Planning for the Finish Line

Can you see it off in the distance?  It's right there!  Our blogs are almost finished...

At this point of the unit we would normally be planning the steps and actions we would take to build and create our product or solution.  We would start determining what resources, equipment and tools we would need, how much time each of the steps might take and what support or knowledge we would need to acquire or call upon.

In this unit, we've already begun the process of creating our blogs.  In fact, each of you already has a functional working blog that you've been posting to over the last few weeks.  So instead of planning to build a blog...  we're going to plan on how to finish our blog...

Some of the functional and aesthetic aspects of our blogs are in place.  There are a number of the elements that need to be added or tweaked before our blog is finally ready for prime time.  Which elements?  Well according to our functional sketches and blog template mock-ups...  we still need to ensure we have a...

• functional Menu,
• a complete Author Bio Page,
• an appropriate unique URL,
• a Background that matches our theme
• appropriate and functional Gadgets,
• a clean and organized Layout,
• and an optional Banner
• any of the Features mentioned in your Specification!

As we've talked about in class, we should plan on finishing these items are part of our create phase by following the guidance we've received by looking over our Design Criteria, the Functional Blog Sketches and our Template Mock-ups.

As our time grows shorter this semester, it will be up to you to determine when the best time for you to work on these items will be.  I have come up with an Action Plan Worksheet to help you plan and budget your time appropriately by coming up with some task action steps, complete with space for you to plan when you'll work on these items and to check off when you have completed them. It should already be in your folder! Be sure to work on this in and out of class!

Additionally I've put together a set of tutorial resources videos to better help you begin creating and fixing each of these items after using your Action Plan Worksheet to determine what your priorities are and when you'll get to them.  To access these resources, please view the linked videos below:

Creating a Menu and Author Bio Page in Blogger
Choosing a Unique URL for your Blog (The blogs web address) [Linked Articles: #1, #2, #3]
Adding Appropriate Gadgets (includes ClusterMap)
Adjusting your Blog Layout
Adding a Banner (Optional)

Due Dates:  

• All tasks in your action plan should be completed by Tuesday, December 9.

How to earn a 7 or 8: 

Finally, if you would like to earn a 7-8, please be sure to pay close attention to our task specific rubric including:

• All sections of your Action Plan Worksheet are complete and include extremely thorough, thoughtful and detailed actions steps for building your blog.
• The Action Plan Reflection is extremely thoughtful and detailed, identifying potential challenges and justifying any changes to the design.
• Student is consistently on-task making best use of their time. Student is constantly providing support to classmates in helping with blog creation.

Image Credits:
Runner's Den by Dru Bloomfield. Creative Commons Licensed on Flickr