Teacher Websites Training Followup: How To Improve Your Classroom Website in Less Than An Hour

Posted on December 28, 2006 by DXO

Teacher Websites Training Followup, originally uploaded by juggernautco.

Created a one-page follow-up to extensive training materials for teachers who have yet to make the most of their TypePad publishing system.

I’ve found that as time passes after training, the people who did not immediately start publishing need a spark. The 24-page, customized publishing manual is of little use to people who forgot their password.This short, breezy page helps people get re-engaged with their websites.

Potbelly Email Marketing System

Posted on December 19, 2006 by DXO

Created the first email marketing system for Potbelly Sandwich Works, a fast-expanding, Chicago-based sandwich shop opening stores at a fast clip.

Researched the email marketing software market
Chose Lyris ListManager because of it’s easy-to-use admin interface, built-in statistics, and powerful audience segmentation features
They use Lyris to manage their Inside Scoop newsletter and “Potbelly Pioneers” program to generate interest in new stores
Also allows them the reach out to the “business card in a fish bowl” customers who signed up for a free lunch.

Potbelly Email Marketing System, originally uploaded by juggernautco.

Falk-PLI Website

Posted on December 5, 2006 by DXO

Created website for northern Indiana engineering and surveying firm.

Client’s existing promotional video placed on homepage inside Flash
News section based on TypePad, allowing client to easily update the site and leading to improved search engine optimization
Trained client on how to update website
Project included copywriting

Fabrile Gallery E-Commerce Site

Posted on December 4, 2006 by DXO

Sourced, set up, and launched the Fabrile Gallery Webstore for retail glass art gallery based on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue.

Met with client to determine needs, interest, skills, hardware, and software and researched leading e-commerce packages
Site is completely based on the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions e-commerce platform, making it easy and inexpensive for client to learn and maintain the system
Highly recommended if you want a non-technical person to maintain the store after launch
Set up all product categories and populated the store database with products from client’s FileMaker Pro
Created custom, easy-to-follow documentation and trained the client onsite until they were comfortable with the system
Used the built-in weblog tools from Yahoo! Merchant Solutions to create an artist weblog for search engine optimization, including info on Fantasy figurine artist Amy Brown

Andy Kane Art

Posted on November 26, 2006 by DXO

Created a simple, quick website for a friend and a great artist, Andy Kane Art.

Site is built on WordPress and uses the Hemingway theme. Using flexible, feature-filled WordPress themes allows you to stand on the shoulders of giants and still make custom sites that meet specific needs
Uses the WordPress Contact Form plugin– very simple to configure, but places in-line styles on every site page. Great for a quickie site like this
Installed the FAlbum WordPress plugin, which uses the Flickr API to deliver images from a specific set in my Flickr account. The result are easy-to-update photo albums that are embedded into the main website but served offsite.
Encourages people who’ve purchased art from Andy Kane to upload to Flickr and tag with “andykane“– using free, offsite tools to develop community, build interest, and increase search engine optimization
Uses a free TypePad weblog to publish Andy’s poetry book, American Radio Waves. TypePad design mimics color, font, and other styles of the main site w/o needing a new WordPress install. The right tool for the right job

The image “http://juggernautco.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/andykaneart.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Catherine Cook School Teacher Websites, Moodle Installation, and All-School Calendar

Posted on November 18, 2006 by DXO

Created a complete website system for the Catherine Cook School in Chicago. Includes:

Over 50 teacher websites based on the TypePad weblog content management system.
All of the teacher sites run off of the same template, which reduces admin maintenance while assuring that each website has the CCS website look & feel
Teacher sites allow for customization at the blog level– teachers are able to put in the own header, subhead, “my links”, categories, and so on
RSS feeds automatically served by FeedBurner, making it easy for parents to understand RSS and subscribe through various services
Installed and configured the Moodle Learning Management System with the school’s look & feel
Set up Google Calendar so that everyone can keep up with the many events from Pre-K to 12
Created OPML file of feeds for all teacher sites for easy importing into RSS readers so that parents, teachers, and administrators can keep up with the whole school

St. Benedict Schools Websites

Posted on October 17, 2006 by DXO

So recently I helped launch a large-scale weblog system for a preschool, elementary school, and high school in Chicago.

It was an interesting project for a number of reasons:

We use the TypePad hosted weblog solution (2 separate accounts) to manage 20 High School teacher websites, 11 High School Sport Sites, 20 Elementary School Teacher Sites, and 6 Preschool Sites
We publish the “Subscribe via My Yahoo!” button for each teacher site and really try to get parents to understand the advantages of RSS
I created three separate training course (High School Administrators,High School Teachers, and Elementary/ Preschool teachers) and trainedover 80 people on the system
I made great use of Advanced Templates to make site administrationeasy over time. For instance, I have one template drive the content foreach of the major subsites (i.e. one for the High School sports, onefor Elementary School teachers, etc.)
The Director of IT for the Parish, Sr. Deidre Jordy, came up with an ingenious way to pull TypePad posts into an i-frame for the High School site,which allowed her to absolutely control the design and make it“non-webloggy”. The page is written in a combination of HTML,Javascript, and PHP. The heart of the navigation is the two-dimensionalarray at the top of the page. The two dimensions are section and page,which are also the two variables passed in the URL to invoke the page.All you have to do to change the navigation is to change the URL valuein that array and the navigation is changed everywhere, both on the topnav bar and in the side nav
The teachers are all really keeping their own sites up to date withthe normal assignments and classroom updates. Some are taking extrasteps in linking to further learning material with complex animations, adding images, and using their weblog as a tool for unveiling the learning as time goes by.
Sport sites are able to keep everyone up to date with the most recent scores,
Parish site is next

Dozens of Classroom Sites for a Private Elementary School in Chicago

Posted on August 25, 2006 by DXO

Development and training on website development using the TypePad Weblog Content Management system already installed and ready for further use. This includes the creation of sites for all teacher classrooms and all approved parent, teacher, and student organizations. Also includes development, launch and consultation on the Moodle open source learning management system.Deliverables:Websites/ Weblogs• Complete design and set-up of up to three separate templates for different site types (classroom, parent, sport, for example) in consultation with client• Develop and configure all websites• Develop custom training materials for all site authors• Up to 5 training sessions with up to 20 people per sessionMoodle Learning Management System• Consultation with designated client contact re: goals and objectives• Review Moodle configuration options• Run through the Moodle installation & configuration process with designated client contact• Ongoing consultation, optimization, and researchWeb-Based Calendar System• Consultation with designated client contact re: calendar goals and objectives• Source and configure suitable calendar tool

Community Site: Wesley Willis Art

Posted on August 25, 2006 by DXO

This is my most well-trafficked website, and it generates some (not alot) of revenue via Google AdSense, the eBay Affiliate Program, and & Amazon Associates. The best thing about it is that I’ve become adept at configuring many of the tools available in these programs.The site also serves as a rudimentary tracker for the market for Wesley Willis art, as I track all Wesley Willis items on eBay using their Favorite Search and “Watch This Item” features. This way, people can track the market through time and price their work appropriately.

Personal Website: Derivative Works

Posted on August 23, 2006 by DXO

My personal website is a test bed for my ideas on copyright law, art, and new web applications. I also use it to try out new features for client sites. The simple, three-column design focuses on pulling content from other web sources via RSS and other lightweight web services:

A linklog (for posting quick, annotated links from my Yahoo! My Web 2.0 account without creating a full post)
My Flickr photos (custom created through FeedBurner). I made custom TypePad code to deliver the full posts for the last 5 entries and just the headlines for the 5th – 10th most recent
Google Ads on just the individual archive page for the post, leaving the homepage ad-free.
Google AdSense for Search to deliver the full site search for users and to generate revenue.

This weblog has also become my central site, and I’ve used the TypePad export/ import feature to consolidate posts, categories, and images into one central place.

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Yearly Archives: 2006