Hi Everyone! Another message from your friendly local ITF, this one on mobile blogging.
On Saturday evening I was on an uptown bus, when coming through a cross-street intersection I saw a small white van. It was plastered with red text: The End is Near. Repent. Etcetera, etcetera. What was most fascinating to me was what was written across the top of the van in big print: did you know that according to these folks, the end times will begin on May 21, 2011? Gosh, that’s not all that far away, I thought. Maybe I should I buy a survival kit or something. And while I wanted to take a picture of this van to show y’all… I don’t have a smartphone. So we lost the moment! (But hey, if anyone else sees this van, snap a picture of it and let us know! ;-))
Y’all are smart Macaulay students, so maybe I don’t need to make this clear, but just in case: Adding stuff to our site via your smartphone is welcome, and most appreciated! But it isn’t a substitute for the more substantive weekly responses–and probably isn’t the best vehicle by which to compose said responses. It’s for capturing moments out in the world–like the little white van barreling down 34th Street, bearing its message of impending doom.
That said, course sites work best when at least some portion of them are dynamic and of-the-moment, so mobile-blog (moblog?) away! Rather than adding a specific plug-in to this WordPress site–most site-side plugins are deprecated–it’s best to just install the correct app for your phone:
WordPress for iOS (iPhone, iPad)
WordPress for Android
WordPress for Blackberry
For each of these, there is a lovely little video tutorial, which sums up the “how-to” end of this a lot more effectively than I can do in a blog post. But here’s the key point: although this ePortfolio (like all Macaulay ePortfolios) is hosted at macaulay.cuny.edu–and not at wordpress.org, all on its lonesome–it’s still built with WordPress, and the respective app for your phone should be able to link up just fine. So. Watch the video tutorial for your respective phone, and drop by my office hours (preferably with your phone, so that we can troubleshoot if necessary) with any questions.
Happy Labor Day, solidarity forever, etc etc. –L.
Hi Lindsey, I’ve seen brochures for the May 2011 Apocalypse in Grand Central, but the van is news to me. It goes well with your theme of mobile communication! It hasn’t captured media imagination in the way that 2012 has because it’s from a religious group and can’t be exploited quite so effectively by the secular media. It might be interesting for someone to interview some of the group members as part of a final project.