Week #13 – Social Media N’ WordPress

Share your Website’s URL & Have Some Social Media Fun with WordPress..

(The Assignment #11 details are below – a Zoom recording is directly below)

Zoom Recording / tutorial from class on 11/30

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/TbqbcDsh9U68BpKbacV5my4DjQmNc81usacQIHx6n_CIrZydevfhoUn0sm94Mflq.UCxAvOfXsyyJ5HJP

Passcode: 7%cSatm$

This week in CT101 we will share and explore each others websites, learn about creating and adding social media content into our posts – (this might be your own social media work or work taken from your favorite feeds / brands / people) to expand your narratives. We will also chat about “custom links” and how to add them to your websites navigation menu structure. Of course I will record this process during Zoom and post the video here below afterwards.

Here we are 3+ weeks into being the proud owners and admins of a new Website! We are customizing our pages, building menu navigation, tweaking colors and blogging away into oblivion! It is exciting, and discovering new ways to create and share content are a big part of this process.

Important info – when we install WordPress onto our domain and hosting platform it comes with many default settings. Some of them are useful of course but ultimately we should be changing and altering those default settings to better match the concept behind “how” you are using our websites. Customizing your website to also meet basic accessibility standards is crucial. If your website is not easy to access read or follow along with due to conflicting design elements it will rank poorly in search engine results and likely be flagged as such.

Assignment #11  Details:

(3-parts – see below)

Part 1: Its time to share your new website’s URL, please add it to the comments section below in this blog post (My example is already there as an example, your URL should look similar but with your own domain name)

Simply leave a comment below sharing your website’s address and press the “Post Comment” button!

Be sure to include the –  http://  part

Here is an example–>  http://your-website’s-name .com 

This is my example of my website URL – https://ryanseslow.com

 

Part 2: As the URLS begin to appear in the comments section below, select and begin to explore some of the website’s of your fellow classmates! Leave them a comment or two about their progress directly on their website! Then, write a new blog post here on CT101 sharing your thoughts and feedback about discovering your classmate’s websites. Be sure to include screen shots -it may be of their homepage (or other pages) and you must include their URL in your post (and hyperlink to it!)

Questions to reflect on for this post: What do you like about the websites that you discovered? Did you find a favorite blog post, website formatting, or project? Share it! Give some feedback!

 

Part 3:  Publish a new blog post on your new website! The new post should be about something related to the websites focus. If your website is focusing on “Baking” then write a great new post about baking. If your website has a focus on “Movies & Entertainment” then write a post about that and what has your’e caught your interest. *Please keep in mind, your blogging practice should be expanding and getting more creative with every post that you make.

***Many people continue to forget to add images, videos, screenshots and other forms of visual media that we must always include in ever single post. 

 

Our Class Lecture Topic this Week – Adding Social Feeds & Posts to WordPress

It’s time to talk about the impact of social media and the many roles it can play in our storytelling and blogging practice.

The recording this week will walk you through the process of embedding social media content and related media that you see taken from the class zoom sessions. Please consider adding some of these tips and tricks into YOUR websites posts, pages or sidebar widgets!

Have Fun!

Exploring the WordPress Potentials, Part II!

Customize, customize & cus-to-mizzzzze!

Zoom Recording / Tutorial for Weeks 11 & 12

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/Gm9xJOxU6mI5KxTgKCYKxW2lOooQ-xRPgRl6GsLmigIHkzJdTOD72QP3ml6fj3h3.xuCcG_Tf6kwsPsNp

Passcode: 4@4+dOr#

Welcome Back!

***This post and assignment will cover weeks 11 & 12 (11/17 & 11/23)***

Getting specific with WordPress and context?

Last week we started setting up our new websites by simply discussing the potentials of the creation process. We talked about how to set up a new page, working with the navigation menus, working with widgets in the sidebar or footer areas, installing plug-ins (especially the Classic Editor for blogging) and the differences between posts, pages & categories. We will review this again this week too.

The process takes practice, trial and error and a bit of curious experimentation. How did you do last week? WordPress is a very intuitive piece of software, and it wants your creativity! Lets continue forward. I will be sharing a new series of demonstrations (and as always I will add the recorded videos from our zoom classes here below.)

Lets begin (or continue) populating our new websites by publishing both a new blog post there this week and also “cross posting” that information here on CT101 as well. There is an efficient way to easily cross post content across wordpress websites. This means we can publish and re-publish that same content in two places for more visibility. 

Here is a hypothetical example -> Lets say you just published a great new blog post on your personal website (the one with your new domain name) but you also want to share it with your classmates here on the CT101 website. Lets go ahead and try that.

Here is an example of that – you can prepare something in a new post that reads:

————

Add your Blog Post Title (all blog posts need a great title!) 

(insert an image – GIF – Meme – Quote – or some kind of related media)

Dear Readers / Friends / Colleagues  –

I just published a new blog post here on my website: http://yourwebsitename.com, (make sure to hyperlink the post url) please come and check it out and feel free to engage in some fun dialog.

(add context)

————

This is a very minimal example above but perhaps just a title and a link is not that interesting? We need a bit of compelling energy to draw the reader from CT101 over to your site. So make this interesting and creative!

 

Assignment #10 (2- parts) 

1. Website progress – Continue to customize and work on the visual design of your website. Will you add a new page, a category, a plug-in? Will you re-publish posts from CT101 on your personal website or use the technique shared in class? Feel free to publish your progress as a part of the blogging assignment below.

2. Blogging Assignment Prompt – Publish a NEW blog Post on YOUR new website, the post can be about anything that you wish that has direct context to your new website’s stated intentions (what you site is being used to promote and share.) After publishing the post create a new blog post here on CT101 that shares a synopsis of your new post from your website that will entice and grab our attention, be sure to include the direct URL to the new blog post.

Zoom Recording / Tutorial for Weeks 11 & 12

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/Gm9xJOxU6mI5KxTgKCYKxW2lOooQ-xRPgRl6GsLmigIHkzJdTOD72QP3ml6fj3h3.xuCcG_Tf6kwsPsNp

Passcode: 4@4+dOr#

Week #6 – Digital Art Making Immediacy

Lets talk a little bit about Creativity, Immediacy and Intuition. In this post lets learn how it can inspire your storytelling:

For this assignment you will need to follow the video tutorial created by prof. Ryan in class on Tuesday 10/12. I will walk you through many of the steps needed to complete the assignment.

*Zoom Recording / Tutorial is here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/VukL1F5merI2SLVXF7D-R21g6ziANzp-fauTosq7yKiP-1h3MDpqm7IfZlvlJLOf.vvhtfaB9WoQ_nJek

Passcode: XJ?#u8%V

 

**This is a long post so please spend time with it and absorb it as many times as necessary and remember, my posts are also examples**

Creativity is..

Immediacy is..

Intuition is..

In what order do these words go?

Creativity + Intuition + Immediacy = …….. 

Lets pause, and become aware of this very passing second. I mean REALLY AWARE, so stop and be still.

You are alive. Contemplate that. What does being alive mean to you? Have you ever defined it beyond someone else’s interpretation? If not, its time to do this, and no, it can not be done in the next 3 seconds.. I believe that a big part of this life is to create and express that unique ability we all can contribute.

It will take some reflection.. More than a single blog post, but perhaps this is a metaphor, a portal that lures you in and activates you.

You are a thinking, breathing, feeling, sensory being processing this exact passing moment. Exactly as you read this from the specific location that you are in, with the age that your body is, in the time zone of the highest level of what you understand consciousness to be. We can always expand this awareness. Its a metaphor (there is that word again), because all the while, you are simultaneously existing on a seemingly gigantic rock spinning through the “space” that the best of the best of the best world’s scientists keep discovering only keeps expanding into more….well, space. In the grand scheme of things, our gigantic rock may not be so gigantic when we think from this perspective. Its actually the size we think it is relative to our awareness of it.

How do you develop the ability to audit this awareness and ask yourself what potentials lay in this metaphor? And, how can we apply this to other things that we wish to change or create from scratch.

It will require creativity, intuition and imagination. So go ahead and ASK.

Ask yourself: “What is the creative potential of my awareness of this moment, and how may I intervene?

When we turn this directly to our weekly creativity exercise and re-propose the question: “What is the creative potential of this assignment? what is the creative potential of my web browser?”

What would you like to express about this moment and the awareness of it? How might or will you do it?

Chances are, you are holding your “device or viewing this through a computer” as you read this.

You know what device I am referring to. Perhaps its a laptop, desktop, iPhone, android or a tablet? It doesn’t matter and either way, it first started simply as an idea. An expression of a collective need to expand, grow, learn and express. Much like the infinite expanding space that we mentioned above your device(s) is an intermediary tool to express the potentials of creative space. Our viewing screens are rectangles… sometimes they are held and viewed vertically and sometimes they are turned horizontally, but before any content is consumed, its a rectangle in its form. That rectangle is a window, and so is a web browser window..

Your tech device(s) are remote controls for the planet!

We interacted with simple geometric shapes every single day, we take all of them for granted and rarely think of the doorways we are passing through as rectangles. Or the TV that we watch as “the rectangle.” As we walk up steps we rarely think of them as the horizontal rectangles that stack upwards or downwards.. You get the idea..

What is the creative potential of YOU and the rectangle that you are holding or looking through? (this is the part of things where you think Im a little weird, right? lol..)

SO what are you passionate about? What is that you always wanted to express and share with the world? What is it that holds you back? Is what holds you back on the other side of the window?

If you never “Start” then you will never have a result to work from. The only metric you have are the ones that you fear your expression wont compliment.

So, lets start. Lets express. Lets share this into that rectangle / window that you are looking through and make it a practice.

Lets jump into our assignment / exercise – lets experiment and create a space on the web that is yours and personalize it. Broadcast yourself!

Taking risks that benefit your growth and personal development while impacting and including your fellow human beings has serious mental, spiritual & emotional value.

This is your story, and storytelling is the communication pilot of the Electric Landscapes we navigate.

LETS MAKE SOME ART!

Assignment  #5 – Digital Art Making Immediacy

Assignment Description:

1. Experiment with this “Free to Use” Digital Tool: Lets create an account page using mmm.page (its Free!) – https://mmm.page

mmm.page is a web browser based digital collage / website making platform / space. It works perfectly in your web browser. It also works on mobile devices! Based on the blog post here above, what are you inspired to do? What are you inspired to make or create? Each student will produce 1-2 pages using the mmm.page platform. Each published page generates its own URL.

*Zoom Recording / Tutorial is here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/VukL1F5merI2SLVXF7D-R21g6ziANzp-fauTosq7yKiP-1h3MDpqm7IfZlvlJLOf.vvhtfaB9WoQ_nJek

Passcode: XJ?#u8%V

2. In a new blog post, share your experiences working with mmm.page. What are compelled to create and what did you create? Be sure to share the published link to your page(s) – its a good idea to take screenshots and hyperlink to the screenshots. 

 

(Many thanks to MBS for the mmm.page tip off!)

I personally got pretty excited about mmm.page and began working on an exhibition of digital art collage pages. Here is an example I made with mmm.page:

https://mmm.page/ryanseslow.main

Last week we chatted in class about using image manipulating software to create graphic assets – do you recall the photpea.com tutorial? If not, you can check week #5’s zoom video for the tutorial.

Photopea.com – is a free web browser based digital image making and manipulating application, we can alter and manipulate and prepare images in this space!

Ill share my process and will record everything. We will need images! 

Places to find Images online – Creative Commons based:

Pixabay.com – great resource for images and transparent assets! (we will use this for the workshop)

National Gallery of Art  With the launch of NGA Images, the National Gallery of Art implements an open access policy for digital images of works of art that the Gallery believes to be in the public domain.

Digital Public Library of America The Digital Public Library of Americabrings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

NYPL – The New York Public Library Digital Collections Archive

Flickr CC – Creative Commons on Flickr.

Gif Cities – Internet Archive

Lets get creating!

Exploring the WordPress Potentials, Part II!

(The assignment info & the 2 video tutorials are posted at the bottom of this post)

Welcome Back! Getting specific with WordPress and context. Last week we started setting up our new websites by simply discussing the potentials of the creation process. We talked about how to set up new pages, working with the navigation menus, working with widgets in the sidebar or footer areas, installing plug-ins (especially the Classic Editor) and the differences between posts & categories.

This all takes practice and a bit of experimentation. How did you do?WordPress is a very intuitive piece of software, and it wants your creativity! Lets continue forward. I will be sharing a new series of demonstrations and will add the recorded videos from our zoom classes here below.

Lets begin populating our new websites by publishing both a new blog post there this week and also cross posting that information here on CT101 as well. There is an efficient way to cross post content across wordpress websites. Lets say you just published a great new post on your website and you also want to share it with your classmates here on CT101.

An example of that may be done in a new post that reads:

————

Add your Blog Post Title (all blog posts need a great title!) 

(insert an image – GIF – Meme – Quote – or some kind of related media)

Dear Readers – I just published a new blog post here on my website: http://yourwebsitename.com, (make sure to hyperlink the post url) please come and check it out and feel free to engage in some fun dialog.

————

This is a very minimal example above but perhaps just a title and a link is not that interesting? We need a bit of compelling energy to draw the reader from CT101 over to your site. So make this interesting and creative!

 

**This Week’s Blogging Assignment Prompt**

Publish a NEW blog Post on YOUR new website, the post can be about anything that you wish that has direct context to your new website’s stated intentions (what you site is being used to promote and share.) After publishing the post create a new blog post here on CT101 that shares a synopsis of your new post from your website that will entice and grab our attention, be sure to include the direct URL to the new blog post.

The Video Tutorial for this weeks’ assignment is posted below (from 4/20/21)

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/UvrxnMQ67jA3GTfnmkWpx_hDLLnuOQ3y9fXOCrbaL9pxsumGAw7ODggBbm3pIDmq.0nyFZ7lEE8lvzU_T

Passcode: .&#4e3w.

The Video Tutorial for this weeks’ assignment is posted below (from 4/22/21)

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/6bxqj-Ji9lEkej1K_Yv_9-oh_7c6V9d0FnQGLo4UW-9Sm7UzMBNrsDkRhPCTNxsT.XSm2Sy7QFZJg6sbG

Passcode: 5QZG0$L0

Its Mid-Semester Re-Cap Time!

**there is a video recording of this process below**

Wow, here we are at the midpoint of our CT101 semester! Time… goes by waaaaaay too fast.. Lets take a minute to reflect, lets take a minute to regroup, lets induce a class reflection!

Let us ask ourselves the following questions, and reflect:

“How am I doing in CT101? What have I learned? What skills have I developed, cultivated and displayed regularly? How does this contribute to my weekly progress? How do I assess my performance through self-reflection in this class?”

This part is tangible and clear as we have been producing results over the last 6 weeks in the form of blogging, commenting, creating visual imagery and participation. Lets take stock, follow me below,

The CT 101 Course Schedule page is where everything is – this is the CT 101 HUB – this is the space where all the assignment and learning details take form each week – (just in case you forgot) – this is where you can recap and catch up –  https://ct101.commons.gc.cuny.edu/course-schedule/

Last week, you will have noticed the blogging prompt under week #6 – “Picking a domain name and discussing the process. What is a domain name? Read this for the assignment prompt – DOMAIN NAME TIME!” This is an important post as it will help us streamline into the website building aspect of the course. The last 6 weeks have been preparing us for this.

In fact, before we move into the next phase of our course, I want to take a week and reflect upon what has already been accomplished. Lets title this assignment The Mid-Semester Assessment Post

Assignment Details:

In a new blog post titled; “The Mid-Semester Assessment Post”, please assess and reflect upon your last 6.5 weeks here in CT 101. Please answer and address the following questions below, and also provide hyperlinks back to all of your previous completed blog posts. This will help illustrate some of the questions below as you tell a compelling story here in the CT 101 blog space: (of course, the use of imagery is helpful and needed but please don’t default to using too many GIFs or memes to fill in the gaps, the emphasis should be on the written word)

How am I doing in CT101? What grade do I believe I am maintaining? 

What have I learned the most? What is my greatest learned asset in this class so far?

What skills have I developed , cultivated and displayed regularly in my posts?

How do I assess my performance through self-reflection in this class?

What do I know now that I did not know before taking this class?

Do I see my weekly blogging work expanding creatively? If so, please explain –  or am I stuck in a loop where my posts seem to look the same most of the time, how will I change that?

Have fun with this! Feel free to include contrasting relatedness in the form of links, images, video or Make Something New to express how you feel about this post! (a technique from the dS106 assignment bank perhaps?)

Here is the Video Recording from class in Week #7

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/LJX1CHqa3ExqX5NWlTMpQmXMDjjITwdB9z5jYNJCW0F3KlVe7Jt3-busUbgMyvUq.7hb0E6iHoI9MoHEx

Passcode: qEP*mG6X

 

There is A LOT of CT101 Digital Storytelling Project Flexibility..

**the video recording tutorial for this project can be found at the bottom of this post**

Professor Michael Smith introduced me to the DS106 Assignment Repository many many years ago.. I am glad that he did! 

Now that we are getting comfortable with publishing blog posts to our class website, embedding media like images, GIFS, videos and hyperlinks, its time to push things further with content creation and deciding on how you will go about it.

Prof. Smith wrote the following in a blog post from a previous semester;

“In CT-101 you will have the opportunity to create many, many different pieces of media throughout the semester. Inspiration for these projects can come from a number of places. Two are websites that inspired this class and are hosted by a digital storytelling class at the University of Mary Washington.

One is their ds106 assignment repository which has project prompts that are categorized by a variety of media types (visual, design, audio, video, mashup, writing, fanfic, and animated gifs). You can browse through and sort by most examples completed, most viewed, newest, and more.. 

The second is also a site known as the daily create which gives a daily project prompt to “make something” using various media. If you post the completed piece with tags to the sites they feed from, you’ll see your work on that page as well.

Finally you can also find a particular site that has a media piece and/or project type of interest to you (Tumblr and/or Reddit can be fun for this – Photoshop Battles is a favorite of mine.

Browse through these sites and find two projects that you think you would like to do. One that you believe you already have the skills to do or you believe you could figure out on your own. And another (hopefully of a different media type) you don’t know how to do yet and would like to learn.”

*The ASSIGNMENT – In a New Blog Post – working from the DS106 or the Daily Create site select, describe and hyperlink to two assignments/project ideas and tell us why you’ve chosen them. What do you think you’d need learn to do them? How many of these kinds of projects do you think you should be doing in this semester so that you might learn and build both emergent storytelling skills and use new tools to create them? Why do you think these skills are or are not important? Be sure to actually complete one of the assignments and add it to your blog post. Also, be sure to leave a comment or two on one or more of your classmate’s blog posts! Prof. Seslow will go over a example in our class time and screen record the process.

**Here is the video recording for week #5 – and some insight into handling this week’s blogging assignment**

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/jkGUtEbUUcTfzXdOHPfpzZccydX1RTgMhqFdFwrRo5tN0DKqUYBH7fX-zAS9WhlA.ctHcgbuJh07DAKTk

Video Passcode: 5eyVM$ET

Assignment #1 –

What Makes You Happy on the Internet?

Now that you are signed up for the commons and the CT101 website, its time to begin experimenting with the wordpress blogging editor! Remember, all of the assignment content that you see here is an example 🙂

Your goal for this week will be to read and follow the info / links listed in our class calendar for Week #2. Absorb the information and then begin to prepare and gather all of needed media, images, links and content to create and publish your first blog post here on our class website!

(This assignment was created by Professor Michale Smith a few years ago, it still holds true as a great example and ice-breaker for our first blogging assignment.)

Prof. Smith asserts;

“In your first blog post, take the time to introduce anything you want about yourself and describe a piece of the internet that is “making you happy” this week. Share what the content is about, the media format, and the online space in which is was discovered. Make sure it’s something you can ’embed’ in your post and be sure to link back to the original source of the the item.

Below is an example:

I discovered recently a writer who made side-by-side comparisons of frames from the Simpsons with frames from the original movies that inspired the cartoon. I love this kind work because it shows how culture is seemingly endlessly recycled and remixed.

Here’s the original, famous “shower scene” from the 1960 film Psycho:

Here is another example of this assignment that Prof. Seslow made from the Fall of 2020, hope this helps as inspiration 🙂

Assignment #1 – Prof. Seslow’s Example – Internet Happiness