This time, you have a choice of one of two prompts. Choose one. Don’t do both. (Unless you really want to.)
1. How-To: Create a tutorial for doing something — anything you are good at. Give your reader step by step instructions for doing something, be it baking cookies, playing a game, making a computer program do something, using a smartphone app, knitting, finding information — something you know how to do well that you can teach others to do as well. It need not be related to technology or social media.
Your tutorial can be either written instructions or a video of you going through the steps. Videos need to be embedded in your blog post. If you choose the video option, write a few sentences explaining why you chose your subject matter. If you’re doing something computer related, use screenshots for your images. Instructions for taking screenshots are at the site linked below.
An example of a simple text tutorial that you can follow if you wish is my recent post on adding a CC license to your blog. Another simple one is here. Here’s another. There are lots of examples on the internet so do a google search for “tutorial if you’d like to see other examples. If appropriate to your topic and you choose to do a video, you can use Jing, a free screencast tool.
2. Adventures in Wikiing: Create a Wikipedia account and then do something on the site: create an article, edit an article, participate in a discussion on an article’s or user’s Talk page — whatever you want. Keep an eye on the changes or contributions you made (you can learn a lot by looking at the history of a post) and then write a few paragraphs describing what happened and reflecting upon it: what did you do on Wikipedia for this assignment? Why? What happened? Why? Did anyone respond or change what you did? Did someone comment on it on a Talk page? What are your impressions of this experience?
You may want to take screenshots of your changes or article in case they are deleted. Heres how to take a screenshot in Mac, Windows, and other devices.
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Remember to categorize your post “blogging assignments.” You may also wish to add tags to your post. And don’t forget to comment on at least 2 post by your classmates.
As always, post questions or comments in the comment section below.
This blogging assignment is due by Friday, 10/5.
