Artifact: Workshop
Date: Nov. 2007
Course: e-Coaching practicum
Competency: Knowledge of learning approaches and principles

Reflection

This was my final workshop with the e-coaches and although it was valuable it was unsuccessful because of a low turnout. I approaced the workshop in a similar way to the previous ones although in this workshop I intended to allow the learners the last 20 minutes to consider unanswered questions they still had about WordPress. The five teacher candidates who attended the workshop had a number of questions I could assist the with so in this respect the workshop was successful.

The low turnout was related to the title and the focus on the workshop. When I spoke to some of the participants who missed the workshop they said that they didn’t attend because the workshop was optional and they already understood how to use WordPress. The lesson I gained from this workshop was to use the title Open with caution and it served as a reminder that the needs of the participants must be considered in order to ensure participation. Adult learners have limited time and in the marketing of workshops it seems important to consider explicitly how the workshop will benefit them directly in order to gain their buy-in.

PowerPoint
[slideshare id=205166&doc=presentation2-1197838660775903-4&w=425]

Recipes/Handouts

Adding Functionality to Your Site

There are two ways of adding functionality to your site. Activating plugins and adding widgets to the site.

Step 1: Activating plugins
Dashboard>Plugins

Choose the desired plugin and click activate

Step 2: Adding an RSS feed to Pages or Posts using Perassi Plugin
Dashboard>plugins

A. Click on the plugin tab and activate the perassi plugin
B. Copy the code written on the plugin tab
C. Paste the code into a page/post and replace the feed with the desired RSS
D. Click publish

Step 2: Adding widgets
Dashboard>Presentation>Widgets

A. Open your presentation and widget tabs
B. Scroll to the bottom of the page and choose the widgets buttons from the box and drag and drop them into the sidebar

Step 3: Adding a Widget Box Widget
Dashboard>Presentation>Widgets

A. Open your presentation and widget tabs
B. Scroll to the bottom of the page and choose the number of widget box widgets to appear in the box. Click save
C. Select one of the widget box buttons from the box in the center of the page and drag into a sidebar
D. Click on the button and follow the links to the widget box web site
E. Choose one of the widgets there and click get code
F. Set the dimensions
G. Copy the code into your web browser and copy the id= code
H. Paste the id code into the widget box widget

Discussion Questions

1. What unanswered questions do you still have about WordPress?
2. Have the workshops you have facilitated been successful?
3. Describe your progress creating your own e-Portfolio