Duh! So obvious but how many of you, like me, and hadn’t considered making it easier for your intended audience to read posts should include a paper based guide?
Good news is Kathleen McGeady did and has been nice enough to share her “Making the Most of the 2KM blog” two-page guide which is a step by step, with screen captures on how to:
- Subscribe by email
- Find posts written by their child by clicking on the appropriate category link
- Leave comments
- Read the information on pages
- Encourage other family and friends to read
As Kathleen says this type of guide is “particularly useful for parents who are quite unfamiliar with the technology”. Below is a screenshot of what her guide looks like and click on the following link to download a PDF version of her “Making the Most of the 2KM blog” guide.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Please drop past 2KM blog to say hi to the students as a way of saying thanks for sharing the guide!
Meanwhile please leave a comment to let us know what types of paper based and/or electronic resources or information you share with parents or other educators.
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9 Comments So Far»
What a great idea… and so obvious as something that we need to do to support our parents, supporting our students. The understanding and use of our age group (parent age
) is very wide from regular users to those who avoid it. Have had some interesting chats with my students showcasing the knowledge or lack of tech knowledge by their parents.
I will definitley be adding that to my long to-do list
Many thanks to Kathleen for sharing too
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Sue Waters Reply:
May 7th, 2009 at 1:23 am
I’m always interested when talking with friends to discover that some of them that I assume are computer literate as their jobs involve using computers all day are often quite illiterate. So we need to make sure that we try to be as inclusive as possible.
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Wow. Hi Sue, it’s Becca, you left a comment on my blog, and I want you to know how honored, and elated I feel. It certainly made my day. Thank-you so much.
Becca
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Sue Waters Reply:
May 7th, 2009 at 1:22 am
Hi Becca, no problem leaving a comment on your blog. I’m glad it put a smile on your face for the day…. that is great news!
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This is another tremendous post by Sue Waters! Thank you for coming through every time! I will definitely take a closer look at 2KM blog and am adding a star to this post in my reader. You keep getting better all the time, even when you are sharing the work of others as you have here.
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Sue Waters Reply:
May 7th, 2009 at 1:25 am
Kathleen’s 2KM blog is excellent Gail and what a great idea she had so I was very grateful that she was willing to share. Sometimes the best posts are where you take ideas that readers share and pass them on.
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Good thinking Kathleen McGeady!
I have noticed that many parents do not know how to navigate around in blogs or participate in the comment section. What a great idea to have printable directions!
Thanks for a great idea!
Linda Yollis
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Sue Waters Reply:
May 7th, 2009 at 1:26 am
I agree Linda, Kathleen’s instructions are ace and very easy to read. PS hope you realise how many people like your ideas of the comment counters and fact checkers — thanks for sharing them.
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Perhaps it is the region in which I live, but to my dismay, I have found that many of my students are challenged in the digital world. While many thrive within this environment, many are still behind. Unfortunately, many of my parents are also in the “dark ages” regarding basic computer based communication such as IM and forums. This is certainly something that I will have to consider further. Thank you for the insightful post.
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Sue Waters Reply:
May 7th, 2009 at 1:29 am
I honestly don’t think it is the region where you are living. I work with young adults and most of them have minimal digital literacies skills. We are being lead to believe their skills are often better than they are — which is part of the reason why we need to be using technology with our students.
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Kia ora Sue!
Ah! Paper to the fore again!
That’ll do nicely thank you!
Why couldn’t I think of that
?
Catchya later
from Middle-earth
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Sue Waters Reply:
May 7th, 2009 at 1:31 am
Boy Ken I know that feeling. Honestly it was like a DUH moment when Kathleen pointed it out. I don’t think she realised how important her suggestion was and how many people are organising this type of paperwork as a result.
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I am writing you here to notify you that your website is hosting a blog that has copied my original name and blog post. Since I searched your website and cannot find a way to contact you other than signing up, which I refuse to do since you obviously are not concerned with original material, I am requesting you take his posting down immediately.
My original post http://nipplelicious.blogspot.com/2009/05/god-wants-to-make-me-rich.html
The fake post http://romancequotes.edublogs.org/2009/05/08/nipplelicious-god-wants-to-make-me-rich/#comments
Not only did this person copy most of my post, they then killed it by horrible spelling and grammar. I do not appreciate this. I work hard at making not only my blog original, but my name as well. I run the name Nipplelicious on quite a few websites. Please get rid of this atrocity ASAP.
Thank You
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Sue Waters Reply:
May 8th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Thanks for letting us know. That was a slog — a blog that has been set up to steal content which we don’t allow on Edublogs. We have immediately spammed it.
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Ken Allan Reply:
May 8th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Kia ora Sue!
I could not resist – “a slog”
. ha ha. That’s a new one on me. Even Wikipedia doesn’t mention it (yet). Presumably this is a relatively new term for an old practice. What exactly would the purpose be of a slog, do you know Sue? I’m curious about this particularly blatant form of plagiarism.
Catchya later
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Sue Waters Reply:
May 9th, 2009 at 4:29 am
Hi Ken, Wikipedia does mention it you just need to know where to look. Google always helps. They have it with spam blogs.
One day I will get James to fully explain to me why a splog benefits the person as I don’t quite get that aspect myself well.
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This idea is way better than mine! I used to print out a listing of all the pages/posts in an effort to entice parents to ready my college advise blog. But this how-to guide is much more effective and inviting.
Thanks for sharing it.
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Sue Waters Reply:
June 20th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Totally agree — this two page guide is a good approach. Also like the way that Linda Yollis assigns points to comments as a method of encouraging parents to comment.
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Sue,
I think the support & help sections you provide are fantastic!
Kudos to Kathleen for her guide. I love the look with the screenshots & wondered (if you knew) what she used to create it.
thanks!
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Sue Waters Reply:
October 25th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
@rlorbert, Sorry I’m not sure what Kathleen used to create it. There is a link to her blog in my post — I’m sure she won’t mind if you leave a comment asking her the questions.
I’m assuming she used MS Word or Publisher and created the screenshots by using PrtScrn or with a program like SnagIT.
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