Weblog of Wesley Fryer

Moving at the Speed of Creativity is Wesley Fryer‘s blog. (That’s me!) I use this site to digitally document my own journey of learning and collaborate with other educators and lifelong learners around the globe. I focus primarily on issues related to engaged learning, web 2.0 technologies, digital storytelling, educational leadership, literacy, blended learning, creativity, appropriate uses of educational technologies, digital citizenship, and educational transformation.

If you’re interested in contacting me about sharing a keynote, presentation or workshop for educators in your area in person or over video, please review my list of recent and upcoming presentations on wiki.wesfryer.com. Use the contact form on my “Speaking” page to inquire about availability. If you want to contact me directly about issues unrelated to speaking engagements, contact details are available.

More info about me is available on my public Google profile page and my personal bio page. My full digital footprint is on claimid.com/wfryer. See my disclosure policy for additional information about my affiliations and stance on advertising on this blog. Please see the attribution guidance page for information if you are quoting or citing my work.

Wesley Fryer

Some technical stuff about my blog: (updated 2/15/2010)

My blog (this website) is powered by an updated version of the free WordPress blogging engine. I currently use a (slightly) modified version of the Lightword theme. In July 2007 I updated my blog theme to use the free Blue Wonder theme, I had previously used a slightly modified version of the “famous Kubrick” theme.  The drop-down menus at the top are a feature of my theme, each is a WordPress “page” rather than post and they are organized under “parent” categories within WordPress.

I’ve used various plug-ins since I started blogging with WordPress, currently…
There are 42 plugins used: 30 active plugins and 12 inactive plugins.

Active WordPress Plugins

  AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget 2.3.0
» The AddThis Team (url)
Help your visitor promote your site! The AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget allows any visitor to bookmark your site easily with many popular services. Sign up for an AddThis.com account to see how your visitors are sharing your content–which services they’re using for sharing, which content is shared the most, and more. It’s all free–even the pretty charts and graphs.

  AdRotate 3.6.10
» Arnan de Gans (url)
The very best and most convenient way to publish your ads.

  Akismet 2.5.5
» Automattic (url)
Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam. It keeps your site protected from spam even while you sleep. To get started: 1) Click the “Activate” link to the left of this description, 2) Sign up for an Akismet API key, and 3) Go to your Akismet configuration page, and save your API key.

  Anti Feed-Scraper Message 0.9.3
» Joen (url)
Helps prevent your RSS feed from being “scraped” (copied and reposted elsewhere), by adding a customizable message with a link to your original post.

  Auto Anchor List 1.0
» MindWireMedia (url)
Automatically displays and creates anchor links to H tags in page content.

  Code Markup 1.3
» Bennett McElwee (url)
A filter that displays <code> blocks nicely while still allowing formatting.

  CommentLuv 2.90.9.6
» Andy Bailey (url)
Reward your readers by automatically placing a link to their last blog post at the end of their comment. Encourage a community and discover new posts.

  Comment Timeout 2.4.0
» James McKay (url)
Automatically closes comments on blog entries after a user-configurable period of time. It has options which allow you to keep the discussion open for longer on older posts which have had recent comments accepted, or to place a fixed limit on the total number of comments in the discussion. Activate the plugin and go to Options >> Comment Timeout to configure.

  Contact Form 7 3.0.2.1
» Takayuki Miyoshi (url)
Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible.

  Disqus Comment System 2.70
» Disqus (url)
The Disqus comment system replaces your WordPress comment system with your comments hosted and powered by Disqus. Head over to the Comments admin page to set up your DISQUS Comment System.

  Google+ Plugin 1.3.2
» Ve Bailovity (Incsub), raggedrobins (Incsub) (url)
Integrate with Google+ Pages and add the Google +1 button to your site so your visitors can vote to tell the world how great your site is!

  Google Analytics for WordPress 4.2.2
» Joost de Valk (url)
This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics to your WordPress blog, adding lots of features, eg. custom variables and automatic clickout and download tracking.

  Most Commented Widget 2.2
» Nick Momrik (url)
Widget to display posts/pages with the most comments.

  No Revisions 1.1
» John Leavitt (url)
Disables post revisions in WordPress 2.6 and on. Activate the plugin to disable them. Deactivate the plugin to reenable them. Note that this does not delete any existing revisions, just stops wordpress from making any more.

  PhotoDropper 1.0.9
» PhotoDropper (url)
PhotoDropper lets you easily add free Creative Commons licensed photos to your posts from Flickr with just a few simple clicks allowing you to create professional high quality posts that your readers will love. By activating this plugin you agree to be fully responsible for adhering to Creative Commons licenses for all photos you post to your blog.

  podPress 8.8.10.12
» Dan Kuykendall (Seek3r) (url)
The podPress plugin gives you everything you need in one easy plugin to use WordPress for Podcasting. Set it up in ‘podPress’->Feed/iTunes Settings. If this plugin works for you, send us a comment.

  PostRank 1.4.3
» Trevor Creech (url)
Showcase your Top Posts with the PostRank widget, track social media analytics, and engage with your readers from the WP dashboard. Learn more about PostRank.

  Really Simple CAPTCHA 1.4
» Takayuki Miyoshi (url)
Really Simple CAPTCHA is a CAPTCHA module intended to be called from other plugins. It is originally created for my Contact Form 7 plugin.

  Search Meter 2.8
» Bennett McElwee (url)
Keeps track of what your visitors are searching for. After you have activated this plugin, you can check the Search Meter section in the Dashboard to see what your visitors are searching for on your blog.

  Simple Trackback Validation 2.1
» Michael Woehrer (url)
Eliminates spam trackbacks by (1) checking if the IP address of the trackback sender is equal to the IP address of the webserver the trackback URL is referring to and (2) by retrieving the web page located at the URL used in the trackback and checking if the page contains a link to your blog.

  Subscribe To Comments 2.1.2
» Mark Jaquith (url)
Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. Based on version 1 from Scriptygoddess

  Subscription Options 0.8.9
» Tom Saunter (url)
Adds subscription option icons for your RSS Feed; your FeedBurner Email Service; your Twitter Stream and even your Facebook page. Thousands of colour options. Totally user-defined. Also available: The Subscription Options Add-on Pack!

  This Day 1.4
» Dagon Design (url)
Lists posts that were created on this day in previous years

  Twitter Tools 2.4
» Crowd Favorite (url)
A complete integration between your WordPress blog and Twitter. Bring your tweets into your blog and pass your blog posts to Twitter. Show your tweets in your sidebar, and post tweets from your WordPress admin.

  Twitter Tools - Bit.ly URLs 2.4
» Crowd Favorite (url)
Use Bit.ly for URL shortening with Twitter Tools. This plugin relies on Twitter Tools, configure it on the Twitter Tools settings page.

  W3 Total Cache 0.9.2.4
» Frederick Townes (url)
The highest rated and most complete WordPress performance plugin. Dramatically improve the speed and user experience of your site. Add browser, page, object and database caching as well as minify and content delivery network (CDN) to WordPress.

  WordPress Database Backup 2.2.3
» Austin Matzko (url)
On-demand backup of your WordPress database. Navigate to Tools → Backup to get started.

  WP-PluginsUsed 1.50
» Lester 'GaMerZ' Chan (url)
Display WordPress plugins that you currently have (both active and inactive) onto a post/page.

  WP Greet Box 6.3.3
» Thaya Kareeson (url)
Show a different message to your visitor depending on which site they are coming from. For example, you can ask Digg visitors to Digg your post, Google visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed, and more! Best of all, this plugin is compatible with various WordPress cache plugins.

  WPtouch 1.9.38
» BraveNewCode Inc. (url)
A plugin which formats your site with a mobile theme for visitors on Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android, Blackberry Storm and Torch, Palm Pre and other touch-based smartphones.

Inactive WordPress Plugins

  Hello Dolly 1.6
» Matt Mullenweg (url)
This is not just a plugin, it symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly. When activated you will randomly see a lyric from Hello, Dolly in the upper right of your admin screen on every page.

  Maintenance Mode 5.4
» Michael Wöhrer (url)
Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end. Navigate to Settings → Maintenance Mode to get started.

  reCAPTCHA 2.6
» Ben Maurer & Mike Crawford (url)
Integrates a reCAPTCHA with wordpress

  tweetlighter 1.0
» tweetlighter (url)
Retweet outside the box. This plugin will allow your readers to tweet any text on any page of your wordpress site.

  Twitter Tools - Exclude Category 2.4
» Crowd Favorite (url)
Exclude posts in certain categories from being tweeted by Twitter Tools. This plugin relies on Twitter Tools, configure it on the Twitter Tools settings page.

  Twitter Tools - Hashtags 2.4
» Crowd Favorite (url)
Set #hashtags for blog post tweets sent by Twitter Tools. This plugin relies on Twitter Tools, configure it on the Twitter Tools settings page.

  WordPress Google +1 Button - Advanced Plugin, Includes Redirection 1.9
» Jacob Gillespie (url)
Adds a Google +1 button to your blog posts and pages.

  WordPress Post Tabs 1.3.1
» Internet Techies (url)
WordPress Post Tabs will help you to easily display your WordPress Post or Page sections in structured tabs, so that if you are writing some review post, you can add distinct tabs representing each section of the review like overview, specifications, performance, final rating and so on. Watch Live Demo at Plugin Page.

  WP-DBManager 2.63
» Lester 'GaMerZ' Chan (url)
Manages your WordPress database. Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up, optimizing and repairing of database.

  WP125 1.4.1
» Matt Harzewski (redwall_hp) (url)
Easily manage 125×125 ads within your WordPress Dashboard.

  WP Super Cache 1.0
» Donncha O Caoimh (url)
Very fast caching plugin for WordPress.

  YOURLS: WordPress to Twitter 1.5.4
» Ozh (url)
Create short URLs for posts with YOURLS (or other services such as bit.ly) and tweet them.

The dynamic lists above were created with WP-PluginsUsed.

I am no longer using the sds_Talkr_Plugin (it appears to be no longer working for some reason) or the WordPress Database Backup. Instead I use my blog host’s pHpMyAdmin to download mySQL backups.

This configuration is presently working well to keep comment spam out, from time to time I’ve also used Spam Karma 2 but currently I’m not using it. I had some problems with PodPress in fall 2007 I couldn’t resolve which messed up my Podcast RSS feed, and I eventually switched to using FeedForAll to create that podcast feed. I continue to use Feedburner for 4 different feeds related to my blog: My primary feed for all posts, my podcast feed / channel, my blog comments, and a feed for educational technology related posts only. This latter feed is still available but I am basically deprecating it as it’s no longer linked from my blog sidebar.

I love the “widgets” feature of the latest WordPress and have used different text widgets in my left and right sidebars for additional content. I have cut down on the number of external content links included here to improve loading speed for my blog pages, because I realize these are cumbersome for those viewing my blog on slower Internet connections. Currently I use embedded content for the following free services:

1. my technorati blog widget
2. feedburner generated chicklets and feed subscription links
3. email subscription services from FeedBlitz
4. live traffic feeds via FEEDJIT
5. my Google Reader shared items

I no longer use:

1. my del.icio.us network badge
2. A customized ShowYourself widget
3. my upcoming presentations and workshops (next 30 days) shared with RSS Calendar
4. my recent publicly shared pictures in a Flickr badge
5. 2 world clocks via clocklink.com

My blog footer includes two important elements:

1. my Creative Commons license
2. my ClustrMap showing blog visitor statistics and locations (I pay the annual fee for more detailed stats.)

I provide additional attribution guidance for my blog in a static WordPress page linked at both the top and bottom of every page.

In addition to blogging here regularly, and periodically on other blogs listed on claimid.com/wfryer.

Inspired by a blogger whose thoughts, work and writing style I admire, Dr. Lawrence Lessig, I periodically invite “guest bloggers” to take up the author’s chair here on “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” when I am offline. This is a fun way to infuse my blog with new ideas, share the fairly visible author’s chair which is this blog with others whose ideas I respect, and keep the content here dynamic for visitors and subscribers. Those guest blog posts are all archived within the category “guest blogger.”

If you want to contact me directly, my contact information (including my current Skype status) is available on my personal website.