Monthly Archives: February 2008

Adding A Voki Speaking Avatar To A Post or Page of Your Blog

Modified on by
64

Voki add a “human element” to your blog — readers can now hear your voice.

There are two ways a Voki can be added blogs:

  1. Using a text widget in your blog sidebar – when you always want the Voki to appear on your frontpage
  2. By embedding them in a Post or Page – when using the voki for giving instructions to students or displaying student created Vokis

Here’s instructions on how to add a voki to your blog sidebar.

This post explains how to embed vokis in Pages and Posts (check out these ideas on using Vokis in your classroom).

Embedding a Voki in Post or Page

Voki’s as embed in Posts and Pages as follows:

1.  Go to Voki

2.  Set up a Voki account and then create your own Voki.

3.  Once you have published your Voki grab the HTML embed code as follows:

a) From drop down menu next to ‘Embed in’ select WordPress

Selecting the destination for a Voki

b) From drop down menu next to ‘Size’ select Large (300 x 400)

Changing embed size of Voki

c) Click Get Code and copy all the HTML embed code

Tip: Fastest way is to use the ShortCut Keys Ctrl+A to select all text and Ctrl+C to copy the text

Copying the Voki HTML embed code

4. Go to Posts > Add New in your blog dashboard

5.  Click on Save Draft, previewed your post and make all necessary edits.

6.  Click on HTML Tab


7.  Paste the embed code for the  Voki into your post where you want it to appear then click Publish

  • Don’t click back to Visual Tab before hitting Publish as it can break the embed code.
  • Immediately close your post once you’ve published.
  • Change back to Visual Editing mode when you write your next post by clicking on the Visual tab.
Adding a voki to a page or post

Adding a voki to a page or post

Please note

Voki avatars embedded in posts are stripped out by feed readers like Google Reader.

It’s good practice to let your readers know that you’ve added a voki to a post and include a link to its original location

  • he location of your Vokis is enclosed by quotes after src= is the URL address of your voki in your embed code

For example you might say:

If my voki has been removed by your feed reader, you can check it out here.



Get a Voki now!

FINAL THOUGHT

We hope you enjoy creating your voki avatars and adding them to your blogs. Please let us know how you go.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Adding A Voki Speaking Avatar To Your Blog Sidebar

Modified on by
94

voki21Voki speaking avatars are cool and lots of fun to create.

They’re used to add a human element to their blogs or engage students.

But they can be a bit pesky to embed in a blog so this post explains how to add a voki to your blog sidebar.

Our next post explains how to add them to a Post or Page.

About Vokis

Voki enables you to create an avatar in your own voice using a talking character.

You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of different characters such as animals, monsters.

Here’s ideas for using Vokis in your classroom (courtesy Helen Otway – Classroom2.0):

  1. Students can create avatars that are similar in looks or personalities and record a message that tells about themselves.
  2. Students can exchange these avatars with e-pals either within their own setting or anywhere in the world.
  3. Students can generate questions to ask their avatar e-pals.
  4. ESL (English as a Second Language) students can use the speaking avatars to practice and listen to their speech. They may use the computerised voice first then record their own voice when they feel more comfortable. Writing, reading and pronunciation are all practised.
  5. Students can create an avatar that resembles a character from a story, add a setting and give it speech. The speech could be from the story or a creative point of view (POV) from the character on an event.

Adding Voki Avatar to Your Blog Sidebar

Voki’s as added to your blog sidebar using text widgets as follows:

1.  Go to Voki

2.  Set up a Voki account and then create your own Voki.

3.  Once you have published your Voki grab the HTML embed code as follows:

a) From drop down menu next to ‘Embed in’ select WordPress

Selecting the destination for a Voki

b) From drop down menu next to ‘Size’ select Small (200 x 267) — use custom dimension of Width 170 for narrow sidebars

Changing embed size of Voki

c) Click Get Code and copy all the HTML embed code

Tip: Fastest way is to use the ShortCut Keys Ctrl+A to select all text and Ctrl+C to copy the text

Copying the Voki HTML embed code

4.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

Appearance > Widgets menu item

5.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

6.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

7.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code for your Voki, click Save and then Close.

Adding HTML embed code to voki

8.  You should now see your Voki in your blog sidebar!

Tips for Using Voki

  1. Audio is better quality and easier to add when created using Audacity
  2. Voki terms and conditions state you must be over 13 years to use their service
  3. These instructions for embedding Vokis won’t work on WordPress.com blogs due to restrictions on the types of code allowed.

FINAL THOUGHT

We hope you enjoy creating your voki avatars and adding them to your blogs. Please let us know how you go!

Read our next post to learn how to embed a Voki avatar in a post or page.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Conversations, Community and Open PD

Modified on by
16

Image of the faciliators from Open PDOnce weekly I attend Open PD facilitated by Robin Ellis, Darren Draper and Kelly Dumont.

Today’s session — an introduction to blogging — I was invited to share tips on blogging which I decided to expand on a couple of tips by following up with this post.

About Open PD

Open PD is an open staff development course that any teacher, administrator, or technology specialist can join to learn more about the many free, online tools that can be used to enhance your teaching.

Image of Open PD LogoClasses are held once weekly, in five week blocks, with the global participants joining the face-to face participants in Utah, USA using Skype, Ustream and the Open PD wiki. I, like many others, throughly enjoy, and gain so much, from joining these weekly sessions.

Image of blog conversationsTip #1 – Remember The Conversation

The most important aspect of blogging, and where the true learning happens, is in the conversations. Always keep sight on how to achieve this conversation!

Conversations happens when you write a reflective post that invites / encourages / evokes readers to express their opinion:

  • Readers post their comments in response
  • You respond back with your own comments to your readers comments
  • If your post, or the comments, invokes sufficient emotion readers expand on their responses in their own post, which will link back to your original post
  • And you may follow up your original post with what you have learned from the comments and other posts

Sue Wyatt’s Creating a classroom blog is a classic example of the importance of blogging as a conversation. Sue has just started out blogging and asked for help working out how to blog with students. After reading her post I asked:

Blogging conversation like these are powerful because you are drawing from a diverse range of people, from various backgrounds, with a variety of experiences. Each individual shares their differing perceptive leading to greater gain and innovation by all involved.

My personal recommendation is for educators to first start out blogging for themselves; so they gain an understanding of how important these conversations are for the learning process.

Tip #2 – You Are Building a Community

Can’t take credit for this tip! Oops, I had forgotten to talk about the significant of community building in blogging – thankfully Jamie Gustin reminded me.

Conversations happen when you take the time to build a sense of Community. Readers will go out of their way to help and assist you; if they feel part of your community.

Make time to:

  • Engage with your readers on your own blog; post comments in response to theirs to show you value their input.
  • Visit and comment on other people’s blogs. Blogging isn’t about staying home; it’s about visiting others, engaging in their conversations and taking the time to help them with their learning. Showing you care about others means they are more likely to take the time to help you.

I’m very effective at managing my comments on other people blogs using co.mment — which tracks my comments, and notifies me automatically by sending the comment to my Google Reader account. This way when a person comments on a post that I have commented on I can choose to immediately respond back if I want.

FINAL THOUGHT

The next series of Open PD session start in 2 weeks (5 March) and is available to any one who wants to attend; contact Robin or Darren via the Open PD wiki for more information.

What tips and advice would you give educators who are new to blogging? How do you explain the value of blogging?

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Meet the miniLegends — Check Out How They Customise Their Own Blogs

Modified on by
6

Photo of Al UptonAl Upton, an educator based in South Australia, is extremely fortunate to work with the talented miniLegends, a class of Year 3 students, aged 8 and 9. Last year I was incredibly fortunate to be able to work closely with the miniLegends during the 31 Days to Build A Better Blog — which involved completing daily tasks to improve our blogs — with an added incentive of Chocolate for the Most Improved blogger and Best Commenter.

Photo of last year's miniLegendsWhat amazed me about the miniLegends was they were the same age as my youngest son — so I know how hard it can be getting this age to write. And yet during the 31 Day Project the miniLegends:

  • Wrote posts on their own blogs
  • Visited and read posts on all of the other 13 participating blogs
  • Wrote comments on all of the other 13 participating blogs — some of their comments were written better than some of the adult comments

Al and the miniLegends are inspirational; and won the Chocolate prizes for most improved bloggers and best commenters because of their hard work. I really wish my sons’ teachers realised how much their students gain from blogging and did this with my children.

Mentor a miniLegend

Photo of this year's class of miniLegendsThis year Al is working again with another group of incredible miniLegends and has invited the educational blogging community to mentor a mini. The idea is for the mentor to drop by their blogs from time to time throughout the year and leave a positive comment. He would really like mentors for all students from as many different countries as possible.

I’ve already chosen a miniLegend which I’ve added to my Google Reader. I’m always happy to help out Al and his students plus the added benefit is I get to watch, closely, how Al uses blogs with his students through the year and see the students’ gains.

To mentor a miniLegend for yourself — check them out on this page — click on a student’s photo to check out their personal blog. Make sure you leave a comment at the bottom of the miniLegends mentoring program page to let Al know that you want to mentor a student.

How The miniLegends Set Up Their Own Blogs

What I didn’t mention in my Tips On Blogging With Students post is that Al wrote his Class blogs – management, moderation and protection post in response to my email asking him to share his student blogging tips — and I’m so pleased for him that his post has been linked to by well known educational bloggers (which makes up for the fact I feltImage from Al's post REALLY bad that he stayed up till 4 am writing it).

Al has followed up his Class blogs – management, moderation and protection post with a really detailed post that walks the miniLegends through the process of setting up and personalising their own blogs. This post shows the students in simple steps how to Update their profile, write a post, upload images to their posts, upload a blog avatar, upload a user avatar, change their blog’s look and feel, tells them which widgets to add, set up their blogroll and activate the required plugins.

FINAL THOUGHT

Hope you join with me to mentor a miniLegend.

We love hearing and sharing what you are doing with your students — please tell us about your work and share your tips.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Tips On Blogging With Students

Modified on by
34

We’ve set up a Getting Started With Edublogs page on this blog to provide a central location for “how to” resources. Please let us know if you have any resources to add to this page.

Meantime we receive many requests for tips on blogging with students so here is some advice from educators who are experienced with using blogs in their classrooms.

Using Blogs With StudentsPhoto of the minilegends

Al Upton advice to educators new to using blogs is to start first with a class blog and move toward students posting about their own learning on their own blog when you feel comfortable.

Al’s extremely thorough Class blogs – management, moderation and protection post shares his tips and techniques for setting up a classroom blog, setting up individual student blogs, moderating student posts, moderating student comments and managing comments.

Kim Cofino says “One of my biggest stumbling blocks as I’ve switched gears froImage of Gmail Logom middle to elementary school is individual e-mail accounts for the students“. Her solution is gmail allows you to create subsidiary accounts that link to an individual account which means that one teacher can have permanent e-mail accounts for all students delivered into one teacher e-mail account.

Here are Kim Confino’s tips for setting up students as Contributors on Edublogs – the quick and easy way so that:

  • Individual student have log ins WITHOUT individual e-mail accounts
  • Individual student contributors to the blog WITHOUT their own blog
  • All posts approved by the blog administrator before posting.

Image of parent consent letterParental consent is an aspect that needs to be considered. Clay Burell uses a Parents Consent For Student Weblog Letter to inform parents of the aims of using blogs and let parents choose the level of privacy – name, image in photos and/or videos, comment moderation – for their “child.”

In World According to Matt Susan Morgan shares her conversation with Matt, one of her students, on how his classes were going, specifically regarding the use of technology. Here’s an extract from Susan’s post:

Well, I wish teachers wouldn’t assign stuff for no reason. It seems that they are just adding on technology projects on top of the other things we already do.

“He senses from some teachers that they feel they have to “do” technology, not that they want to. His biggest criticism is the way we blog. A teacher posts a question, and the student writes a nightly response to it, much like he would do in a reading log or journal. He said there’s not much follow-up to the posting, either by students or teachers.

What Matt wishes is that his teachers would consider using blogs or forums to extend his learning.

Image of RippleKonrad Glogowski’s Blog of Proximal Development shares a variety of tips for blogging with students such as Replacing Grading With Conversations, Making Assessments More Personally Relevant, How to Grow a Blog and Towards Reflective BlogTalk (Image by Teach and Learn).

Konrad wants his students:

to see their blogs and their entries as organic entities, as attempts to engage with ideas, as evidence of growth and development. It’s about maintaining conversations, not ending them by saying “Well done!” or “Good job!”

FINAL THOUGHT

What is your advice to educators starting out blogging with students? What has worked? What has caused problems? Can you recommend other posts that educators should read on this topic?

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!