Self-directed learning 1 overview: Build your research journal

You should spend a couple of hours this week building your ICT research journal (as well as making a start on doing your research for it). Pay particular attention to the following, all of which will improve the presentation, security, and navigability of your journal. You will be assessed on these things, as described in the assessment rubric for this task.

• Signing up. Don’t sign up for a service unless you understand the service’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If you’re not sure, then ask me before you sign up.
• Tags (aka ‘labels’). Make sure you add tags to each of your journal entries. Tags should describe your entry content, e.g., if your entry is about a research report you found on digital literacy,  you might want to tag up your entry with keywords such as ‘digital literacy,’ ‘traditional literacy,’ ‘literacy,’ ‘topic 1,’ ‘reports,’ ‘research.’
• Tag clouds. Add a tag cloud to your Tumblr, Blogger or WordPress journal/blog. If you are using Mahara, you will not be able to add a tag cloud (and you will not be penalised for that when I mark your journal). For Tumblr users, you will have to add a tag cloud by following these instructions.
• Themes and appearance. You might want to customise the appearance of your journal if you are using Tumblr, Blogger, or WordPress. Please note that not all Tumblr themes will display a tag cloud — see a post about which Tumblr themes do support tags.
• Links. Know how to embed them correctly.
• Widgets (aka ‘gadgets’). Know how to embed them correctly.
• Search box. Both WordPress and Blogger should allow you to add a search box via widgets/gadgets. Get onto it, because it will help with journal navigability.
• Password. Make sure you have a secure password.