New Idea – Process/System Improvement by R080037

I find that it is becoming harder to browse through the NUIdea Share Blog. The more posts added there, the harder it is to read. My proposal is to add Categories or topics. Categories, in blogger are Labels.

To better navigate the Blog and for the blog to be relevant to the current class, I suggest the following Labels.

1. New Paradigm2. Habits and Routine3. New Processes4. New Products5. Business Ideas6. Serendipity Walk7. Rants8. Announcements9. My Ideas

Add Labels as you please and Posts can be added into one or all the labels.

Implementing the Categories

Unfortunately, adding categories is not that straightforward. You will have to add a gadget called Labels to the side bar.

1. First, log in to your blogger account and select Layout. Use the updated interface to have better options.

2. You will be directed to the Layout Designer. Choose where you prefer the Categories Menu in the layout should be and Click Add a Gadget. In my case, I selected the topmost of the menu set on the right side.

3. After clicking “Add a Gadget” a window will pop up asking you what Gadget you want to Add. Find Labels near the bottom of the pop up screen.

4. Click the + button to add the Gadget. Blogger will prompt you to configure the Labels Gadget.

5. Change the name Lables to Topics (or whatever you think is best); Select Show all labels; Sort by Frequency, and display as List.

6. You will see in the Layout Designer that the Gadget is added.

7. Click Save Arrangement to finish. You should see your categories already.

Posts

Some posts are too long and it quickly discourages further reading especially when the post is not at confluence with the reader’s interests and mood. A page break or a summary can be added so that the reader can click read more if further reading is needed. You can do this when composing or editing the post.

1. When editing the post, select a line where the summary should end and click “Insert Jump Break”

2. This allows you to trim a post smaller. A clickable link will be added at the bottom named “Read More”

Layout

The Layouts of the Blogs (EntrepShare and NUIdeaShare) do not seem to work well for the contents posted in it. Browsing the posts using Firefox and Chrome show that contents overlap the side navigation area. This can be resolved by using the Template Editor:

1) Go to the blogger dashboard, pull down the edit menu and select Template.

2) Select Customize Blog

3) Select Layout

4) Select the Right Aligned Layout.

5) Click Apply to Blog to publish the changes.

Documents

Syllabus and Documents that are very important can be uploaded to slideshare too even if they are in PDF or Docx. It works the same way by posting the embed code.

Copy the Embed Code from Slideshare, then paste it on the composer (make sure it’s in HTML mode and not is Compose mode)

Here is an embed code posted in HTML mode.

You can switch back to Compose mode to check alignments. You can choose to align the embedded document to the center or to the left.

Check the Blog to see if the Document was published.

There are several advantages to this. First, The Document style does not change. Second, The document can easily be downloaded and printed, as most people find it hard to internalize materials while reading from the screen. I am one of those people, no matter how tech savvy, still find it so hard to internalize a reading material. I need paper and highlighter and a note-taking device.

I am quite inspired by your Blog driven class instruction that I wanted to start my own blog. I will start a blog about technology and how it is shaping business, marketing, and lifestyles. Thank you. I hope this qualifies as a New Idea submission under topics: Professionalism – new work, methods, practices. No, not under what pisses you off. The Blog is a great idea because materials are always available to anyone, anytime, anywhere. It just needs the Six Thinking Hats Method: Specifically the Black, Yellow, and Green hats.

R080037