Tag Archives: comments

Ideas For Student Bloggings From….How Do You Do What You Do!

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Said it before and will say it AGAIN! Most great conversations and learning happens in the comments and not the post. But reading all comments on blogs can overwhelming so I thought I would help out.

Here are just some of the ideas I’ve gained from conversations on Student Blogging…..How Do You Do What You Do? post:

Student Login

56js.ca blog has a student login in their right side bar that logs directly to the Write Post area. This means there’s no need for the students to navigate the blog dashboard; they can immediately start writing their posts (thanks Jane Smith and Nathan Toft for sharing).

Here is the link they use http://jsmith.edublogs.org/wp-admin/post-new.php

Student Blogging Responsibilities

Linda Yollis assigns responsibilities such as “fact checkers” and “comment collectors” to her students.

The “fact checkers” are responsible for verifying the facts of a post with the writer(s) before the post comes to Linda to be published. The idea to have “fact checkers” arose from a writer who used the word country instead of county. Linda says she wanted her students to understand that it is important for information be correct for their readers, not because the teacher said so; this makes them take ownership of blog’s credibility. Using “fact checkers” also educates students about plagiarism and it’s not appropriate.

The “comment collectors” are students who are in charge of gathering data about comments; they monitor the number of comments on each post, who comments and if a parent comments. Part of the aim is to encourage students… to encourage their parents.

Make time to visit Linda’s post “How a post gets published on this blog” as it shows, using photos, the processes involved in their class blogging. PS remember to leave a comment to keep the “comment trackers’ busy and include which country you are from!

Building Student Blogging Skills

Mrs. Ilgunas starts her students on a class blog where they learn how to post comments and then progress to their own blogs. Here are the steps she has followed so far on their student blogs:

  1. Starting to blog
    • When students first log into their blogs she gets them to change their blog theme — she says this gets them hooked!
    • Next they go to settings, rename their blog, and if time, write their first post (making sure they know they can write in color if they so choose)
  2. Commenting on each others blogs
    • Leave comments for 3 other students on their blogs. She assigns whose blogs they have to comment on at first to make sure all students receive comments.
    • Add another post.
  3. Learn about Copyright

Daniel Moix shared his write-up of their blogging project including handouts, blog setup guide, project overview, and survey responses of the students afterward.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There are lots of really great comments and conversations on Student Blogging…..How Do You Do What You Do? post. With some explanations of why educators blog with their students. It’s impossible to highlight all these comments here and I recommend you take the time to read through the comments.

Alternatively you could subscribe to The Edubloggers comment feed in your feed reader (here are instructions on how to do this).

Please feel free to leave a comment to tell us “How you do what you do” when blogging with your students. Would love to share more tips and ideas of works well plus challenges you have faced.

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Parents Comments Count!

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Comments are incredible motivators for student bloggers. Shame most parents and families rarely leave comments on student blogs.  Yet a thoughtful and encouraging comment from a parent can mean so much to their child.

Can you please leave a comment (or write a post) to share your thoughts and tips:

  1. What do you think are the main reason(s) why families are reluctant to leave comments on student posts?
  2. What strategies do you use to encourage families to visit student blogs?
  3. What methods have you tried to get families involved with commenting on the student blogs?

You might also like to read these comments on my personal blog on reasons why readers mightn’t leave comments on posts and tips for encouraging comments.

Thanks to Jane Smith for the comment “I would love to hear how others are getting families involved in the commenting on their child’s work” which inspired this post!

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Managing Comments and Posts On Student Blogs Using Google Reader

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It’s important, when managing student blogs, to be able to quickly read all their latest posts and any new comments.

Sure you could visit each individual blog but that is incredibly time consuming. The better way, which saves time, is to bring the posts and comments to you using their RSS feed.

Here is how you do it:

1. Set up your Google Reader account

2. Add your student blogs, one at a time, to your Google Reader account by:

  • Clicking on Add A Subscription
  • Entering their blog URL
  • Now click Add

3. Next create a folder and place all the student blogs into the folder by:

  • Clicking on Manage Subscription

  • Click on Change Folder next to the name of any student blog to create a folder for your student blogs

  • Now add all the student blogs to the folder you have created by selecting all the student blogs, clicking More Actions and selecting the name of your new folder

4. Click Back to Google Reader.

5. Now add your student comment feed, one at a time, to your Google Reader account by:

  • Clicking on Add A Subscription
  • Entering their comment feed URL. For Edublogs blog you add comments/feed/ to the end of the blog URL. For example it should look like this http://theedublogger.com/comments/feed/
  • Now click Add

6. Next create new folder for the comments and place all the student comments feeds into that folder by following the same steps you used for the student blogs.

Using Your Google Reader

Now that you’ve set up your Google Reader account all the posts and comments will come to you. As you scroll through the latest feed in each folder they will automatically be marked as read.

To visit a post or respond to a comment — just click on its title!

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Can You Help REDUCE The Frustrations Of Posting Comments Too Quickly!

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What are your solution(s) to the following problem?

If students posts their comments on the same blog within a few seconds of each other some of the students can end up losing their comments.  They will get a warning message and when they return to the post their comment is gone.

What happens is although the students are on different computers their comments are from the same IP address.   The blog detects the comments are coming from the same IP addresses and says this might be someone posting spam comments.  It’s a feature to prevent blogs from being spammed.

Please share your tips:

  1. How do you get your students to slow down when posting comments on the same blog?
  2. What method(s) do you use to prevent student comments from being lost?
  3. What other advice do you give students when leaving comments on other people’s blogs?

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Introducing The New Plugins on Edublogs!

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Those that follow me on twitter will know that I’ve haven’t been well this week so James has been nice enough to help out by writing this post so all I have to do is add screenshots and extra tips.

It’s Christmas at Edublogs and, in the spirit of the season, Edublogs Supporters will find themselves with a few extra treats wrapped up under the tree.Image of plugin

Specifically there are four new plugins which may well prove popular, just head over to your ‘Plugins’ menu to check them out.

Threaded Comments

First up there’s Threaded Comments, a plugin that does exactly what it says – adds threaded comments to your blog. Why not jump over here and have a play with them, not bad huh!

Below is a screenshot from a threaded comment on yesterday’s post. Threaded comments means you can reply to specific comments = cool!

I’ve switched on threaded comments on The Edublogger so feel free to test them out.

Image of threaded comment

Twitter ToolsImage of twitter tool

Then, there’s the return of Twitter Tools – an immensely powerful Twitter integration plugin that allows you to tweet from your blog and blog from your tweet! If you’re a Twitter fan, it’s got the lot.

Your twitter tool options are:

  1. Send a tweet to your twitter network whenever you write a blog post
  2. Create a blog post from a tweet
  3. Displays your tweets on your blog and post tweets from your blog

However I wouldn’t recommend having both a) Enable option to create a tweet when you post in your blog? and b) Create a blog post from each of your tweets? set to Yes. If you choose this combination it grabs each tweet and creates separate blog post for each tweet then send a tweet to your twitter network to tell them you’ve created a blog post. I managed to spam my twitter network with 20 instantaneous tweets and was sent to the twitter penalty box.

Image of tweet from blog post

I suggest you stick to “Enable option to create a tweet when you post in your blog?” as shown in the screenshot below. You can edit your Twitter Tool options using Settings > Twitter Tools.

Image of Twitter Tool

To display tweets on your blog and be able to send tweets from your blog you’ll need to add the Twitter widget to your sidebar (Design > Widgets). If you want to add the Twitters widget you will first need to activate your Widget Pack plugin.

If you look at my left sidebar you will see these widgets how these widgets work.

Image of Twitter widgets

Greet Box

And, in case you happen to also be a Digg/Google/Netvibes/Delicious/StumbleUpon/etc. etc. etc. fan – the new plugin ‘Greet Box’ will allow you to display specific (and rather spiffy) messages to visitors to your site coming from those sources… for example, you could invite a new visitor to subscribe to your RSS feed… or a Digg visitor to Digg your site.

What happens is when a person clicks on a link to one of your posts from any of the services listed they will see a greet box displayed.

Image of the greet box

You can alter the messages in the Greet boxes and choose whether they are displayed above or below your posts by going to Settings > Greet Box.

Snow

Oh, and of course, it being the season for it, there’s also Snow… yep, you want a gentle fall of the seasonal white stuff on your blog, then turn this on and your Xmas wish will be granted!

Check out Local District 4 Instructional Technology News blog to see what snow falling down through your blog header looks like!

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