Monthly Archives: March 2009

Get Your Popcorn Organised! Edublogs Live Web Events Are Ready To Roll!

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Image of a smileyWondering where we are at with organizing Edublogs free live events?  Good news is we’re getting there!

Here’s what we’ve set up so far:

  1. Free Live Web Events! page where you can access the Elluminate link to the sessions, read about the session topics, find out when they are scheduled and leave feedback on topic suggestions etc
  2. A newsletter service so that users can sign up to receive a email notifying them of our upcoming free live events and professional development
  3. An Events calendar with dates, times and session topics.  This can be added to your own Google calendar and all events will show in your calendar in your local time
  4. Show archives where you will find the show descriptions and links to access recordings and chat logs for each archived Edublogs Live Web Event.  Here is the feed if you would like to subscribe.

And off course you can always watch out for tweets about the sessions from my twitter account :)

What Else Do We Need?

Well the great news is we’ve started adding sessions, to be presented by a range of hosts, to the Events calendar but to make this REALLY WORK WELL we need more:

  1. Suggestions for show topics - what would  you like covered?  Doesn’t have to be on blogging!
  2. People willing to present or co-host a show(s) – propose a topic plus date and time that works for you!

Don’t forget if you would like to book sessions for your teachers and/or students specifically on aspects of blogging just let us know!  Leave a comment with your contact details and information on what you would like covered.

How To Join the live web Events

Anyone can join these live web events.  They will be delivered in realtime using Elluminate complete with audio, chat and desktop sharing.  To join a live event just click on the following link: https://sas.elluminate.com/d.jnlp?sid=vclass&password=LPCBZLAT4D3Y921591JT

Elluminate is a Community Partner with Edublogs.  To learn more about Elluminate check out either:

  1. Their recorded introduction
  2. The Quick Reference guide
  3. Join the Configuration Room to test your connection and configure your audio

Get your FREE 3-user Elluminate vRoom HERE to use it for hosting your own meetings or to practise with!

FINAL THOUGHTS

So what haven’t we thought of?  We’ve tried to make simple for people to be notified of up and coming events plus access the show archives…. please let us know if we’ve missed something!

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Check Out These Cool Ideas From Class blogs!

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Image of a grapeLove showcasing what’s happening on different blogs (especially student and class) and I know The Edublogger’s readers like checking them for ideas.

So here’s some of the cool and creative stuff I saw while updating the class blogs page:

  1. Ms Michetti has been encouraging her students to expand their blog’s community and audience by connecting with student bloggers in other countries and engage in conversations by leaving meaningful comments.
  2. It was pleasing to see Mr. Pepper has been encouraging the development of his student bloggers by using honorable mentions to reward individual student blogging achievements such as well written posts, good blog design, creativeness and excellent commenting skills.
  3. Over on Mrs. Caudill’s Classroom Connection blog she has used pages effectively to keep both students and parents informed.  Here are some examples from her blog:
  4. Classes have been using Bubbleshare creatively to display photos on their blogs so parents, family and students can view them from home.
  5. Visual Arts @ Taylors Lakes Primary School is using their blog to share the latest news and artworks by teachers and students at their school
  6. Finally I can’t resist fun myself so thoroughly enjoyed the talking cat created using Bladderize on Ms Frizz’s Blog

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m regularly updating Check Out Class Blogs and Skype Other Classrooms! pages….please follow the instructions if you want your details added to either page.

Please leave a comment on this post to share any cool and creative stuff you’ve been doing on your blogs so I can check it out!

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The Edublogger’s Student Competition!

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The 2009 Student Blogging Challenge is now nearly half way through and the students have been working REALLY hard on the weekly challenges!  Currently 52 class blogs and 150 individual students blogs from 13 different countries are participating.

To celebrate the success of the challenge while also creating an opportunity to collect examples of student work we’re giving away twelve Edublogs supporter 12 month subscriptions which you can use on your own blog or give away to a reader.

Just write a post based on any of the topics themes listed below:

  1. Your own choice of topic but must include embedded media, created by the student or class, such as a SlideShare, video, comic strip, podcast, quiz, poll.  Here’s the chance to demonstrate how creative you can be!
  2. Your story of how blogging has helped you connect to a global audience and what this connection has meant to you.  e.g. the friends you have made, what you have learnt about other cultures, how you are able to share your passions with others, how you are able to use blogging to share your views on topics
  3. What difference has blogging made to your life at school and home e.g. how has it changed how you learn, the challenges of blogging and how teachers might make the process easier

Any class or student blogger can enter, including bloggers not currently participating in the 2009 Student Blogging Challenge, but you must:

  1. Leave a comment on this post letting me know you have entered, with a link to your post plus your Grade/year level.
  2. Explain in your post which topic you are writing about and link back to this post so that we receive a pingback advising us that you have written the post (read this to understand What’s A Pingback? And How To Write Links).

For example you might copy the following into the bottom of your post and just change the topic enclosed in the qutoation marks:

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!

The four best post for each topic will win and you can submit posts for as many topics you like.  And off course all winners will get a badge they can add to their blogs :)

Remember we’re looking for the best — so here is your chance to demonstrate your blogging and creative skills!  You have until April 30 to enter.

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Taking The Agony Out Of Using Custom Image Headers

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Are you like me?  Driven by a strong desire to add that individual touch to your blog using a custom image header?  But through not fault of your own designing your own image header always turns out BAD?

There is a solution! Instead of trying to design your own image header visit Free Web Page Headers.  All their image headers are provided under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commerical license.  This means you can use them, with adaptation if you desire, provided you acknowledge the original source and don’t use them for a commerical purpose.

This is how I did it on my personal blog:

  1. Searched Nature category on Free Web Page Headers looking for a header with adequate space to add words to left hand side of header
  2. Downloaded Yellow flowers by DHester onto my computer Image of yellow flowers
  3. Opened up image in PhotoShop, added desired words to image and adjusted image size to recommended image size for my blog theme (970 x 140 pixels)Image after adding words
  4. Uploaded new custom image to blog (Design > Custom Image Header)Image of uploading custom header
  5. Added a text widget to blog sidebar with HTML code to provide required image attribution

Image of attribution used

FINAL THOUGHTS

Check out these posts for:

  1. Edublogs themes that have custom image headers
  2. Edublogs themes that have custom image headers and allow comments on pages

You can use Free Web Page Headers as they are without adding text.  There are numerous free photo editing tools that you can use in place of PhotoShop.  What free photo editing tools would you recommend?

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Interested In Free Live Online Sessions?

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Image of a dogWhen you first starting using Web 2.0 tools with your students it can feel scary.  So I’ve been thinking of ways to help out teachers.

What I decided was it would be good if we could offer to provide live online presentations where some sessions cover different aspects of blogging while others focus on using a range of web technologies.

In essence take the same approach to providing free online professional development as we use on The Edublogger.

The great news is Elluminate is now a Community Partner with Edublogs and has provided access to an Elluminate room specifically for this purpose.  Besides all the excellent features an Elluminate room provides it also means I can use application sharing to show each step clearly when demonstrating a tool.

Click on this link to get your own free 3-user Elluminate v-Room!

So now it is your turn to share your thoughts:

  1. What aspects of blogging and web technologies would you like to learn about in these sessions?
  2. What do you feel are the best days/times to run these sessions?
  3. Would you like to help facilitate some of these sessions?
  4. If you are interested in booking sessions for your teachers and/or students please leave your contact details and information on what you would like covered.

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