up her own individual blog. This is what makes teaching so rewarding for me at least.