02 | April | 2012 | E-verything!

Introduction

This short post is about getting an email address (if you don’t already have one) and writing simple emails that meet their purpose and are written in the correct style for that purpose. We will also describe/show you how to attach a file to an email.

There are many different email tools. The example we are using is Gmail. If you have a different email you will be able to do the same things but the steps may be slightly different. If you get stuck try looking for the “Help” in your email tool it may be hiding under another menu or icon – the Gmail one is in the menu on the “gear” icon at the top right of the screen. Another way to get help is to put a comment on this post asking if anyone can help you with your particular email program.

Getting an email account

If you already have an email account then you don’t need this bit of the post! If you need to get an email we suggest you get Gmail. When you get Gmail you do this by getting a Google Account. As well as Gmail this gives you the opportunity to add other Google toolseasily if and when you want them. This link will take you to a sign up page for a Google Account Once you have signed up send your lecturer an email so that they will know your email address.

Emails “fit” for purpose

Just like other forms of written communiction we use different styles of writing depending on the audience for our email. It is important to use the correct style or we could offend someone or give them wrong ideas about us. We also need to make sure that we use a sensible subject line – this helps people to find the email they want. Checkout the Slideshare for more information.

Email from Jo Hart

Writing a simple email

Click on this Writing a Simple Email link for a screencast that will show you how to write a simple email that meets its purpose.

Attaching a file to an email

We will ask you to word process some of your work and send it by email to us. Especially first drafts of written texts and also when we have given you a template to complete. To do this you will need to know how to attach a file to an email.

Click on this Attaching a File to Email link to see the screencast on how to attach a file to an email.

Conclusion

If you have any problems with writing or sending emails or attaching files you can get help in several ways:

talk to your lecturer in virtual class;
put a comment on this post so that others can help you;
email your lecturer (if the problem is with attaching files).

Remember if you have an email program other than Gmail the process for doing emails might be slightly different and the buttons might have different labels. However you will still be able to do the same things!

Happy Emailing 🙂

Introduction

This is our course blog. The word blog is short for “weblog” which is just a name for a type of website or a where you can easily upload “stuff” for others to see. It can be all sorts of different things – it doesn’t have to be just writing. Your blog is what you want it to be – or sometimes what you need it to be to show off your skills! It can be any or all of these:

an online diary or record of things that you do;

a place to write and share ideas;

somewhere to include pictures, videos or other media;

a professional or business place;

a personal place where you write for yourself;

a portfolio where you gather evidence of your learning and/or your skills;

somewhere to tell others how you do things.

A piece of writing or other media that you put on your blog is called a “post” and when you put the post on the blog this is known as publishing.

What is this blog about?

This course is about making your own blog and using it to showcase your learning and skills by making posts and uploading files and using e-tools like the Voki to make your posts more interesting to make and visit. Doing this will also help you to gather evidence for three units in one of the Certificates in General Education for Adults.

This blog is here to help you with your own blog – we will do that in several different ways:

posts that “show and tell” how to use some of the e-tools you will use to make blog posts – they will use a mixture of writing, pictures, diagrams and sometimes audio and/or video;

posts that give you links to useful e-tools and how to use them;

we will use different e-tools to make our posts so you can see how they can be used;

we will comment on the posts we write so you can see how to add comments – and we will ask you to comment on the posts too.

We will set up your own blogs soon and help you to log in and get started.

Before you start with your own blog we would like you to start with making some comments on posts on the course blog. You will see that there are comments on this post, you can use these to help you get ideas about how to make comments on blog posts.

Once you have looked at the first comments on the post have a go at writing your own comment. Look at the “how to” below and follow the instructions to add your own comment.

Your comment will appear soon – at the moment we have the blog set for comments to be checked before they appear. We will change this once you have had some practise.

Good luck with your first comment!