Web
presence is so vital to me that I cannot live without it;
it is like flesh and blood living on the web. It is a way
of life that sustains my personal and professional life.
Today, many people live on the web: producing, managing
and communicating the UCC (user created contents), which
takes place simultaneously, ubiquitously, and multidirectionally.
In this fast changing, challenging culture, we, as teachers
and scholars, need to create and maintain our own web sites
to maximize our job function, which is to communicate well
with our students, community, society and the whole world.
Our web presence is another gospel that we should
live by. [A chiasm: web presence
(A) - life (B) - culture (C) - this new culture (C') - new
life (B') - new gospel (A'). |
WHY DO WE NEED A WEB SITE?
(blog is part of web presence)
Self-management
Time, resources
You
can save time and manage your life effectively and
healthily by making online various valuable resources
ranging from personal notes to professional writings.
*see my web site as point of
case: www.youaregood.com
*Things you can do:
"about me" "teaching" "publications"
"bookshelves" and "professional",
etc.
*as part of your culture,
you can update things as often as possible: teaching
related (syllabus, resources link), research related
(resources blog, writing factory (blog and page),
personal information (cv, bio, other anecdotes, family
album), and publication information. Recent examples:
“how have I been formed as a learner?” and "web
presence" were put on the web (building up of
what you do). So if anything changes in your life,
you may update related information immediately on
the web (you have to decide the level of revelation
of information; of course, don't reveal everything).
*So very important
to make protected folders if you want to keep to yourself
or to limit access to authorized people. Such folders
are: family album, writing project folder, and course
teaching. If you create blogs, make sure that you
can also limit access (to yourself only or authorized
persons). In my case I have many blogs that I keep
to myself (for self-management purpose).
Communication
For Students
1. Course Teaching: syllabus online,
resources and instructions online, web resources.
2.
Revealing teacher identity besides classroom (“about
me” section: research
interests, works, bio, etc)
3. Post-class experience maintenance
(students’ visiting the web, remembering
hands-on material). Even post-class web visit
as another communication.
For the academic community
1.
sharing academic
concerns or issues (publications, columns, blogs,
etc)
2.
sharing teaching
experience (syllabi, resources)
3.
book promotion
(pr): creating page, blog, flyer, forum, etc
For the wider public
1. sharing or stimulating general,
theological issues (timely issues: movie review, Seunghi
Cho)
2. ministry resources (ex: bible
study plan)
3. sharing publication
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HOW
CAN WE GET IT? (step-by-step procedure)
1.
Domain
name registration: make your own domain name and register it through
a domain registration company.
2.
Make web pages (index page is
basic and the first page; use Word and change to htm file; or use
professional web editor such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage). *need
to learn basic html
codes (hyper-text mark-up language).
3.
Find a web hosting company and
upload files to the remoter server designated. (I use Hostmonster as my web hosting company;
I use FileZilla to upload/download files to/from the server). FileZilla is a freeware.
SEVEN WORDS OF WISDOM
1.
Design your web site for yourself (identity, need): be it you!
2.
Make it look clean, simple, and user-friendly
3.
Update it as often as possible (though other people don’t recognize
it). Update it like you eat everyday and breathe non-stop.
4.
Use Word documents and change to html file (“save as” web page)
or pdf file. Most of time what we need online is “text” and “referral”
to another text. So the essential thing is make links. So know and
remember this linking html code:
<a href="http://www.youaregood.com/">Yung
Suk Kim’s Journey</a>
Then what you see
on the web: Yung
Suk Kim’s Journey (hyperlink text).
In your Word program,
you can insert this hyper link address by going to “insert” and
choose hyperlink.”
5.
To see html codes of the web page, go to “view” and choose “source”
under the menu of the Explorer if you use Explore as your browser.
This will reveal all html codes of the web page. You might need
to read and understand about the source used.
6.
Send your URL site to search engines: Google, yahoo, etc.
7.
At times, google your name or site name to see who uses or
quotes you. |