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Writing #1: Make a List of Blog Posts to Write


Time frame: 30 minutes overall

Part 1.

Sit down and on a piece of paper make a list, or a mind map, of blog posts you've been thinking about writing.  Spend 10 minutes on this.

Part 2.

Have a look at your list or mind map. Write it up and if necessary take a photo so that you can share it here. Spend 10 minutes on this.

Part 3.

Post your list. Take 10 minutes max.

Hooray! You have done some Writing for the Web!

Task Discussion


  • Stefanie   Aug. 11, 2011, 9:02 a.m.

    Ideas for Postings:

    • Article about P2PU ;-)
    • Interviews with teachers and students from UoP
    • Report on OpenStudy
    • Report on OpenLearn
    • Article about fanfiction
  • Pippa Buchanan   May 9, 2011, 10:11 a.m.

    It used to feel that I blogged about almost everything and while there are some part of my life which are off limits it seems that I still want to write about a lot of things.

    Things to Blog MindMap - Pippa Buchanan

    This list ended up getting very long so I identified more general themes amongst my ideas. I'm happy to elaborate on them but don't want to overwhelm this discussion:

    • Mental health and coping with Anxiety
    • Work (primarily School of Webcraft)
    • "Learning"
    • Home
    • Gardening
    • Living in Linz
    • Friendship and Art Making
    • Books
    • Food
    • Travel

    Looking at this list, none of the topics seem too intimidating however some thoughts occured to me while doing the mind-map.

    • I don't want my general blog at battlecat.net to become specialised.

      • i.e. not a food blog or a book blog or a home design blog
      • Still, I like beautiful photography and specialist blogs - how can I take inspiration from them?
    • Eeek! If I blog all this I won't have time to actually do anything.

      • how can I time manage this and become more efficient at blogging?
    • Sitting in the sun with a cup of tea is great!
  • Lynn Cook   May 9, 2011, 7:56 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Pippa Buchanan   May 9, 2011, 10:11 a.m.

    It is indeed nice to sit in the sun, in my case late-autumn morning sunshine warming up my shins and fingers.

    The personal blog is interesting ... it used to be that most blogs were personal with people writing about all sorts of things, then there was an increase in specialisation, then businesses and organisations got blogs, or people started blogs with the idea that they could make money from advertising, the commercialisation of the blog. And facebook and twitter kind've took over as the place where you put all the snippets of your life but you can't develop much of a thought process or discussion with those platforms.

    So it'd be good to see a resurgence of personal blogs.

    I think they are a little like a front garden full of plants (writing) that you think are pretty, intriguing, stylish. A place for people to leave comments as they walk past: "Oh, how lovely!" although sometimes people steal your plants or leave junk mail (spam). You swap plants with your neighbours, or bring plants back from a friend's house, each plant has a story. You need to work in your garden regularly to keep it looking beautiful but it's not a major work. You might remodel slightly if you think it's not reflecting your style anymore.

    Nice!

  • Pippa Buchanan   May 10, 2011, 5:33 a.m.
    In Reply To:   Lynn Cook   May 9, 2011, 7:56 p.m.

    I love the garden / personal blog analogy!

    Though sometimes personal blogs can feel a little bit like a compost heap (I needed to continue the growth metaphor) - as in a place where you can throw away stuff, and given enough stirring and warmth they become something more useful!

  • Lynn Cook   May 7, 2011, 6:17 a.m.

    Hi Y'all,

    I think it's interesting that we all seem to be struggling with getting stuff out of our heads and onto the page. And that is why we are here in this study group, to get better at doing the Writing on the Web thing.

    Having read what people have written so far it looks like we are all sole practitioners, we all want to write for ourselves and our own projects, for what we believe in and find interesting.

    Here are some notes/words I've just put down about being a sole practitioner:

     

    • working by yourself / oneself
    • what is appropriate
    • loneliness
    • making judgements
    •  (Picasso and the other fella and cubism)
    • following through on the super long no gratitude project
    • accepting gifts
    • recognizing gifts
    • intutition
    • paralysis
    • finding a framework
    • exercising within that framework
     
    The gifts thing is interesting: I've found it helpful reading and looking at you alls' mind maps and some of the concerns and comments are gifts to me, moments that I connect with. And these gifts lead on in my mind to God given gifts, the things that seem sent to try us, but are also, long term paths.
  • Amanda   May 7, 2011, 5:22 a.m.

    I never know in advance what I will be blogging about, so once I actually sat down and tried this task, I found it helpful and really enjoyed it.  I think this is a good starting point.  Here is my go at it:

    • Learning:

                          -JavaScript

                          -Python

                          -Blogging/ Writing for the Web

                          -Cooking

     

    • Coping w/ Bipolar Disorder:

                          -Day to Day

                          -Rants (?)

     

    • Inspiration:

                          -Interior Design

                          -Blogs/ Web

                          -Fashion

  • Stefanie   Aug. 11, 2011, 8:43 a.m.
    In Reply To:   Amanda   May 7, 2011, 5:22 a.m.

    I like the wild mix of 'geek'  and offline topics!  One suggestion for improving: The "Inspiration" part seems to me a bit general and actually less inspirational than your other topics.

    Best,

    Stefanie

  • Laura Hilliger   May 6, 2011, 4:11 a.m.

    My big problem is that I don't know what I want to write about until I am ready to write about something. I don't plan in advance, I just start ranting about whatever it is that is going through my mind at a particular moment. This is my first attempt at mind mapping blog posts, I think it went really well!

    1. Education
      1. E-Learning Evaluation
        • Methods and selection
        • questions to ask
      2. Psych Stuff
        • Cognitive Loads
        • Multicodal
        • Contiguity
        • Coherence
        • brain space (capacity)
      3. Didactics (Web)
        • blended learning
        • using interactivity
        • organizing information
        • what learners need
        • understanding audience
      4. International Collaboration
    2. Design
      • understanding audience
      • international collaboration
      • phases of interactive projects
      • finding words to describe
      • making a mind map!
      • thinking visually
    3. Rants
      • Feminism & Affirmative Action
      • Walking through 1st class
      • reality tv
         

    Laura's Mind Map for Blog Posts

  • Laura Hilliger   May 6, 2011, 4:14 a.m.
    In Reply To:   Laura Hilliger   May 6, 2011, 4:11 a.m.

    Ahhh! Formating is messed up (it looked right in the window:( if someone wants to tell me how I can edit my own comment, that would be helpful.

  • Pippa Buchanan   May 6, 2011, 6:26 a.m.
    In Reply To:   Laura Hilliger   May 6, 2011, 4:14 a.m.

    Using my amazing Lighthouse research skills I found that we'll be able to edit comments in release 0.5 - so this coming Monday... (May 9th).

  • nzeribe   April 30, 2011, 8:49 p.m.

    My mind-map is here - be sure to click on the "map" view (top-left corner) to see it spatially; click on the links to read more.

    My List

    • Experiments in raw optimism
    • Who am I?
    • A question of decency
    • Writing about sex
    • Can't we all just get along?
    • The Laws of Attraction
  • Jessica Ledbetter   April 29, 2011, 2:17 p.m.

     

    I tried mind mapping but didn't quite get it. So here's a list :)

    • P2PU experience so far 
    • OpenHatch experience so far 
    • How to do presentations to a diverse audience 
    • How to fix the "first result" bug in Seam 
    • How not to design for usability 
    • How not to design for accessibility 
    • Testing in Python 
    • Testing with Selenium 
    • Testing in Java 
    • Intro to programming the koan way 
    • How to get one's Ubuntu local community team approved 
    • Summary of my class from Ubuntu Open Week Maverick 
    • Summary of my class from Ubuntu Open Week Natty
  • Pippa Buchanan   April 25, 2011, 10:44 a.m.

    Lynn - thank you for creating this task - I really like how you've described it and set time limits for the specific sections.

    :-)

    Now - to sit down and work on it!

  • Pippa Buchanan   April 27, 2011, 12:30 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Pippa Buchanan   April 25, 2011, 10:44 a.m.

    I also edited the task description so that people felt invited to share a mind-map if they create one.

  • Lynn Cook   April 27, 2011, 4:56 p.m.
    In Reply To:   Pippa Buchanan   April 27, 2011, 12:30 p.m.

    Ah! Very good - pictures of mind maps are very interesting and useful.

    L

  • Lynn Cook   April 23, 2011, 10:21 p.m.

    posts for food blog:

    • fasting
    • Good Friday soup
    • Greek cookbooks, attitude towards food and why I'm not a vegan
    • recipe for stir fried noodles and greens

    posts for art blog

    • about the printing workshop
    • about the drawing workshop
    • Richard Bell judging the Sulman Prize, and art as a lottery
    • 7 Days in the Art World
    • open studio
    • current work

    posts for learning blog

    • hackety-hack.com
    • p2pu.org
    • new.p2pu.org and study groups