DS106 week 1: Introductions, webhosts, and a domain of your own

Welcome to ds106, watching the eight minute video for my a rather unofficial introduction:

ds106: Week 1 Intro from Jim Groom on Vimeo.

Assignments for Week 1:

A Quick introduction
By way of introduction tell us all a story about something that happened to you recently. It can be video, audio images, good old text, or any other tool you like. If you like restrictions, try and tell it quick (no more than 30 seconds in terms of audio or video—-extrapolate out from there for the other media).

A Domain of One’s Own: Webhost and Domain

Week 1 will be dedicated to have those interested in getting up and running with their own domain and webhost setup. If you have had the itch to take this plunge, now is a good time to try it out cause there are a lot of people involved in this course who could help you along. What’s more, we could all benefit from hearing about your experience. You can view the assignment and respective tutorials I have provided at the following link: http://ds106.us/2011/01/12/domain-and-webhosting/ I encourage you to add more resources for this process to the comments of that post, or in the course wiki, the more documentation, the better.

I particularly hope Brian Lamb and Martin Weller will get off their asses and set up their own webhost account and manage their own blogs (that goes for you too Blackall!). As D’Arcy Norman would say they’re “corporate sharecroppers,” unless of course their blogs were hosted by the Apple App store—in that case they would be freedom fighters (nothing like starting off this class with a smackdown for my friends 😉 ).

Gearing up for week 2
Already folks have started reading, watching and responding to Gardner Campbell‘s “Personal Cyberinfrastructure” essay as well as the companion video “No Digital Facelifts” (you can find them both here). This will be the focus of the course leading into week two, which will culminate with Gardner Campbell live video streaming for everyone to enjoy on Thursday, January 20th at 6:00 PM (EST)—and yes we will be archiving and sharing this talk after the fact.

And if you want to see what folks have already done with Gardner’s seminal discussion of carving out a domain of one’s own and its implications for teaching and learning, check out Tom Woodward’s Remix of the talk, along with Grant Potter’s remix of Tom’s remix Not to mention Lisa Lane’s discussion of Gardner’s ideas here, which I’ll take a small quote from below:

The practices of narrating, curating, and sharing could put the control back in faculty hands. It’s true that it needs to be in student hands, of course, but for faculty to serve as a model (as Gardner writes in his article) they must somehow free themselves from the autocracy that has emerged along with the technologies.

And all this before we are even out the gate!!!!

So, like my partner in crime has noted so eloquently here, it is time to push yourself beyond your creative comfort zone, time for us to wrestle honestly with the future of education through praxis and engagement and, more than anything else in my book, it’s time to make some damned art already. Let’s go!!!!

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33 Responses to DS106 week 1: Introductions, webhosts, and a domain of your own

  1. one of these days, remind me to sit you down and explain how HTML works. with tags, and angly brackets and stuff. it’s not as hard as you make it look.

  2. Alan Levine says:

    Kenneth, what’s the tag for this first story assignment? is it “week 1”? Also, the back dates of posts (Dec 2010) for assignments is a bit confusing.

  3. Reverend says:

    @D’Arcy and Alan,

    You two are all business, I freaking told a pee story, damn it!

    Of tag for first assignment is [drumroll] assignment1. And I will changes the dates shortly, and let the not yet blogged assignemnts be scheduled.

    Also, what the hell is HTML and who the hell is Kenneth?

  4. Alan Levine says:

    Kenneth = What’s the frequency, Bava

    Thanks for flipping the dates.

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  6. Martin says:

    You want me to do what now? Lamb and I are actually setting the new trend. Soon you’ll all be begging to get on the corporate sharecropper lifeboat but we will beat you off with our big, corporate branded oars, laughing like demented sergeant majors as we quaff champagne. Or something.
    Anyway, can I still play if I don’t go all indie?

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  9. Brian says:

    How can I be a sharecropper on a platform that I founded? (With the able assistance of Mr. Norman, above.)

    A campesino and el patron all at once, by your usual sick logic.

  10. @brian the tyranny of bava insists that DIY means Do As Jim Wants. You may control an entire blogging service, but until you’ve paid somebody for a server, it doesn’t count.

    who cares where you put stuff, as long as you make art, dammit!

  11. Barbara says:

    You rock those ears, bava. xoxox

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  14. I already have my blog up and running. When i tried to connect it to http://ds106.us/….posts from my blog only appear in my activity. I am wondering if it should show under the post category.? Also, how you you tag the post with “assignment 1”

    Thanks

    • Reverend says:

      Elizabeth,
      It seems to be pulling in cleanly now, sometimes it takes a bit to get set. You should also see your post(s) reflected in your profile on ds106.us, let me know if that is the case.

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  19. I’m climbing to the top ropes, getting ready for a back flip body slam…

    I want an answer! How is signing up to a central domain name, and buying a hosting server from some fly by night small business, any better than using Google’s Blogger? If you’re going for conviviality, then I want you setting up and running your own server, networked with peers, running your own software.

    We’ve all seen what happened to Wikileaks domain, or when I forgot to pay the bills on my dot com and 2004 server. And I betcha a million bucks when those cops come pounding on that geek’s server business asking for the hard drives, he’ll piss his pants.

    I want an answer god damn you all! You’re not the internet you’re just yourname.net struggling with WeirdPress and a CPanel getting fried by spam. I on the other hand, I’m all over it, every corporate US colonial corner of it.

    Did I land that slam?

  20. Trevor says:

    While I’m not a DS106 student I have been lurking and would be thrilled for an answer to Leigh’s question.

    Instead of listening to the old woman who swallowed the fly. (First she needed a blog, then she needed to buy hosting to run the blog, then she needed to set up her own database to run the blog, then she needed to set up a server to run the blog) I would suggest that this points to the problem with the idea that attempts to be in control provide a false sense of security.

    Wouldn’t it be a bit more edupunk to recognize that folks should use what works and just remember that many copies keeps things safe?

  21. Reverend says:

    Hey Leigh (ouch! I think you broke a rib 🙂 ) and Trevor,

    Awesome points, and I have been struggling with them in this comment thread here, which I think reaffirms both of your questions, but at the same time doesn’t necessarily trivialize the potential for getting a deeper sense of how a web host works. So rather than repeating it, let me point you here:

    http://bradkozlek.com/40061049

    The comment were I go at it must is the 6th one down, and I think it is a figure 4 leg lock Blackall, so bring it on!!! 🙂

  22. You think you got me don’t you. This is turning into a jelly wrestle out back. Heading over to that guys blog to drop a few…

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  25. Mary says:

    This is an awesome course design, Jim. What a wonderfully human way to tell the story of networked course development. I am finally exploring the syllabus, resources, and assignments, and I am inspired. The network collaboration is actually happening here! I found my way here today via LAK11 and CCK09. What a treat! Thanks, Mary

    • Reverend says:

      Thanks you Mary, it has been a blast so far, i hope we can sustain it 🙂 And frankly i think we might be able to given how awesome people are in this course, it is all them, I am just a patsy with a blog.

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  27. Trevor Owens says:

    Just wanted to note that after teaching my digital history class I am coming around to your way of thinking about this Jim. There is indeed something about a domain and cPanel that has this empowering effect. I am still trying to figure out exactly where I stand, see http://www.trevorowens.org/2011/05/how-technical-to-get-when-teaching-digital-history/ In any event, if you have a moment to comment on what I am thinking through over there I would appreciate it.

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  29. brainysmurf says:

    Hi, all. Feeling like I seriously ‘don’t get it’ today and that’s great because that’s why I signed up for #ds106 to push my boundaries a bit.

    Being a late bloomer to the connected web, I’ve spent the last eight months setting up and diving into FB, Twitter, WordPress and, just in the last few days, HootSuite, Flickr and Diigo. I’m tired of signing up for things. I just want to get on with it and make art (or tell stories or mess around at the fringes or whatever). Still not seeing the ‘what’s in it for me’ of a paid domain, web host thing…all way over my head technically. Thoughts? Advice?

  30. Pingback: Something for myself, this week: Digital Storytelling 106 | Adventures in a Gifted Classroom

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