The 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:
- Read each others posts
- Interact and comment on each others posts by challenging each others thoughts and views
- 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.
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:
- Ms Cahusac (http://mscahusac.edublogs.org/)
- 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!
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:
- Network Nine (Year 4)
- MrToft.ca (Grade 5)
- Grade 5e (Grade 5)
- Huzzah (Grade 6/7)
- Blog, blog blog blog, blog some more (English I)
- Endless Questions (Grade 6-8 languages)
- 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:
- Signing up for your blog
- Logging into your blog dashboard
- Using your blog dashboard
- Changing Your Blog’s Look
- 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:
And here’s where you find the other steps for setting up your class blog:
- Step 1 – Set up your class blog
- Step 2 – Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines
- Step 3 – Teaching Commenting Skills and Etiquette – Guest post by Kathleen McGeady
- Step 4 – Help Parents Connect With Your Class Blog
- Step 5 – Add Students To Your Class Blog So They Can Write Posts
- Step 6 – Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
- Step 7 – Setting Up Student blogs
- Step 8 – Add your student blogs to your blogroll
- Step 9 – Add Your Student Blogs To A Folder In Google Reader
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!
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Hi Sue
I have 2 queries. Firstly, I can’t instal a widget (flower clock). I know I have Java enabled on my computer – do I need anything else? This is what I get on my blog when I copy, paste the code into the text sidebar, save & close:
if (WIDGETBOX) WIDGETBOX.renderWidget(‘fe9c7933-0462-48ad-841b-6d4e75afaf68’);Get the Flower Clock Widget widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)
I’ve read numerous posts in the forums about it, but nothing seems to work.
Secondly, can I create a link sub category? I have ‘Learn English’ as a link category, and under that, 2 links. I would like to have a sub category called ‘Conversation videos’ and put links (about 10) under that, rather than list them all under ‘Learn English’.
Thanks
Jasmine
Thanks Sue, I did in fact find it after I commented here. Really all of your stuff is quite well laid out with so much great information. I’m enjoying browsing through all of the wonderful tidbits on student blogging. You and the edublog team are doing a great job. Thank you for all of the support.
@Betty you will find this information in Different roles of users post.
Hi Sue,
I’m looking for an explanation of all the various roles (administrator, editor, author, subscriber.) on line and can’t find it. I’d like to be able to point my students to it to help them (and me) understand the difference. Does such exist?
Betty
@Jasmine The other two comments were written on your Hello and welcome to 1 Y’s blog. You can see them here – 1ycroydon.edublogs.org/2010/09/07/11/
Hi Sue
I’m very new to blogging and have just set up a class blog. I had 8 comments that I approved and that show as approved in my dashboard, but only 6 appear under my post with the heading Comments (6). When I click on that, only 6 comments can be seen. How can I get the others to show?
Any help would be great, thanks
Jasmine
Just quickly letting everyone know I helpd @dpeller (Dianna Peller) directly by email as I needed to confirm what email address she was using for the co-teacher so I could check if a username already existed in the system attached to that email address.
I am having some trouble adding someone to my blog. I have a co-teacher in my class, and while she has been able to comment on my posts, I would like to change her designation to be an author, so she can create posts (and so I don’t have to approve all of her comments). When I go to my dashboard and click on users, her name does not appear. When I click on add users or add new users, it says that her email address is already in the system.
Could you please help?
Thanks,
Dianna Peller
@mrstrama Ability to change privacy is only an option on Edublogs Pro and Edublogs Campus blogs,
“upgrade 50 student blogs for free” by a Pro blog converts the free blog into a Free+ blog which has ability to embed code, access to all themes and no ads displayed on the blog. It doesn’t make that free blog a Pro blog.
With the number of student blogs and wanting to make them all Private you are better considering using an Edublogs Campus site because it is the most secure and has the greatest functionality for managing them all easier. You can read more about Edublogs Campus here – http://edublogs.org/campus
Your other option would be to make all the student blogs private by upgrading them to Edublogs Pro. In your situation you would need a bulk upgrade of 100 blogs – http://help.edublogs.org/2009/09/10/how-to-purchase-a-bulk-upgrade-of-edublogs-pro/ However the Campus option is the better solution for you,
Hi There!
Sorry to put this here, but like some other people, I cannot put any new posts on the forum.
I have just set up 96 class blogs for three year 5 classes. The students have been learning how to do everything in their blogs before we get up and running with them.
My problem is that if I type in their URL to the browser, it comes up. I thought that by having them under each class blog, that they would come under the same privacy as that class blog. When they go to change the Privacy settings, it doesn’t allow them to. I have done the ‘upgrade 50 student blogs for free’ thinking that this would then change it. Then when I was searching for a solution on the forums, I came across a post saying to so ‘yes’ to adding you as a co-administrator when you set up their blogs (which I had not done). So then I created another blog for our deputy principal, checked this box, and yes, I have access to his dashboard, but I cannot change the privacy settings!
Is there an easy way (or a way at all) to change these blogs so that only admistrators and subscribers can see and have access to the blogs?
This si the first time this school has used them, so I am trying to get it ‘right’ and very safe for the kids.
Thanks so much,
Chenoa Trama