aardent lore

Third week into my summer break and I’m all ready behind in my goals. First there are all the household chores and DIY jobs that don’t get done while school’s in session. In addition, there’s the time I want to spend with my children and grandchildren, and with my significant other. Then there are new hobbies, like sewing, that I’ve taken up. I’ve got a reading list that’s about a mile long. Finally, of course, there is putting into use all these technology tools I’ve been learning about.

Most of my computer time has been spent learning Moodle, adding modules, and creating what ever lessons I can of an English course, even through I still haven’t been told exactly what I’ll be teaching next year. I’ve also started cataloging my personal and classroom libraries on Shelfari and adding a widgets to my blog. (Hat tip to a whole new dianne for leading me to Shelfari.) I still have nearly 500 books to add. My list of “what I need to accomplish before school starts” is looking a bit daunting.

As a result, blogging time is severely limited. And, because I find myself getting very distracted, twittering has been off limits.

I’ve got an appointment with my APC on Monday, and he assures me that he will have a definite answer to my “What am I teaching?” question. That will, at least, give me some direction to take with Moodle.

Bottom line, I need more time.

Wordpress problems are solved, no thanks to my ex-host.  Moved to HostGator. Took less than an hour to transfer everything.  Cool.  Also got started with Moodle and TikiWiki.  Tried out Twitter, and got a friendly welcome from cburell.  Dude, are you always online.

I accomplished stuff.  That always makes for a happy day.

I’m attempting to manually upgrade Wordpress. I am afraid. I am very afraid. I think-hope I’ve taken all steps necessary to secure the site…if not…I bid you all farewell…temporarily at least.

I haven’t done this kind of thing for a year now. This is not like riding a bike.

My head hurts.

UPDATE: There are five files in Wordpress 2.5.1 that I’m unable to upload to my server. I spent most of the yesterday trying to get these files uploaded and the problem even stumped my server’s support team. How the files are named is causing all the trouble. There are too many (.)s in the file names. I’m in wait mode now to see if the support team can come up with a solution.

UPDATE 2: My host, Dot5Hosting, has not come through to fix this issue as of yet. I spent an hour explaining the situation to tech support via live chat, only to be told that an expert would have to look into the problem. Apparently, the issue was not clearly defined for the expert, because I received a “resolved” message stating that the expert was able to upload a file to my site, so there was no issue. I responded to the “resolved” message by explaining the situation all over again. I also went to the Wordpress forum for help; maybe they can at least tell me how to tell my host to fix this. Again, I’m in wait mode. I detest wait mode. It gets me cranky.

For a year now I’ve spent my early morning hours as a lerker. My iMac rises at 4 a.m., and I log on to Bloglines to check my feeds. They are waiting there for me. The big boys of edublogs: Stephen Downes, Scott McLeod, Karl Fisch, Will Richardson, Doug Noon, David Warlick, Ewan McIntosh, Clay Burell, and TMAO. I read. I watch. I listen. I don’t participate. I don’t contribute. Up until now, I’ve been content to lerk.

For a year now these giants of the genre have filled my head with wonders great and terrible. I found Richardson, first. Bought his book. Read it twice. Set up a Bloglines account and started subscribing. Burell and TMAO, though my last subscriptions, are my favorite reads. They are were I am. In the classroom. Or, at least they were until here and here. Downs is the hardest to digest. He’s overwhelming and often way over my head. But he leads me to some of the best web tools, so I keep reading.

For a year now these rulers of the realm have given me the feeling that I am inadequate. Unprepared. Incapable of contributing anything meaningful to their discussions. I’m used to leading discussions. I cut my teeth on bulletin boards and forums before blogs were born. So, I slipped into the role of lerker. Lerk and learn.

Now, it’s time to try out what I’ve learned. No more lerking ’round. Time to find my voice.