Submit your summary URL on Wednesday________ at 11:59 pm on Canvas.

Intro and Build Your Website

The University of Mary Washington’s Digital Knowledge Center provides peer tutoring to all University students on digital projects and assignments. Students can schedule 50 minutes, one-on-one tutorials with a trained peer tutor on any DS106-related projects.  Click Here to set up an appointment.

Intro and Visual/Design

Please note that most of the assignments/tasks listed below are due no later than Wednesday night at midnight, though I can’t tell you enough that if you wait until Wednesday to do them you will be screwed. Also, the Daily Create assignments need to be completed and published on the day they come out (hence the daily!) and I am mandating you do one Wednesday by midnight to get in the swing of things.

Please note that this class moves at a lightning-fast pace, and if you don’t stop to look around once and a while it will pass you by.

Part I Bootcamp

The first thing you should do for this assignment (and every assignment) is to read the entire blog post for that assignment. In it, I will lay out the plan for the assignment. These videos are a vital resource for you; you should never skip them! I cannot emphasize this enough. If you try to rely on just the list below of what you need to complete, there is a good chance you will get confused or miss out on important tips and information!

Below is a detailed list of what’s to be completed in this assignment.

1. Review the Syllabus
   You need to spend some time reading and familiarizing yourself with the syllabus for this class. As we said in our welcome email last week, this course is likely like no other you’ve ever taken. The syllabus is your roadmap for understanding the class’s work and what your activities will entail.
2. Get a Domain and Webhosting
   After reviewing the syllabus, you must first choose a domain name. A domain name is just a fancy name for a URL or Web address. For this class, you will register a domain name (free through UMW’s Domain of One’s Own project) of your own. Check out some advice about choosing a domain name.  Once you choose your domain name, you must register and set up web hosting through Domain of One’s Own (login with your UMW netid/password). Detailed instructions. You are one step ahead if you already have a domain through Domain of One’s Own. For more details on navigating your web hosting account, i.e., cPanel (your control panel), creating subdomains, using Installatron, etc., we have extensive documentation here. Shortly after you sign up for your domain and Web hosting, you will receive an email requiring you to verify your domain. This is a legitimate email, and you must follow its instructions! If you do not, in two weeks, your domain will go into a state of “limbo,” making your site unavailable.
3. Install WordPress
   This tutorial will take you through installing the publishing platform WordPress. Keep in mind if you already have WordPress installed on your UMW Domains, you can use your existing site (and just tag or categorize your ds106 work accordingly) or choose to create a new WordPress site in a separate subdomain, such as ds106.myawesomedomains.com.Find out what a subdomain is and how to set up a subdomain on our documentation site. You will be using WordPress A LOT in this class. If you’re unfamiliar with it, please keep this set of WordPress resources handy.
4. Register Your Blog
   Go to the collaboration on google drive
5. Set up Your Social Media
   Create accounts and fill out profiles for yourself
   • Any Photo Sharing Websites from the following article.
     • Your blog must have a link to your Photo Sharing Site
     • Flickr(photo sharing) http://flickr.com
       If you are new to Flickr or have no images in your account, you MUST post at least 5 images to your Flickr account right away (they can be whatever you want); Flickr may not verify and make your account public until there are 5 images there. When you upload your photos, tag them with ds106. Get in the habit of doing this!
   • Soundcloud(audio publishing)  http://soundcloud.com/
     • Set up an account if you don’t already have one.
     • Your blog must have a link to your SoundCloud Site
   • Video sharing on either Youtube or Vimeo
     • Google / Youtube (video sharing) http://www.google.com/accounts/
       If you have a Gmail account, you are already set with this. If not, create a Google account. This will allow you to join any synchronous video discussions we have (in Google Hangout) and give you access to YouTube.
     • Vimeo (video sharing) http://vimeo.com
       Alternatively, if you don’t want to (or can’t) get a YouTube account, feel free to use Vimeo for your videos.
     • Your blog must have a link to your Video Sharing Site.
6. Make some Multimodal Introductions
   • Now that you have all your accounts, it’s time to use them to introduce yourself to the class.
     • Use Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube, and Flickr to introduce yourself to the community and be creative.
   • BE CREATIVE, NOT JUST “HI” on each digital media.
   • Create a fluid story on all the tools, Flickr, YouTube or Vimeo, Twitter, and Soundcloud.
   • Once you’ve done that, you need to embed them into a WordPress blog post. Here are some tips for embedding media in WordPress.  
   • Create one blog post which combines all your introduction into one comprehensive and cohesive blog post.  Do not put here is my introduction of blah, here is my introduction of next blah.  Be creative.

Part II Customizing Your Blog and Building Participation