New MA Website & Forum

As a follow up to the new MA Website and Forum we talked about in the lectures on Tuesday, I thought I'd pop a link on here in case anyone can't find it.

http://www.mafarnham.org.uk

To use the site, you will need to register (click register in the top-right corner). It will ask for a login/user name, a password and an email address. I'd advise using a username that represents you somehow (for example, JohnDoe) and it will send you a confirmation email.

Click the link in the confirmation email and you will be set up and ready to go. Ignore the message that says Unknown User or Password when you first click register as this is a bug.

If you need any help registering or with anything else on the site, please contact myself, Dan, Gary or Sam in person, via the new site or via email. My email address is coojam96@hotmail.com for anyone that needs it.

One of the best features of the new site is the discussion forum. For anyone that hasn't used one of these before, they're great for communicating and discussing ideas. Don't feel scared about starting a topic for discussion either!

MA Social: Tuesday 6th November, 6pm

Title kind of says it all really... Tuesday 6th November, 6pm at The Slug & Lettuce! See you there :D

Fireworks Fiesta in Farnham Park on Saturday 3rd November

Would anybody be interested in attending this? It's on a Saturday so I realise not everybody will be able to make it, but for us locals it could be a great night out (weather permitting!)

For more information, it's on this website - just click on "Fireworks Fiesta".

Tickets are £5 each.

MA Social Photos

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all enjoyed last night! See below for photos - there are also a few more in the MA group on Facebook.

Enjoy!

Here is Nairobi group's presentation. I selected some key power point slides.
(research finding, a new logo, web with a new logo and recommendations)

Presentation to the University Creative Marketing Team

On Sarah's request, here is Mumbai Group's presentation to the University Marketing Representative and other People Responsible For Making Important Decisions At Uni Who's Job Titles I Can't Remember.

It's in PDF format and will open in a new window/tab.

Tom/Mariko if you've got a version of Nairobi group's presentation too, can you get it on here too?

Tuesday 16th October Social at "The Slug & Lettuce"

Hello everybody,

Just a reminder about the gathering of MA at The Slug & Lettuce bar on Tuesday 16th October after the lectures during the day. They should finish at 6pm and then we can go to the pub! It would be great to see everybody there!

We will probably all go down in a group I imagine but in case anyone doesn't know the way, here's a map:



and here's what it looks like!



See you all soon!

Lecture / Seminar Cancellations

Hi All!

Just an idea - I think it might be wise for each MA discipline to have a contact so that, should a lecture be cancelled or rescheduled, the tutor can contact that person, who can then relay the message to other members of the group – this would help to avoid unnecessary journeys being made, - especially in cases where people are travelling for over an hour or more to get to Uni for a lecture!

I did have a conversation with one student last week who embarked on their journey at silly o’clock in the morning in order to get to Uni for 9, only to find that their lecture had been cancelled!!!

Thanks!

Joe.
: )

How to Register with Facebook and Join the Masters Group

Hello again, here's a quick guide for anyone who is not yet registered with Facebook and wants to join the MA Group. Facebook is a "Social Networking Website". Basically it means you have a profile about yourself with links to your friends and allows you to share pictures and groups. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but you soon get used to it and it's a generally fun place to just have a natter about things.

First of all, go to www.facebook.com

You will see a section that says

Everyone can use Facebook —

If you click the "Sign Up" button, you will ask you for a few key points about yourself including name, where you're from, a contact email address, a security check (as discussed by Jim in the first week) and a box to tick that says you agree with the terms and conditions. If you follow the instructions from here, you will be set up with a page all about you! You can put on as much information as you want, or even keep a lot of it private, so it's up to you how much you want to share.

Once you're registered with the site, you can join various groups. The one we've been talking about is:

MA Roocckk on!

To find the group, either copy and paste the above text into the "Search" box on the left hand side in Facebook, or click this link. In this group you can write on the Wall and join in with the discussion that's going on there, even if it is just Wesley and Charlotte at the moment! You can also start a discussion on the Discussion Board, upload photos or just have a look to see what everybody else is doing.

I know that's not the most comprehensive set of instructions in the world, but I hope it gives those of you who haven't used Facebook before enough information to get you started. Please leave comments on the Blog if you're confused and one of us will try and answer your questions as best we can.

See you all soon!

Student Reps and Social Reps

Hello everyone, well done with the presentations today, lots of great ideas going around and brilliant discussion to go with it!

Sarah has asked me to put online the contact details for the four Student Reps and four Social Reps as some of the numbers/email addresses had errors. As the amount of time Sarah can invest in the blog is obviously limited, the 8 of us will be keeping you updated with what's going on, discussions for ideas and would like you to comment on the things we're talking about.

As said earlier, the FaceSpace (sorry, Facebook) group MA Roocckk on! has been set up courtesy of Wesley so we can discuss things that you don't feel would be relevent on the blog, share pictures etc. Please note that Sarah and other members of staff will not be using this for passing on information. Any formal updates or messages from MA staff members will come via Blackboard or this MA Blog. For people new to Facebook, I'll post instructions on how to set up an account after this.

So for now, here are your friendly MA Reps:


STUDENT REPS

Joe Wilkins 07801 543 028 wilkins_joe@hotmail.com
Gary Hampton 07964 562 504 gary@garyhampton.com
Sarah Westman 07912 176 414 sjwestman@hotmail.com
Katie Talbot 07816 399 946 katietalbot51@hotmail.com

SOCIAL REPS

James Cooper 07788 437 246 coojam96@hotmail.com
Daniel Clemson 07876 722 664 danielcclemson@hotmail.co.uk
Dan Fedorowicz 07483 904 829 dan@caramelcentre.com
Mariko Kitagawa 07942 466 052 mariko.kitagawa@gmail.com

MA Research Group Blogs

Hi everyone hope all your research is going well. Here as promised are the links to your blogs.
http://thehavanas2007.blogspot.com/
http://londonresearch2007.blogspot.com/
http://ucaparis.blogspot.com/
http://wwwnairobi2.blogspot.com/
http://farnhamtokyo.blogspot.com
http://mumbaimablog2007@blogspot.com

I can see that many of you are already well underway with your application of critical thinking and contextual practice to evidencing and creating meaning - what are the benefits to you of working through a blog?

Putting together a profile on Blogger

A lot of people (ageing journalists and media types, mainly) see blogs as publishing tools, ways to get their ideas out to the rest of the world. But for many others, blogs are mainly about social networking - about sharing their lives with friends.

Obviously, there are lots of sites and services designed specifically for social networking - Facebook, MySpace etc - and I imagine most of you probably use them already. But some of Blogger's features might still come in handy, especially when it comes to getting to know other people doing MAs while you do this induction project.

For example - you can create a profile on Blogger - a link to it will then appear on the blogs you contribute to. To create your profile, look for the Profile/Edit Your Profile link on the Dashboard page when you log on.

Click on the link and you go to an extended form where you can enter details about yourself.

A couple of bits of advice - as with all online services, think carefully before putting up detailed real world information. Don't put actual addresses/mobile numbers etc. This is all standard issue online advice which you've probably heard a thousand times before. But it is worth thinking a bit about how much you want to reveal of yourself.

Next - for the profile, you can answer various questions about your interests, favourite books/bands etc. If you do fill these sections out, Blogger will then use the information to build links to other Blogger users.

When you look at your completed profile, the bands/books/films you entered will appear as links. Click on the link and you go to a list of other Blogger users who put those same books/bands/films down in their profiles. It can be a good way of finding your way to blogs/people you might find interesting or share something in common with.

Tweaking your blog design

This is now very easy to do on Blogger. Log on and then click on the Layout link on the Dashboard page. Alternatively, if you're elsewhere on Blogger, look for the Template tab. You can then rearrange some of the page elements - just by draggging and dropping. You can change the colours and fonts. You can also choose a new template - as I mentioned before, there's a wider range of pre-designed templates on offer at this point than when you first set up your blog.

One thing to look at on the Add and Arrange Page Elements page is the link that lets you add different things to your blog. Click on the Add a Page Element link and you're offered a choice of various different items - a poll, a logo, pictures, a list of favourite books, a feed of stories from another site.

If you want to add links to the other MA group blogs, choose Link List. A pop-up window will appear. Choose a name for the list as a whole. Then add the web addresses (aka urls) of the group blogs, plus their names. Alternatively, you could add a list of sites you think are useful for your group project. It's up to you.

Tweaking your blog settings

Last Tuesday, I rushed through various things you can do with your blog, once you've set it up. None of it was rocket science - probably the best thing to do is just to fool around with your blog and try a few things. Here's a quick reminder of some of things I covered.

Log on to Blogger and you should go to the Dashboard page. Then you can click on the Settings tab/link. Click on the Formatting link and you can sort out the time/date details on your blog via the Settings tab - the time is set by default to Pacific Standard Time. You can also alter the way the headers/footers appear on your posts.

Click on the Archiving tab and you can change the way your blog archives are displayed. Click on the Comments tab and you can change how your blog processes comments. You can choose to moderate all comments - in that case, you will be emailed and asked to approve all comments that appear online. You can also choose to set up comment verification - this may help to block comment spam.

Setting up a Group Blog

You need to do this as part of the induction exercise you're doing for Sarah Sutherland. It's pretty easy, so don't worry.

First, everyone needs to set up an account with Blogger/Google - even if you don't do your own personal blog, you need an account to participate in a group blog.

Once you've done that, get one person in the group to set up a group blog. Perhaps you should pick the person who's most comfortable with the technology. That person should go through the process described in the previous post - choosing a name, picking a template, writing a first post etc.

The person who sets the blog up will be the blog Admin. The blog will be set up on their account and they will have ultimate control over the settings/design. However, the Admin can invite other people to post to that blog.

To do this, the Admin needs to click on the Settings tab/link - you should see this on the Dashboard page after you log in. Next, click on the Permissions tab. You go to a page which lets you add authors. You do this by entering their email address.

Potential authors are then sent an email by Blogger - this contains a link. They then need to click on that link, then enter their Blogger account details - user name and password. Once that's done, they'll be added as an author to that group blog.

If you're not the admin on a blog, you're treated as a guest author - you can add and edit posts - but you can't mess around with the general settings. Only the Admin can do that.

Toby Dyter's research blog

In my presentation last Tuesday, I showed you the research blog set up by Toby Dyter, who's doing a PhD at UCCA. His project involves, among other things, creating an illustrated edition of 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra'. On his blog, he's put up some of his sketches, reviewed books he's found interesting, linked to content that might be useful and also added personal updates. It's like a kind of public notebook.

I know that Toby finds the blog useful at certain times and not at others. I think it works for him when he's in an info/idea gathering phase. But when he needs to write something long/coherent, he doesn't bother with it.

I also read you some excerpts from 'My Blog, My Outboard Brain', an essay on blogs as research tools by the SF writer/online activist Cory Doctorow. His site's also worth a look too - as I mentioned last Tuesday, he often gives away novels and short stories online.

Setting up a blog on Blogger

Sarah Sutherland gave out some notes on how to set up a blog as part of the session I did with you all last Tuesday. If you didn't get those or lost them, this post just recaps the essentials from those notes. It's a bit long but it covers everything you need to know to get started, I think.

First, go to Blogger and click on the Create Your Blog Now link. As the Blogger front page says, setting up a blog involves three steps – creating an account with Google, choosing a name for your blog and then a design template.

Creating an account

This is pretty straightforward. If you have a Google Mail account, you will already have done what you need. If not, you need to sign up with Google, give them your email, set a password etc.

Watch out for one thing – Google/Blogger will send an activation email to the address you give – you’ll need to click on the link in the email to activate your account and your blog properly.

When you log in to Blogger after you've set up your account, your user name will be the email address you gave them.

Choosing a name

This can take a while. Blogger hosts millions of blogs. So there’s a fair chance the name you want will be taken. If it is, try combinations of words and numbers. The name you choose will form part of your blog address – also known as the url.

Blogger offers to host your blog on its Blogspot hosting service. At some point in the future, you can choose to host it elsewhere if you want. But for the moment, go for Blogspot.

That will make your blog address http://yourblogname.blogspot.com

In this section, you also get the chance to set your screen name - this is the name that appears after posts you write. You can go with your full name. Alternatively, if you want to remain relatively anonymous, go for your first name or even a nickname.

Picking a template

When it comes to the design of your blog, Blogger offers a number of pre-packaged templates to choose from. The choice on offer isn’t brilliant at first. But once your blog is set up, you will be able to tweak this template in various ways. You will also be able to choose from a wider range of templates.

So don’t waste too much time on this. Just pick whichever one you find the least offensive.

Writing your first post

Once you’ve done this, you’re in a position to set up your blog. However, it won’t appear until you’ve created a post. Blogger will offer you the opportunity to do this straight after you’ve chosen your template. Click on Start Posting and you go to the Posting window.

This looks rather like the kind of windows you see on web email services. You’ve got spaces to enter the title of your post, then a main window where you write the body copy. You can format that post in simple ways using the buttons at the top of the window.

NB - Make sure you’re in the Compose window, not the Edit HTML window – the latter shows you the code that underlies your blog, as well as the things you write.

Adding Links

The web is all about building links - between sites, documents and people. It's easy to add links to your blog - to interesting things you find online or sites created by other people on the course. To do it, you use the Link button - the one that features a chain link.

So - how do you add a link? Say you mention The Guardian in a post and want to turn it into a link, so people can click on the word and go direct to the site. To do that, highlight The Guardian then click the Link button.

A dialog box comes up asking you to enter the web address for the link you want to add. In this case, add http://www.guardian.co.uk. Then click OK. The link will be added to the copy. Don’t forget the http part. That's it. When you publish the post, the words The Guardian will appear with a link embedded.

Adding Images
You can add pictures using the Add Image button – it features what looks like a miniature landscape. Click this and you can then upload a picture you’ve got on your computer or link to one online somewhere.

Blogger lets you make some simple choices about where to put the picture and how big to make it. Play around with this a little to see what suits you best.

If you do choose to use/link to a picture from another site, it's good blogging ethics to mention where you got the picture from and add a link to the site. Most bloggers like the idea of sharing content/ideas, so long as people give credit for where they got things from.

OK - that's enought to get you started - remember, if you get stuck, try the Blogger Help pages, which are pretty comprehensive.

Welcome to your MA blog

This is for you to use to discuss your research, your practice and any suggestions or recommendations that you may have to help your colleagues with their ideas.