Technology in our classroom

Already half way through the challenges and so far we have:

• written an ‘About me’ page – week 1
• created and uploaded an avatar for the blog and/or comments - week 1
• decided on a commenting guideline for our blog – week 2
• added clustrmaps and other widgets about the world – week 2
• learned how to create post categories – week 3
• added interesting links on our blogroll – week 3
• added widgets about the local area – week 4
• added a translation widget – week 4
• commented on international blogs – week 4
• learned how to comment back to commenters – week 4
• learned how to add HTML code to add a link in a comment – week 4

All this in just 4 weeks!!

The main part of blogging is the conversations you create through either the posts or the comments. We are doing quite well with the comments but now it is time to show communication through writing your posts.  Most posts so far have just been written words.  Some students have added an image but was it an image they had taken themselves or did they use one from the web?

How to do this??

Add links to other blogs you have read which gave you the idea for your post. For example, Abigail tagged me to write a post about inspiring music.  When I wrote the post, I made sure there was a link in it, that took my readers back to Abigail’s original post. If you get tagged for this activity, make sure you link back to the original post of the person who tagged you.

Often when I send you back to read a post written by Sue Waters at “The Edublogger” I will attach a link to the post I want you to read – eg how to insert a link into a comment.

As well as inserting links, adding an image will get your reader involved.  Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.  But if you use an image that is not owned by you personally, you have to tell your readers where you got the image from.

For example, in my post about why I wasn’t at school last Tuesday, I used images I had taken, so I didn’t have to say on the post where I got the pictures.  But I could have said they belonged to me and were copyright to me. So if you wanted to use one of them, you would have to get my permission.

There are many websites where you can get images to use in your post that are creative commons images.  This means they have been licensed so you can use them in certain ways.  There are a few different creative commons (cc) licences so you need to check especially if you want to slightly change the image. Here is a link to a previous post I have written about sites for images.  Included in that post is a link about how to add an image if using Edublogs. You must give attribution when using a cc image.  I have done this two ways: I have linked the image to the URL where the photo was found and at the bottom of this post, I have given the title of the image and where I found it.

Challenges week 5

1. Write a post about one of your favourite interests.  In this post include at least two links to great websites or blogs that are also about that topic.
2. Visit one of the image sites and choose a great image. Write a post about that image and remember to include the attribution. This means you have told readers where you got the image from.  Look at the URL for the image – this does not mean Google search images but the original site where the image was put on the web.
3. Choose five images which, put together, tell a story without any writing from you. Remember to choose a great title for this post. Remember also to give attribution for the images.

Image: ‘Headstrong’ www.flickr.com/photos/95572727@N00/2259228179

Most answers to this quiz can be found in Wikipedia, but you might have to visit a couple of pages to find the answers.  This could be used as an example of Activity 1 in the Edublogger Student Competition.

Note you must be 13 or older to be able to create your own quiz in MyStudyio.

All the images in this quiz were either from flickrcc or wikipedia pages.  There was nowhere in the quiz allowing me to attribute the images.

As we have participants from 9 different countries taking part in the blogging challenge, Sue Waters and I thought it would be great to have a post about the festivals and celebrations you have in your country or the area you live.

I know students in my class will have just had the Royal Hobart Show they could write about, students living in Georgia must have some sort of “Peach Festival” as that is the nickname of their state, Halloween is around the corner as well.

Activities to choose from for week 6

Write a post about a festival or celebration you have attended.  Describe the festival and its history. What was it about? Did you enjoy it or not?  Make your post at least three paragraphs long so your readers will have lots to comment about. Try to include links and an image with the correct attribution. If you don’t know how to attribute photos then use the link in the previous sentence. If you want help in finding creative commons images then check here.

Change your theme to have some sort of festival appearance. If you have a music ipod on your blog, make sure the music relates to your festival.

Write about a festival or celebration you would like to visit in the future.  Mention why you would like to go there - perhaps the snow festival in Sapporo in Japan. Find links and an image to include, again with correct attribution.

Remember: you need to have at least 5 links in your blogroll for the activity next week.  These links don’t include the ones that were in your blogroll originally. You can have as many links as you like, see Nadine’s and Ashley’s blogrolls – about 20 names in each of them.

Original image: ‘P1040369‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98423201@N00/2264259907
by:

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial License

I’m at a seminar at the moment and just learnt about a quick, easy way to give attribution to images. Visit this website which allows you to search for creative commons images.  It also gives you the attribution which you need to include with the image on your blog. You may include it with the photo or add it under the photo.

Original image: ‘Tassie devil’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30805622@N00/351640307
by: Adam Tibballs

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial License

Steps to follow:

1. Search for photo by putting in a tag eg sumo or Tasmania or fishing
2. Click on photo you want to use
3. Click on “edit image in-house”
4. Click on “Add attribution” if you want it included with the photo – see my picture on the right
5. Right click and “save picture as”
6. Follow normal instructions to add images to your blog

Be careful, though, when adding the attribution to the photo.  What has gone wrong with mine?

Many students are now taking photos in class and wanting to upload these to their blog.  They have taken part in the marine centre trip, or been to the yo-yo exhibition or have taken a photo of their Hatchet map.

Well here are the steps to follow:

1. Begin a new post and do all the writing first.
2. Decide where you want to put in the photo and whether you want it to be on the left or right of the post or maybe in the centre.
3. Find your photo by clicking on Add media> add an image.
4. Choose files to upload from computer – make sure your image is going to be the right way up as you can’t adjust the direction once the image is uploaded.
5. Copy the link URL.
6. Save all changes and close the upload window.
7. Click on green tree.
8. Paste in the URL you had copied, align your picture and put 5 in vertical and horizontal then insert.
9. Now you click on the photo and adjust the size using the corners.

You have now uploaded a photo from your school computer.

Photo source:  Miss W’s trip to Japan – cleaning sign when shinkansen is being cleaned

Part of being internet savvy is knowing when to acknowledge where you found a photo or information for your blog post.  If you haven’t written it in your own words using your own imagination, then you probably got the idea from another person. 

To keep it legal, you need to say where you got the information from, whether it be another website on the net, a magazine or newspaper you read or a book you borrowed from the library. The thoughts and photos are not yours; they belong to someone else and it is your responsibility to mention them in your blog post.

Sue Waters who writes The Edublogger which you can see in your dashboard, has written a great post about acknowledging photos under Creative Commons.

You need to complete the following for EVERY photo you use (unless it is your own photo)

STEP 1  Find photo with Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.  Right click on photo, go down to properties then copy the Address (URL)

STEP 2  Open your ‘Write Post” page and click insert image into post (green tree )

• paste in image URL
• add description
• add alignment
• put 5 in vertical and horizontal boxes
• now click Insert

STEP 3   Click on image and resize – width about 200 pixels if right aligned.

STEP 4  Now go back to page where original photo is and copy the page URL (at top of page not on photo)

• back to your post  and click on image then click on insert link button (chain)
• paste in the URL
• set target as new window
• now click Insert

Final step  Adding text attribution under photo or bottom of post

Photo by majamom (highlight name then insert link to page URL) licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

If you are unsure how to keep photos legal, then read Sue’s post on the Edublogger as she includes screenshots as well.

Another idea from the blog “Quick Tips”