I know some of you were interested in using Canva to create some of the slides in your photo journal. I tried to find the images search and, while it was right in front of me, I missed it. So this video shows you all the wonderful options available for only a buck.

OK – you all wanted to have powerpoint and audio – so here is the first one and the other two are on their way. I know I say quick and it probably doesn’t seem that way to you when you see the time, but the other two will be shorter.

Well, now that we have all survived the snow/ice craziness we have our work cut out for us. I thought it might be helpful to put the videos and questions for the week here so you could reference them all easily. Sorry I didn’t get all of this done and up while you were still experiencing cabin fever, but it took a bit. Plus, some of you didn’t have power or the ability to get to power. So let’s get started.

DISCUSSION GRADING

I made some changes to the grading process for your blog/discussion posts. Instead of making the comments the same weight as the post, I made the post 10 points and the comment 5. It’s still a total of 15 points, but I think the posts are the more important element. But you all also need to get better at challenges in your comments. When you see the grade in D2L it will be the combination of both. Everyone got the full 5 points if you made any comment at all, since you all were guilty of just adding your opinion and not challenging. We will talk about this on Thursday.

BLOG LESSONS

Take a look at the video on your blogs! Many of you are using pages for your discussions when you should be using posts. It’s great practice, as you will know how to use pages when you set up your legislative brief. But don’t use pages for your discussion posts – USE POSTS. I go over how to do that in the blog video. I also talk about widgets and some other things you can do to get your blog set up so you will be ready to add your legislative brief. I went in and made the changes in the blogs themselves for some of you, as you had gone so far astray it was easier. Just take a few minutes and look at the video. It’s not long.

When you are watching the video here are a couple of tips. If you see this image in the bottom right corner you might want to use either of the two menu option. The three lines opens the menu on the left side so you can go to a particular part of the video you might want to see. The square that looks like a tv opens a full screen view of the video.

NEW SYLLABUS

Here is the new syllabus. It will also be on D2L. I have made some changes in topics and there are now only 2 more online sessions. I would like you to consider the scheduling of the Legislative Fact Sheet Presentation. It is presently scheduled for the second to last class. My thinking was that you would have some input before your full Legislative Brief was due. However, if we moved that to the last class we would get in more material on either Stone and/or Child Welfare before the last session. Right now the last session is set up for review and getting to material we may have missed. Take a look and let’s talk about it on Thursday.

CLASS VIDEOS

Here are the things you need to review for class on Thursday. We will be discussing them all – some in more detail than others. At the end of this post is the link for the updated syllabus (also on D2L), and several questions we will need to decide on Thursday.

Stone’s Chapter on Liberty

Stone’s Chapter on Symbols

Stones Chapter on Numbers

I know that most of you don’t spend time in front of the television during the 6 pm local news. It’s not hard to figure why. With all of the various things you are managing and juggling in your life, the local news just doesn’t rise to the top of the list. Any of us who do watch the local news know exactly which age group are the typical viewers. All you have to do is watch the commercials and you know they are talking to us old folks. Watch with that in mind one time and you will see what I mean.

But for this class you need to work against your natural instincts. While you have a lot of sources for your information, you live in Altanta, the capitol of Georgia. The gold dome is here and the local news talks about what is happening there. And remember, you only have a couple of months to try and catch up. So the local news is a great resource of what is moving in the legislature and what isn’t. What are the folks in the media talking about? What advocate has managed to get their cause in front of the public? Who has managed to get that problem stream moving along so that their cause is defined as a problem in need of a solution? The news can help you figure that out.

And if you listen carefully to the local news you can also hear the rushing of that political stream. Let’s take last night, for instance. There was a story on the local news about Ava’s bill. This legislation would require insurance companies to cover autism treatments. Here is the first piece about the legislation.

Now here is another piece about the legislation. Can you hear the rustling of the political stream? Who do you think contributes to this legilsator’s campaign?

So here we see the problem stream – a mother who is an advocate for her duaghter and other children with autism. The policy stream, where the solution to this problem is to get the treatment that can make a difference covered by insurance, and the political stream, where the insurance company is not about to let their supported legislators say yes to this bill.

Force yourself to watch the local news….it will pay off in this course.

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Today in class we will be setting up your blogs. If you brought your own laptop, you can set up your blog on the spot. If not, no worries, we will walk through the process so you know how to make it happen once you get back to your own computer.

You may be thinking… why in the world are we setting up blogs? Well, there are two good reasons. First, you will be placing your discussion posts on your personal blog. They will be available to all the other students as well as myself to read. It is really similar to the discussions that you may have used previously in D2L, with the exception that the blog dashboard offers you much more flexibility. It is a place you can record all kinds of information, files, photos and observations.

Second, this format is available to you for your Legislative Brief. If you take a look at the final major assignment for the class, you will see that it should be prepared and submitted electronically. That means you want it to be multi-media. We will talk about what this means during the semester, and you have other options besides the edublog format. But since you will be here using this for your discussion posts, it may be a place you want to use for your final Legislative Brief Submission.

We will be spending some time today going through all of the resources that are presently on the D2L site and will be added over the next week. (I am working on it) The most important thing for you to do at this point is to start paying attention to the legislature. Everyone believes we will have a very fast and short legislative session due to the earlier date for the primary elections. So start thinking about your bills really soon and start contacting legislators as quickly as you can.

See you this afternoon.

Welcome to our class blog! You will be joining this blog during the first class and setting up your own personal blog. Your blog is where you will post your discussion items and comment on other student’s posts. And I will be adding material, comments and current information to the class blog for your review.

There are lots of resources available to help you. First, if you look at the syllabus on D2L you can see that I have included links to all of the various help options available for your work on the blog. In addition, theses same resources are in the links section of the D2L course site. There is also a help forum available on the site itself. Feel free to ask your questions – you never know someone else may have the same question and learn from your answers.

Just to be sure you have what you need, here are all of the links for support in using your blog.

For assistance, visit the comprehensive support site, check out the Edublogs User Guide guide or stop by The Edublogs Forums to chat with other edubloggers.

For personal support, you can attend Georgia State’s training on Edublogs or stop by The Exchange for one-on-one support.

You can also reference the free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.