Using a Blog

In response to those who have had some problems maneuvering through blogs, I've prepared the following text-based tutorial...
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You've made it to a blog so you've already experienced some success - YAHOO!!!!
This text will hopefully get you started using the blog more effectively. Print out these instructions (or copy/paste them into a word processor), and follow along with the blog as I describe what to do.

Let's take a look at the some posts (entries into the blog). You'll see the date on the top and a orange link with a title. This orange link goes to the post itself, or you may just read what you see under what is orange. If you click on the orange title, it will move the post on which you clicked to the top of the screen. That's not very helpful for our purposes. Now, look to the right and see the menu bar. You may need to scroll down a bit, but you'll see an entry that says "Teaching with Documents." If you click on it, that entry/post will move to the top of the screen. You will still be able to scroll up and down to find the other posts, this is just a quick way to find the one you're seeking (and a condensed method to see what's available).

Now, let's look at the "Teaching with Document" post. Again, if you click on the post title, nothing will happen, it will just move that post to the top of the screen. Since the post is already at the top of the screen, it won't move. Now, let's look within the post. All posts start with a title, then there is text (sometimes including embedded links) a line on the bottom, and then a "Posted by Christy Keeler..." statement. When you see that "Posted by..." statement, you're at the end of that post and the next line is a new post (sometimes preceded by a date).

Let's keep looking at the "Teaching with Documents" post. You see the title in orange and then some grey text underneath. In this text, I either share content I need to share, or I describe a linked resource, as is the case here. If you hover over the "here" text, you'll see that the link is active. You can click on it and go to a page within the NCSS website. Click the "Back" button to return to the blog.

In some posts, you'll find a link to a video or audio. This is true in the "Welcome to the Podcast/Vidcast" post. Use the menubar on the right to click on that post now. The "Welcome to the Podcast/Vidcast" post jumped to the top of your screen. Right under the post title, you'll see pink text saying "Introduction to Module - Audio." This is an active link to an audio file. If you click on it, you will be able to hear the audio. There will not be any video because this is an MP3 (audio), not a MOV or MPEG-4 (video) file. If it were a video file, it would either open the video automatically or download it to your computer.