Tag Archives: Class Task

Step 6 – Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar

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bloggingstep6We’ve designed a series of nine steps, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.

This step is to add a visitor tracking tool to your blog sidebar.

Why Use Visitor Tracking Widgets?

It’s likely that your blog gets visitors from around the world.

But unless you find ways of displaying visitor numbers and their geographical locations, your students won’t appreciate that they’re publishing posts for a global audience.

Benefits include:

  • Knowing you’re writing for a global audience is incredibly motivating for students.
  • Realizing people from other countries are reading what they’ve written increases their interest, excitement and motives them to blog.
  • It also provides built-in geography lessons — as most students constantly check for new visitors and enjoy finding out more about the countries where their visitors are from.

There’s numerous different types of visitor tracking widgets you can use, and it isn’t uncommon for teachers and students to use more than one type on their blogs.

Below are the most commonly used ones with instructions on how to install.

Please note:

All visitor tracking widgets require you to add embed code to a text widget

To be able to add the embed do you need to be either using:

Each Edublogs Pro blog can upgrade up to 50 student (or other blogs).  Once upgraded these blogs:

  • Will have absolutely no advertising displayed on them
  • Access to and full use of all 100 + Premium themes
  • The ability to embed videos, JavaScript and other third party code

ClustrMaps

ClustrMaps is a thumbnail hit counter map widget that shows the geographical location of all visitors to your blog. Number of visitors from a location is indicated by the relative size of the dot.

Clicking the ClustrMaps thumbnail takes you to a large World map so you can examine your traffic sources more closely.

There is a ClustrMaps widget in the left hand side bar of this blog.

Here’s comprehensive ‘how to’ add a ClustrMaps to Your Sidebar Using:

  1. A Text Widget – free Edublogs blogs which have been upgraded using a Pro blog to enable embedding of HTML code
  2. The ClustrMaps widget – Edublogs Pro blogs only

Flag Counter

Flag Counter widget shows the total number of visitors from each country next to the country’s flag. Every time someone from a new country visits your site, a new flag will be added to your counter.

Clicking on the flag counter takes you to your Flag counter page which provides more detailed charts and information about your visitors.

See it in action on Technology in Our Classroom!

Example of a Flag counter

Here’s how to add a Flag Counter:

1.  Go to Flag Counter

2.  Choose the maximum flags to show, number of columns of flags and your color scheme then click Get Your Flag Counter

Please Note: most blog sidebars will only fit 1 or 2 columns of flags.

Customizing your Flag Counter

3.  Copy the HTML embed code

Grabbing HTML Embed code for Flag counter

4.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

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

Please note: In new blogs sidebars in your dashboard are empty and adding widgets automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets

Expand your sidebar area

5.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets or Inactive Widgets areas on the left into the Sidebar area on the right.

Adding a text widget to your sidebar

6.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Flag Counter, click Save and then Close.

Adding HTML code to the text widget

7.  You should now see your Flag Counters in your blog sidebar and the flags will start appearing after 24 hours.

Feedjit Live Traffic

Feedjit Live Traffic Feed displays visitors to your blog in real time and includes:

  • Which city and country your visitors are in
  • Which website they arrived from, if any
  • Which page they visited on your website
  • Which external link they clicked to leave your site, if any

Your traffic feed is updated as each visitor arrives on your site. This update occurs before it loads so each of your visitors can see their own location displayed.

Clicking on the Feedjit Live Traffic counter takes you to your Live traffic page which provides more detailed information including the countries associated with web visitors’ IP addresses, the web browser, computer operating system, and referring website.

See it in action on Technology in Our Classroom!

Example of Feedjit Live Traffic widget

Here’s how to add a Feedjit Live Traffic Widget:

1.  Go to Feedjit Live Traffic Feed

2.  Click on Click here to Customize It! below Live Traffic Feed

3.  Choose your color scheme and width (ideal size for most sidebars is less than 170)

Customize Live Traffic Widget

4.  Once finished customizing, copy the HTML embed code

Copying Live Traffic Feed HTML code

5.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

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

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

8.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Live Traffic Feed, click Save and then Close.

9.  You should now see your Live Traffic Feed in your blog sidebar and visitor data will immediately start appearing.

Feedjit Live Traffic Map

Feedjit Live Traffic Map displays real-time visitor tracking by showing the geographic locations of the last 100 visitors to your blog.

If you move your mouse over any point on the map the city and country for that visitor will be displayed.

Displaying city and country on a Feedjit map

Clicking on the Feedjit Live Traffic Map takes you to your Live Traffic Map page which provides more detailed information.

See it in action on Technology in Our Classroom!

Feedjit detailed live feed map

Here’s how to add a Feedjit Live Traffic Widget:

1.  Go to Feedjit Live Traffic Map

2.  Click on Click here to Customize It! below Live Traffic Map

3.  Choose your color scheme and width (ideal size for most sidebars is less than 170)

Customizing your Feedjit Map

4.  Once finished customizing, copy the HTML embed code

Grab embed code for Feedjit Map

5.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

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

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

8.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Live Traffic Map, click Save and then Close.

9.  You should now see your Live Traffic Map in your blog sidebar and visitor data will immediately start appearing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

These steps were created as part of the preparation for the Student Blogging Challenge — the next challenge starts in September, 2010.

You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

  1. About the student challenge
  2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

And here’s where you find the other steps for setting up your class blog:

Please a comment on this post:

  1. If you have any problems or questions while setting up your class blog just — I’m always happy to help!
  2. If you have advice for other educators on visitor tracking widgets — would love to hear stories of how you use them with your students!

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Step 2 – Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

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bloggingstep2We’ve designed a series of nine steps, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.

This second step is to set up blogging rules and guidelines on your class blog.

Why Have Blogging Rules and Guidelines?

An important part of using an online tool with your students is educating them on appropriate online behavior.  Just because your students grew up with technology doesn’t mean they appreciate or understand what is/isn’t appropriate to post online.

Your class blog provides an excellent opportunity to educate students, parents and other readers on proper online behavior such as:

  1. Types of identifying information that is appropriate in posts and/or comments e.g., What are your rules about use of last names, IM, images and personal information?
  2. What should/shouldn’t you write in posts and/or comments?

Deciding On Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

This is the type of task where you could decide on the rules and guidelines yourself or do as a whole of class activity (where you actively involve your students in the entire process).

Here are examples of different ways they are used on class blogs to help you with the task:

The Two Page Blog Guide For Parents by Kathleen McGeady is an excellent idea for a parent resource.

If you want to include Online Safety activities as part of the process then, Larry Ferlazzo’s The Best Sites For Learning Online Safety post is a good starting place to identify suitable resources.

Setting Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

Once you’ve decided what you want to include in your rules and guidelines it is now just a case of publishing them on your blog.

You would normally publish them on a Page rather than in a post because pages are ideal for important information like this that you don’t expect to update frequently. However, if you also wanted to discuss your rules with your students and readers you might write a post like Miss W. has done.

Here’s information to help you with working with pages:

  1. Differences between Posts and Pages
  2. Writing Pages
  3. Most class blogs use blog themes that have navigational links to Pages at the top of the theme e.g., Mr. Salsich’s blog. Links at the top of the theme make it easier to navigate pages. Example of a blog with navigation links at top of theme
  4. The 137 Edublogs Themes Separated Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier
  5. Taking The Agony Out Of Using Custom Image Headers
  6. Use the Pages widget for blog themes that don’t include navigational links — here is how you change your sidebar widgets!

FINAL THOUGHTS

These steps were originally created as part of the preparation for the Student Blogging Challenge (the next challenge starts September, 2010).

You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

  1. About the student challenge
  2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

And here’s where you find the other steps for setting up your class blog:

Please a comment on this post:

  1. If you have any problems or questions while setting up your class blog just — I’m always happy to help!
  2. If you have advice for other educators on setting up their blogging rules and guidelines or have resources we should check out!

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider feed-icon32x32 Finding and Adding Creative Commons Images To Your Blog PostsSubscribing For Free!

Step 1 – Create A Class Blog

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Step 1: Create a class blogThe next Student Blogging Challenge starts in March September, 2010 and this time we’ve decided there are tasks that need to be done BEFORE your class actually takes part in the challenge.

So we’ve designed a series of nine steps, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.

Our first step is to create a class blog.

Why Have A Class Blog

A class blog is always a good starting point if you want to blog with your students.

It gives you to time to increase your skills while gradually introducing your students to blogging and educating them on appropriate online behaviour.

Start initially with you being responsible for writing posts, and the students responding in comments. As students demonstrate both keenness and responsibility give them their ‘blogging license’ where they earn the right to write posts on the class blog and/or get their own student blog.

Ultimately even if each student has their own blog it is always a good idea to have a class blog.

Blogging isn’t just about writing posts; it’s about sharing your learning and reflecting on what you have learnt.

Important parts of the blogging process include encouraging students to:

  1. Read each others posts
  2. Interact and comment on each others posts  by challenging each others thoughts and views
  3. Write posts in response to each others posts

The class blog is the central hub that connects your student blogs together; making it easier to share their learning, interact with each other and a global audience.

Aspects To Consider Before Creating Your Class Blog

Username and Display Name

Your username is what you use to sign into your blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments you write. While you can’t change your username, most blog platforms do allow you to change how your name is displayed.

In most cases it’s better to choose a username that makes it easier for others to relate to you as a real person. For example, compare spwat3 with suewaters — which is easier to relate to?

On a class blog you need to consider what is an appropriate username for you to use.  Most don’t allow students to use first and last name online so some prefer to model this by using names like Miss W or  Mrs Waters.

Changing your display name

Blog URL

Think carefully about your blog URL.

Once your blog has an established audience you’re less likely to want to change your blog URL and educators often use the same blog for the next year’s class.

Ideally you want to keep your blog URL short, easy to remember and suitable to be reused for several years.

A simple option is to use your name in the blog URL as these educators did:

  1. Ms Cahusac (http://mscahusac.edublogs.org/)
  2. Mrs Burton (http://msvrburton.edublogs.org)

Alternatively use something unique that has meaning like Jan Smith (http://huzzah.edublogs.org).

Blog Title

Think about the name of your blog.

Choose a name that reflects the purpose of your class blog and your students can relate to.

For example, Mrs Burton‘s blog title Blog, blog blog blog, blog some more is very clever.

Check out our class blog list for titles that other educators have used!

Example of a blog title

Check Out Class Blogs

Coming up with ideas on how you might use your blog with students can be hard to visualize.

Make time to check out how other educators use their class blogs to get ideas on “what works”/”doesn’t work”.

Here are some blogs for you to look at:

  1. Network Nine (Year 4)
  2. MrToft.ca (Grade 5)
  3. Grade 5e (Grade 5)
  4. Huzzah (Grade 6/7)
  5. Blog, blog blog blog, blog some more (English I)
  6. Endless Questions (Grade 6-8 languages)
  7. Or check out our class blog list (over 200 class blogs separated into grade and subject area)

Creating Your Class Blog

Now you’ve done all the research it’s time to set up your class blog.

Here are the instructions to follow if you would like to set up your class blog on Edublogs:

  1. Signing up for your blog
  2. Logging into your blog dashboard
  3. Using your blog dashboard
  4. Changing Your Blog’s Look
  5. Writing your First Post

You will find all Getting Started With Edublogs information here!

FINAL THOUGHTS

You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

  1. About the student challenge
  2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

And here’s where you find the other steps for setting up your class blog:

If you have any problems or questions while setting up your class blog just leave a comment on this post — I’m always happy to help!

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider feed-icon32x32 Finding and Adding Creative Commons Images To Your Blog PostsSubscribing For Free!

Step 7 – Setting Up Student blogs

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bloggingsetp7We’ve designed a series of nine steps, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.

This step is to set up student blogs.

Why have student blogs?

Class blogs are an excellent starting point.   But the most incredible outcomes are observed when students are progressed onto their own individual blogs.

Why?  Human nature!

As individuals we’re all driven by personal ownership; class blogs have less sense of ownership than an individual blog.

Here are my tips for creating your student blogs.

#1 Choosing Usernames and Blog URLs

Educators normally use the same name for both the student’s username and blog URL.  Keep them simple and easy for the student to remember.

Most use a combination of their student’s first name followed by numbers that might represent the year or class number.  For example, username misty09 and blog URL misty09.edublogs.org.

If you want the students to use the blog for their entire school then use a combination of letters and numbers that achieve this goal.

#2 Adding yourself to  your student blogs

Always add yourself as an administrator to your student blog.Image of student and teacher users

This means if you need to edit/delete a post, page or comment you can quickly access their blog from your blog dashboard. Image of navigiating blogs

#3 Moderating Comments

Educators either prefer to let their students moderate their own comments or they moderate all the comments for their students.  There are pros and cons to each approach.

If you want to moderate all comments, so comments are only posted once you have approved them, you need to create the blogs using the gmail+ method

You must use a real gmail account– educators either use their own gmail account or set up a gmail account for their class e.g. room13@gmail.com

For those comfortable with students moderating comments I recommend you subscribe to the comment feeds from your student blogs — here is how to subscribe to their comments using Google Reader.

#4 Assigning Student Role

You need to think about how much responsibility your students are given.  Do you want them to be able to write own posts/pages, change themes, add widget and approve comments or do you want (or need) to limit their level of responsibility?

Choose  your student’s user role on their blog based on your comfort level and the school or district guidelines.

Image of user menus based on their role

For those comfortable with students having a higher level of responsibility I recommend you subscribe to the post feeds from your student blogs — here is how to subscribe to their posts using Google Reader.

# 5 Creating the blogs

How you create the blogs depends on the type of Edublogs blog you have.

Here are instructions for creating student blogs using:

  1. The Signup page – free Edublogs blogs
  2. The Blog & User creator – Edublogs Supporters & Edublogs Campus only

Remember spam filters, especially strict ones for institutional email addresses, often block activation and password reset emails from Edublogs.org. If unsure use free webmail accounts such as gmail, hotmail that don’t block these invitation emails.

There are no limitations on the number of student blogs you can create!

And here’s where you find the other steps for setting up your class blog:

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