SFL Bloggers

According to my watch, you must be just returning from lunch to attend the afternoon presentations and workshops. I wish I could be there. I particularly wanted to see the "Colour of Words" presentation. Really ground breaking stuff. :) Thanks Edward for putting this together...we'll have to do it again next year!?!?

Anyway, Cigdem and I presume you're reading this because you saw the notice about the 'Blogging' workshop, thanks to Ali and Ed for making this possible. You can see the detailed outline of the workshop in the 1 February posting below.

The cost??? $$$$$

• Well, it's free if you don't value your actual time to take part! ;)
  
• The workshop will span three weeks of input, and then an optional 4 weeks of experimentation for those who want to get their feet wet.
• In terms of input, we don't expect you need to commit much more than about two hours over the course of the three week period. We're teachers like you, with a full load, so we know how precious each minute can be.

So, if you're still reading, we presume that you're still thinking about it. Why not give it a try?

Before you register, you need to get an account at this blog server. Please follow these steps:

Click the "Get your own Blog" at the top right of the window.

1. Follow the three 'easy' steps - start by clicking the CONTINUE arrow.
2. The first step is to create an account. You'll need a user name--this is up to you, but it has to be unique so if you choose a name that already is in use, you'll have to keep trying. Remember to tick the "I agree to the terms" box.
3. Continuing to the second step, you need to give your blog a display name. You can use spaces, upper and lower case, whatever--it doesn't matter. However, when you create the URL for your blog, you need to make this unique and you can't use spaces or certain characters. If you make a mistake, it will ask you to keep trying.
4. Continuing to the third step, you can choose a colour and layout scheme for your blog. Don't worry if you can't make up your mind. Choose one...you can always change it later.
5. That's it for now. You'll be given the opportunity to create your first posting. Go ahead if you want (you can always delete or edit it later). But for now, you need to go back to SFL Bloggers and finish your registration.

In fact, the above task was a bit of test...if you manage to do this with no trouble, this workshop is for you. If not, don't despair. Try it again!

The reason why you need to have an account, is that we can't accept any postings from anyone that doesn't have one. If you want to join the workshop, we need to give you membership rights so you can be a member in this blog, and be able to create your own postings. In order to do this:

1. We need to know your e-mail address, so click on the comment button below.
2. The screen will refresh and you'll end up at the beginning of this posting, so you'll have to scroll to the bottom again (sorry for the verbosity!)
   
3. Now, click "Post a Comment" and you'll see the comment window.
4. Enter your e-mail address here and then click Publish (or "login and publish" if you have logged out of your account).
5. If you follow the instructions you should get a 'Success" message. Don't despair if your comment doesn't appear immediately...it can take some time (remember, we're in Cyprus and time is relative!!) In fact, it can take hours or up to a day sometimes. As long as you get a success message after posting, you can be sure that your comment will appear sooner or later.

When we add you as a member, you will receive an e-mail message giving you instructions to follow to activate your membership. It's really quite easy. We're doing this in part to let you experience the blog from many different angles. You might want to set up a group blog of your own, so it is important for you to see both sides.

Well, enough for now. We're really looking forward to this, with a bit of trepidation we must admit, as running a workshop entirely at a distance in blogosphere is a first for the SFL (and EMU-I believe) and certainly for us. We hope we don't let you down. In fact, we think we will probably learn a lot more from you than you will from us!

Registration will continue for next week, but we will post the first blogspace event to begin sometime during the week beginning Monday, 14th of February. Looking forward to blogging with you then!!