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MovableType Search: Seeking, Finding and Editing Old Posts

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I enjoy accidental discoveries (the title for this entry, Scott, is no metaphor reference to fences).

The search form on a weblog is very handy service for site visitors to find content you may have written. But it has an extra hidden value for MovableType (MT) authors. Once you have more than a handful of blog entries, going back to add/correct to a previously written post may involve a hunt and seek scroll through the listings of previous blog entries.

However, if you are already logged in to your MT account, the results of the plain old search tool on your blog provides an extra treat- the “edit” link.

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InfoZine Takes on RSS via JavaScript

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A news source from Kansas City has taken on News RSS Syndication with feeds down to 20 feeds for various news interest areas. They are making use of our RSS to JavaScript script running on their own server and offering the code to allow other sites to inline synidcate the InfoZine News. infoZine headlines can […]

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Building a Fence (real object) and Building Things out of Learning Objects

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Last weekend I built a fence around a vegetable garden in our yard. I am not really much of a craftsman, but this project came out pretty nice. Working with the hands got me thinking about (reaching for the metaphor) building things out of learning objects.

garden fence

I have harped before that there has been way too much emphasis on the creation of the “repositories” and the piles of meta-data, and the search tools- and almost nothing on the craft, the art, the magic, of building something out of the things inside the collections.

Last week at one of our faculty instructional technology meetings, we were trying to get some commitment to taking on the learning object issue. There was the usual tired, over-trodden attempts at definitions, a lot of shrugging, and then the often worded desire for some sort of magic, point and click tools that would assemble LOs into meaningful learning activities.

As the line goes in the hilarious Australian comedy The Castle:

“Dreamin’!”

But as I worked on that fence I thought about what an un-realistic, un-attainable, expectation this dream places on technology…

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Learning Objects + RSS + Blogs: The Lora and Boris Show at NMC Online Conference

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Wow. In a very un-MERLOT-ian scheduling coup, we have the opening session (right after Wayne Hodgins! October 14) for a presentation at the NMC Online Conference on Learning Objects.

For those that missed the MERLOT 2003 presentation, this is your chance to see it during this conference, except now we get to add the razzle-dazzle (sound) as the conference format is via Macromedia Breeze. This is the return of Lora and Boris, and their blogging adventures on learning objects in their discipline.

The presentations are made available to conference attendees to view any time– Brian, D’Arcy, and myself get to then be available at a scheduled time for a live chat.

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Mikey and Alec Comment Show

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Well there are spammers and then there are goofballs you have nothing better to do then send juvenile comments to my blog. This dog lifts a leg on Mike and Alec.

Congratulations to “michael farrell” and “Alec” for their Oxford English command of the written word (congrats also for being added to the banned IPs for CDB and having their clever words buried in this dog’s back yard, under those old tennis shoes and the dead squirrel).

Revel in the wisdom of these modern Shakespeares:

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Hot off the Presses: MLX Special Collections

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This is the first glance at a new part of the Maricopa Learning eXchange (MLX), what we are calling MLX Special Collections:

An MLX special collection is a set of packages associated with a specific project or program. We created this functionality to provide unique MLX URLs that would generate a listing as well as to provide a search functionality in the project web sites.

As prototypes, we have created a few collections for projects such as Systemic Reform In Science (SyRIS) modules and an internal Learning Grants program.

This is all part of our tireless campaign to build in services and value to different programs and groups within our organization.

Bascially, all items added to the MLX now have a field in the creation form. If the item is to be associated with a special collection, the person entering it inserts a 4 character code (just like the discount codes you enter when submitting a rental car reservation online) that “tags” the package for association with the collection.

Once in place, we can do all kinds of things…

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OtherBlog MovableType Plugin

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Just came across the nifty MT Plugin: OtherBlog. This allows MovableTyple blogs to be able to include content on the same server. Plugin based way of including posts/info from other blogs on the same installation. I’ve yet to even try it, but I can already think about our BlogShop a way to provide a “super-blog” […]

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Way Cool Tool for Getting out of the Blog Style Box

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This looks rather useful for weblogers who are still mired in the out of the box templates: Firdamatic: the Design Tool for the Uninspired Webloggers “is an online tableless HTML layout generator that allows you to create and customise layouts easily only by completing forms, making creating skins for your Firdamatic-based layout a breeze.” Not […]

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Sharable BlogLines

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Awesome, this is a step up in usefulness for Bloglinesthe online RSS aggregator. You can now make the collections of feeds you post on BlogLines public, and thus collections of feeds can be shared via a simple URL. Actually I had submitted this as a suggested feature when I looked at the site a few […]