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

Too much to have to say in one post this week, so I have divided it up into a blogging challenge post and a commenting challenge post.

It is great to see so many students with their own blogs participating in the challenge.  Remember though, there are also some students on class blogrolls. Visit them to read their posts and leave comments as well.

What is a blogroll, you ask?  Now that you have started visiting other blogs and looking at the participant list to find students with similar interests, you might start finding some blogs that you really like.  You might visit these every day, but how do you remember their URL?  This is where a blogroll comes in handy.

If you look on the sidebar of my blog, you will notice I have certain subheadings such as:

• 2009 bloggers
• links numeracy
• links science
• teacher blogs  

These are all part of my blogroll.  Notice the subheadings or categories are alphabetical beginning with numbers.  So you will need to think about what the names are for your categories. 

If using Edublogs, to create the link category headings, go to  links > link category  To add some links such as this blog and your friends blogs, go to links>add new.  Remember to say what category you put the link under and also use http:// in front of the URL.

Just to confuse you and your teacher, there is also another heading called ‘categories’.  This though, relates to the posts you write about.  These categories appear in the header area or at the footer section of your post. 

What are your posts mainly about?

• family and friends
• schoolwork
• my interests
• my future 

You might use these as post categories.  If using Edublogs, to set them up from your dashboard go to posts>categories. Why are categories and tags important when writing your posts?  See if you can find out that answer over the next week.

Your challenges this week

1. Add at least 10 blogs to your blog roll.  Make sure you have at least two different categories.
2. When writing posts, begin adding categories. You should only have a few of these – it is like the chapter heading of a book. Go back to your previous posts and change the category.  If writing a post for the challenge, perhaps a category ‘challenge 09′ would be useful.
3. If you have taken part in a previous challenge,  you also 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.
4. 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.

One of the most important parts of blogging is continuing conversations.  This means readers have to read many blogs and leave lots of comments.  If you read a great post and decide to write a similar post on your blog, then it is manners to include a link to that original post where you got your idea from.

So this week’s challenge involves visiting the ‘Bringing us Together’ blog and reading the post about heroes, taking part in the survey and leaving a comment. Some of you might want to write your own post(with a link back to the original) about someone you consider to be a true hero or heroine.  Be careful to spell heroine correctly on your post.

War often brings heroes and heroines to our notice and while I have been ill over the last few weeks, I have been watching a lot of TV on the History channel.  A person I consider a heroine is Vivian Bullwinkel and a hero is Sir Weary Dunlop.

Thanks to Miss Ale and her grade six class in Argentina for the idea for this post.

Original image: ‘Hero of the Soviet Union‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124385307@N01/95230930
by: Kees de Vos   Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

If you look down my sidebar, you will see I usually have links associated with the topic my students are studying.  But where do I get these links and how do I know if they are going to be alright for my students to use?

I am thinking of looking at the topic ‘Adaptations in nature’ and have found these two links.  They look quite good as the video is made by the BBC – a reputable company and the other link includes a recommendation by a University Professor at our local university. 

Challenges this week

Would you recommend I add these to my links?  Why or why not? Leave a comment here on this post.

Write a post about an animal that you would like to see in the wild.  See if you can add a link in your post to a webcam or video and some websites about your animal.  Why do you want to see that animal in the wild rather than at a zoo?

Teachers – you might want to do something in class about verifying sources.  Do you have any other sites you use when teaching this topic to your students?

“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