how to

Today, I came to the MAFLT website via the WiFi link at a local coffee shop.  Once at the site I did not login as administrator.  Instead, I viewed it as “the public” would see it.  I wanted to confirm your experience of downloading and installing DEScribe without any special insider tricks.  I navigated to the DEScribe page via the Products tab then clicked on the DEScribe link.  By the way, the correct pronunciation is “D - E - Scribe” which includes word play for “DE” as a moniker for Distance Education and “Scribe” as an ancient writer.

I clicked first on the “Training Materials” link and got a surprise - the site asked me for another user name and password.  After a couple of quick back-and-forths I read the text below the links to discover instructions that included the required codes.  At this point I doffed my outside user hat, logged in as the administrator and edited the instructions.  Now, it’s clear before clicking the links that registration is required.

OK, confession time.  I’m a writer, not an educator.  But, our team needs blog training and the task falls to me.  I know the material, so it ought to be simple - right?  Gather everyone into a class room, lecture for a couple hours and voila! Bloggers. 

Trouble is, their work scatters them and their schedules across the planet.  Getting everyone together in one place at one time demands effort and expense far beyond anyone’s budget.   An asynchronous (students participate on their own schedule), online course could solve that dilemma.  And, our Tool Team created a product expressly for this purpose - DEScribe.

But, I’ve never used DEScribe.  In fact, I’ve never created any kind of online curriculum.  Perhaps you haven’t either.  If that’s the case, join me on a climb up the DEScribe learning curve.  Over the next few days I’ll share the good, the bad and the ugly as I download and install the software, figure out how it works, and then create an actual course. 

Comment as you like.  This should be fun.