Technology in our classroom

As I have been putting together the student blogging challenge participant list on the page above my avatar, I have run across a few problems.

• Some students and class blogs have given me the wrong URL for their blog.
• Some ‘blogspot’ blogs are not allowing comments.  Students will need the username/URL option available to leave a comment.

So, I am asking all students and teachers, to check the participant list. 

1. Make sure the link on your name gets to your blog.
2. Make sure it will be easy for students to leave comments.
3. Check if I have your name listed more than once.  Remember there could be more than one person with your name.

If there are any alterations needed to the participant list, please leave me a comment here.

Edublogs have been making some changes in the way they host blogs.  At the moment, your blog is costing you nothing, but if you look on our class blog and my personal blog, you will see an Edublogs Supporter badge.  This costs about $40 each for these two blogs but I feel it is worth it to keep you safer on the internet.

What might you see on your blogs now?  Well, not too many changes.  As a supporter, I can turn off ads to 30 blogs from my personal blog and 30 blogs from my class blog.  This means you won’t see any Google ads on your blogs, but you might see some on other blogs you visit. 

It costs Edublogs thousands of dollars every month to run this blogging site for us.  At the moment it is free but you will have less space to save your blog and images, so make sure each of your posts are valuable.  If you are really keen on keeping your blog, you might in future years decide to become an edublogs supporter so you can also enjoy some of the great things on offer.

As a supporter, my blog and the class blog get some new widgets that you can’t get automatically – like the snow falling on the page. Now, if you find you lose your clustrmap, remember you can always add it as a widget in a text box – check with me how to do this. Anything nasty on your blog, make sure you tell me so I can discuss it with you and we come up with a decision of what you can do.  This is all about you becoming a responsible and savvy 21st century user of technology.

The students in Portugal are using a name ‘tag’ for each of their posts.   For example if you want to chat with Pedro in 6c then look for the tag pedros6c in the lefthand sidebar.  Click on this and all the posts he has written will then appear on the page. 

“But I can’t read Portuguese?” you say.

Then open Google language tools in another window or tab.  Highlight, then cut and paste the Portuguese words into the translate text box.  Check you are translating Portuguese to English.  You should be able to understand enough to write back to the student using English.

Please make a comment here about your conversations with the Portuguese student bloggers.

Original image: ‘Colors‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12285897@N00/2669201638
by: Francisco Antunes

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

As you may have noticed, I have been having problems embedding some great images or media for you to look at.  If you are embedding games make sure you check that they work properly especially if they end with .swf  I have left these two in from Blabberize.com and GoAnimate because they are both great websites to go to if you want to create something online.

Here is a link to the blabberize animation -  I made a Blabber for You!

Hey, Miss W., where’s my clustrmap?  What’s happened to my Flickr photos?

Edublogs has created a new plugin for some widgets on your blog.  To activate them, go to your normal dashboard, top right corner plugins> then find widget pack near the bottom of the list and click activate.  You won’t have lost any dots on the clustrmap.

I noticed also that the clock I had on my blog has gone, I wonder if anyone can find it?

I have just been looking at your links in your blogroll and have noticed a few games sites being added.  Now this is OK as long as you,  the writer of the blog, are old enough to be using that game site according to the terms and conditions of the games site.

So if you have to be at least 13 years old to use the games site and YOU the writer are only 12 , then you can’t have that link on your blog until you turn 13.  It would also be a good idea to write a post about some of the websites you are recommending, making sure you mention how old you have to be to use that site.

This is the same for other widgets you are adding to your sidebars.  For example Binga has now turned 13 so he can have a voki and feedjit map.  But if you are only 12, sorry, you will have to wait a few more months.