Searching the Blog
A recent comment on our blog raised the issue of locating entries should one wish to view them in the future. The COPPER Blog has no traditional "Google-like" search feature in which one can insert key words and pull up related documents. Nevertheless, there are several easy ways to locate a particular entry or pull up information if one is interested in exploring the site’s resources on a variety of topics.
1. Categories - With a few exceptions, all of our blog entries are assigned to one or more topic categories. Categories represent the site’s archives and can be accessed on the right hand side of the home page. Clicking on a category link such as SoTL, Learning Communities, Educational Question of the Year, or Doing Too Much will bring up all the entries archived under that category from our over two years of postings. This is helpful when doing a search in an area of interest. In addition, if you make note of the assigned category at the end of any entry you are reading, it can serve as any easy way to retrieve that material at a later time.
2. Home Page – The COPPER Blog home page http://middlesex.blogs.com will contain most of the messages posted in the last few months. You will see links to the most recent messages on the top right of the page, but by scrolling down the page further other entries will appear. Once the messages are no longer visible on the home page they must be accessed through the archives or via a direct link (see below).
3. Bookmarks – Each blog entry has its own unique web address or URL that can be used to go directly to that message and its accompanying comments. Clicking on “permalink” immediately below the entry will open a web page that displays that entry and its comments. Simply bookmark or add the link to the favorites list in your browser and you can return directly to that post in the future. By copying and pasting the entry’s address into an email you can share the post with other friends and colleagues that may find the material of interest.
4. Date – If you are searching for an entry and do not recall the category, you may be able to locate the post using the date archives that are located down the right hand side of the home page. There you will see a calendar of the current month with direct links to any days on which a message was posted. This is followed by monthly links from the last ten months of postings. If you recall that you read an entry late last fall, simply clicking on November or December will bring up all the posts from those months.
If all these methods fail, feel free to send me an email at margulisd@middlesex.mass.edu with some basic information about the post’s content and I should be able to locate it and forward its web address to you. Happy searching!