Technology in our classroom

This is it!!

The penultimate challenge! 

Time is running out for you.

 What do you need to do?

Visit this blog written by students and teachers who have taken part in previous blogging challenges.  Checkout the posts written by students.  Then come back here to read about your challenge for this week.

Challenge week 9

Write a post you think would be suitable to add to this international student blog.  It will need writing, a question at the end, images, perhaps other media like a poll or slideshare.  What topic will you choose?

If you would like to be an author on the international blog, leave a comment here on this post.  Also remember to hyperlink to this post when you write your challenge so I can visit.  The best challenges will be added to the international blog.

Teachers - if you would be interested in having your class join the international blog, please leave a comment on the international blog under the page heading “Join us”. I will start organizing the calendar again so each class has about two weeks or a fortnight in which to have control of the blog.

Original image: ‘Time‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24742305@N00/2331754875
by: John Morgan

Released under an Attribution License

Part of this challenge is to make you better bloggers and commenters. Another part is to let you begin to develop a positive digital footprint in the world of technology. We hear so much in the papers and news reports about teachers and students being suspended for misusing Facebook or MySpace or leaving comments on Twitter.

Challenges week 8

1. What is included in having a positive digital footprint? When should you start using your proper name and photo of yourself rather than an avatar? Who is responsible for showing you how to be internet savvy? What information do you include on profiles when you register at a website?  Write a post about your own digital footprint.  Give examples of where you can be found on the web.
2. Look at your blog.  Have you been replying back to your commenters and thus continuing the conversations?  Have you got out of your comfort zone and commented on lots of other blogs written by classes and students around the world? Or are most of your comments only from class mates and your teachers? Check out the comments on this post and see where the use of threaded comments is handy when carrying on a conversation. With Edublogs, threaded comments is a plug-in for supporter blogs – remember to take part in competitions with The Edublogger and win 12 month supporter badges like Lauren, Abbey and Jessica. Write a post about your commenting habits after 8 weeks of the challenge.
3. If you have only had comments from your class mates and teacher, then leave a comment on my blog and I will get back to you over the next couple of weeks.
4. To get you visiting other blogs, do the following activity – Count out three.  On the September participants page, click on the blog of either a student or a class.  This is count out one.  Now go to the blogroll of that student or class and click on a link to another person. This is count out two. Finally when on that blog, click on the link of someone in that blogroll.  This is count out three. Now leave a comment on that person’s blog.  Hopefully this is not a blogger you have already commented on.  Try this activity at least three times.

We thought some of you might like to add badges to your blogs to let your readers know you’re part of the Student Blogging  and Commenting Challenge.

So here they are!

For the Better Bloggers

150 pixels wide

Image location:   http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/better_bloggers_150.gif

200 pixels wide

Image location:   http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/better_bloggers_200.gif

For your blog posts

Image location:    http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/better_bloggers_468.gif

For the Better Commenters

150 pixels wide

Image location:    http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/better_bloggers_150.png

200 pixels wide

Image location:    http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/better_bloggers_200.png

For your blog posts

Image location:    http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/better_bloggers_468.png

For the Challenge Helpers

150 pixels wide

Image location:     http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/better_bloggers_1501.png

200 pixels wide

Image location:     http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/better_bloggers_2001.png

For your blog posts

Image location:     http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/better_bloggers_4681.png

Adding to your blog sidebar:

All you need to do is add a text widget to your sidebar and write a link to the image here on this blog using HTML code.

Here is an example of how you need to write the code:

Where it says:

http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/files/2009/o3/theedublogger2.jpg

you replace it with the image location given above for the size of badge you want to add to your sidebar.

Enjoy!

Miss W. says, “Thanks very much James  from Edublogs for designing and organizing these badges.  Also many thanks to Sue from Edublogs for writing this post to show students and me how to add them to their blog.  I am sure many students and classes will soon have them on their blogs and will have left a comment here thanking you for your support of the challenge.”

Sue Waters from The Edublogger has told me some people are having trouble registering for the blogging challenge because Google docs is filtered in your school.  So I have included here an Excel spreadsheet for you to fill in and email back to me at tasteach56atgmaildotcom.

Also some of our younger students are having trouble knowing the difference between their email address and their blog’s URL, so maybe teachers could also fill in the spreadsheet and return to me.  This would affect those students who are already on the participant list, but have some red writing next to their name.

Register here for challenge if google docs blocked

Having run three blogging challenges and having more and more participants each time, I find it fairly hard to keep up with all the commenting.  I try to comment when the student or class joins the challenge, then at least three other times throughout the challenge.

So Sue Waters from The Edublogger put out a call for commenting helpers.  She has allocated each helper with 5 class blogs and about 10 student blogs.  This will mean every class and student will have a visitor at least once a week, if not more often.  All helpers will be either a teacher, a student, a pre-service teacher or a blogger related to education.  Sue or I will have checked out their blog before allocating them to class and student blogs.

If you are interested in being a helper with the commenting, please drop by The Edublogger leaving your name and the URL of your blog.  Sue has included some hints and tips about leaving comments and email addresses to contact either her or myself if you have any queries.

We are asking each helper to comment back on this post and to leave a little blurb about themselves so you can come here to find out about your helper.

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.

It’s been nearly four months since the last student blogging challenge finished.  We had students from 15 countries taking part with either their own blogs or as part of a class blog. In total over 1000 students were writing posts, making conversations through comments and getting to know students and classes around the world.

Well, 6th September 2009, the next challenge will be starting.  But there is a difference.  There will actually be two different challenges running at the same time. You can take part in one of them or both of them, your choice.

Original image: ‘Global Player’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29487767@N02/3574392846
by: Dani Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

The first one is the BB challenge – Better Bloggers.  This will be for students who are fairly new to blogging and are still setting up their blog with their avatars and widgets.  They may have written a few posts and left comments on their friends’ blogs.

The second one is the BC challenge – Better Commenters. Students who have already taken part in a blogging challenge will find this more to their taste.  They will be looking at how they write comments, whether they are trying to continue conversations through comments and how to write posts that invite lots of comments.

If you can’t wait until 6th September for the first challenge to be posted, then head over to “The Edublogger” where Sue Waters is running a competition where you could win one year supporter status for your blog with Edublogs.  Check out one post that has already won one of the prizes.  Lauren took part in our challenge earlier this year.

So have you decided to take part? Then fill in the registration form below and hit the submit button.  Then keep watching this blog for the first posts on 6th September.

“Who wrote that great post on the trail of tears? I know it was someone in Mr Bogush’s class.” But that means looking through over 50 blogs.

“I loved that recipe on ANZAC biscuits?  Who wrote that post?  Which blog was it on?”  Someone in Mrs Smith’s Huzzah blog loves cooking but who is it?

There was one student who writes great posts on a variety of topics.  Who was it?

If you and your teacher are asking these types of questions, then you need to get your blog roll organized.

What is a blogroll?  It is a list of your favourite blogs or websites.  You can divide it into different categories and then add them to your ‘Links’ widget in your sidebar. On my class blog I have divided mine into these categories:

• 2008 students
• 2009 bloggers
• 2009 Inuit websites
• Games to help your skills
• Geography and the world
• Our school blogs
• Talk to these students
• Teacher blogs
• Wikis to visit

Notice they are alphabetical beginning with numbers.  So you will need to think about what the names are for your categories. 

If using Edublogs, to add links, go to write > links > add new link  Remember to say what category you put the link under and also use http:// in front of the URL.

Your challenge this week

Add at least 10 blogs to your blog roll.  Make sure you have at least two different categories.

If you took part in the challenge last year, your task is different.  You need to write a post recommending at least 5 blogs you think students and classes should add to their blogroll.  Remember to give reasons why that blog should be added.

If you still have lots of time to do some more challenges, then visit the blog run by last year’s participants.  Leave some comments on the posts and perhaps you will also find some other links for your blogroll. Check out the categories used on this blog in their blog roll.

Original image: ‘Question Mark‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25696778@N08/3233934830
by: Laika Henna

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Just a reminder for those students taking part in the Edublogger student competition that you must do the following things:

• Visit the edublogger and leave a comment so Sue Waters knows you have taken part in the competition. Remember to include the grade you are in.
• Somewhere in your post, put a link back to the Edublogger post eg   This post has been written on “my story of how blogging has connected me to a global audience” as part of The Edublogger’s Student Competition!  Change what is inside the quotes depending upon what you have written about.

Even if you blog on a different platform eg Blogger, 21classes, blogmeister, you could still write a post on one of the topics, enter the competition and give the prize away to someone who does use Edublogs.

Make sure your post makes interesting reading, that you have used lots of examples, added links if you are mentioning a person’s blog in particular.

As some of you might know, I am going to present a one hour workshop at an English and Literacy teachers’ conference in Hobart in July.  My topic is ‘Blogging safely in the big wide world’. I would like some reaction from you, my teacher readers.

Hopefully, at the conference, teachers will have some hands on time and be able to visit some of the blogs in this year’s challenge and leave comments for students and teachers.

Could you please answer some or all of these questions and allow me to use these responses as part of my workshop?

• Why did you choose the blogging platform you are using?
• What have you found most easy or difficult in blogging with students?
• What have you done to make sure your students are blogging safely?
• What do you think students get out of blogging?
• How do you find ways for students to get their global audience?
• What recommendations would you give to new teachers to blogging?

Please also include any other information you think might be handy for me to give at this conference workshop.  Please reply either as a post on your own personal blogs with a link back to this post, as a comment here on this post or email to me at tasteach56atgmaildotcom.

Original image: ‘Reading Aloud to Children‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83955435@N00/5484879
by: Judy Baxter

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License