Welcome back, Fall 2011

September 19, 2011 Welcome (back) to GRS!  I hope you are all well settled into your new semester.  This week we will be splitting up into two rooms.  We will all meet at the usual time and place to get started, and then new students will head over to the computer labs in room 192 for an introduction to blogging with wordpress.  Please bring a laptop if you are able; there may not be enough computers for everyone and you’ll get the most benefit if you are able to work through the tutorial in class.  If you are a returning GRS student and are familiar with the blogging system, head to the regular classroom for a discussion on preparing for the next few years of your academic and professional career with Brent. We have a new process for obtaining a blog account:  If you do not have a wordpress account through LFS, click here to create one.  We will also provide a few minutes to do this in class. You must have an interchange account to start an LFS blog.  Also, you will be writing a profile for your blog.  You can get started on this right away: dig around the links from current and previous students for examples of what to write. New and returning students should take a browse through the LFS Wiki on blogging for a refresher on why blogging is a great way to connect with your local and global community, and how to do it in a fun and efficient way.  More on this soon. As always, if you have any announcements to make to the class, be sure to pass them on to me (Alisha) and post them as a comment on the Student Announcements page.  You can reach me at ubcgrs@gmail.com. The discussion board is now up and running with a discussion based on our first class.  Putting up a posting would be a good way to get thinking about the skills you might like to pursue in the future, which ties in nicely to our upcoming class.  If you are new to GRS and the online discussion boards, don’t worry, we’ll go over this on Wednesday.