Oooh! An already blogging student has already blogged the start of blogging, and look, he really got it, actually he got it better than me. Look, here’s my pedagogical technique: show the students CSS Zen Garden, then give them MoveableType blogs, mention that the default templates are really, really boring but can be changed with CSS, and hey, I won’t even have to bother to teach CSS, they’ll figure it out for themselves.
Heck, it’ll probably work with some of them. It’d work for me 🙂
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Tom Henrik
Ahem. I said _almost_, didn’t I? 🙂
Jill
What, you still want the lecture? Damn.
😉
Ian
I think it’s probably me — maybe certainly — but I’ve never been able to use CSS styles to customize MT. I feel “not in control”…
So, I end up cracking open the templates and changing the HTML to do what I want. I wonder if it’s because I remember when CSS was first introduced, and how cool it was, and that it didn’t work on anything but that crappy IE 3browser, back when we all wanted IE to die, die, die instead of Netscape. So, I’m still a little surprised when even the simplest of CSS manoevers works right.
I think it’s a mental block.
Jill
Personally I find the default MT templates difficult to use with my own CSS, so I rewrite the HTML too.
I’m going to get the students to do that too. They’ll learn more from making their own. But it’s great to be able to quickly make SIMPLE changes, like switching font types or the background colours. Or swiping a whole new CSS template from MT’s collection 🙂
Alina
Of course we want lectures. But not yet, maybe. It’s always cool to play around in the jungle on your own. It’s only when you’re stuck you’ll want a guide!
Alina
Blog it!
Pr¯ver  forandre p denne her bloggen. Ikke s simpelt til  begynne med, og syns at forklaringene p Movable Type sin side er litt for innviklet, mens FAQ omfatter ikke halvparten av problemer og sp¯rsmÂl vi fÂr her. ?…