Week 3 Week 5
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Threads for Week 4
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(Messages #826-#987)
Visit our Delicious for all the links mentioned during Week Four.
Welcome to Week 4!
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# 840
Now that our blogging is in full swing, it's time to make our blogs unique!
During week 4, we are going to focus on how to help students develo their blog content and find their own voice through blogging. We'll have the pleasure of interacting with two experienced and inspiring educators, Konrad Glogowsky and Paul Allison, who have devised pedagogical models to scaffold and evaluate the students' blogging process to facilitate learning. The great news is that Konrad and Paul are looking forward to our reflections! Konrad is going to write a post for our session and we'll be able to interact and share our ideas with him. This is the power of the open participatory web and networked learning. Can you imagine a similar scenario for your classes?
Please check out the tasks of the Week on the wiki
In addition, we are going to learn how to embed audio files and slideshows to our blog entries and how to personalize our template with widgets. You'll find all the tutorials on the same wiki page or you can also check the tutorials page.
Finally, get ready for two amazing live presentations at WiZiQ this week.
Women of the Web 2.0 on Tuesday and Konrad Glogowsky on Sunday.
We look forward to your reflections and participation to make our week a unique learning experience!
Carla Raguseo
The Blogging Team
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#875
Week Four is off to a great start! I would just like to draw your attention to one of the current blog posts on our Blogging4Educators blog: Tools we love!
http://blog4educators.blogspot.com/2008/02/week-4-tools-we-love.html
One of the themes we're exploring this week is how to make your blog unique. The first part of the post includes an explanation of what widgets are and a video on how they can be used in your blog.
Bloggers use various blog tools and widgets, and The Blogging Team wanted to be able to share some of the most useful ones with you! As a result, the second part of this blog post is dedicated to bloggers from around the globe sharing their recommendations.
In fact, these are the results of a Twitter poll we conducted. Using Twitter, we asked bloggers for their favorite blog tool or widget. If you aren't familiar with Twitter, it is a microblogging service; each update has a limit of 140 characters.
15 bloggers replied to our question via Twitter! I have reposted their Twitter messages in our blog post for this week; please check it out and explore all the great links there. We hope that you will not only learn about some great blog tools and widgets, but also that you will be able to see the power of having a network on Twitter! After you have read the post, please leave a comment sharing YOUR favorite blog tool or widget!
P.S. If you are interested in joining us on Twitter please see the resources on our Week Two Pageflakes As Vance previously mentioned in his post to the group, Twitter can be one way of "driving traffic to your blog" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blogging4educators/message/737
And remember, using Twitter is totally an *optional* part of this session! Finally -- sorry for the long message -- this was a very exciting blog post to work on, and I was excited to share it with you!! ;)
Mary Hillis
The Blogging Team
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#886 Re: Tools we love! Blog tools, widgets, and twitter ...
... Please, guys, take a look at the post Mary directed you to as it's a fantastic way to learn a bit more about widgets. Just be careful to not be overexcited and pollute your blogs with so many cool little widgets out there! :=)) Remember, they should add to your blog, but what really matters is the connections and conversations being developed there.
Keep blogging!
Carla Arena
The Blogging Team
Tag of week 4: *edublogtalk*
http://explorations.bloxi.jp
#887 Re: Tools we love! Blog tools, widgets, and twitter ...
I love widgets but a comment came up in another EVO group which has made me curious - namely that you have to be 'sure' of your widget provider/maker as these can be targets for viruses. I'd never heard or thought of this before, I must admit. What are your thoughts?
Cheers to all Bloggers
Moira
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#928
Yesterday night was a blast! We had a wonderful time with the Women of the Web 2.0 Cheryl, Vicky, Sharon and Jen in different parts of the US and Canada in an open conversation about blogging.
The main topics we addressed were:
- The Women of the Web2.0 blogging stories
- Making mistakes
- The concept of teacherpreneurs
- Taking risks in blogging
- Finding a blogger's tone and voice
- Commenting
- Favorite blogging tools (Vicky's great tips!)
- Feedback
- Tagging and Technorati
- The Writingmatrix (Vance Stevens and team's concept)
- Networking
- Mystery Guest activity
- Blogging strategies in the classroom
- The "Important person" factor (Sharon Peters talks about the importance of a true audience for students' motivation and willingness to take a step ahead in their writing)
For the ones who couldn't be there, you can listen to us in two ways: On our wiki, the podcast (Just click on the play button). At WiziQ, you can watch the recording. Don't hesitate to ask questions and share your views on what was discussed there.
More on Sunday with Konrad Glogowsky and Paul Allison!
Carla Arena
The Blogging Team
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Announcements
RSS, tags, the Writingmatrix
#829
RSS, tags, the Writingmatrix - To Vicky and all
I just checked the recording. Please, go straight to *Slide 31* by double clicking it. We started the session one hour before to organize things. That's why the first part is not really "loading".
Please, check again our recording at WiziQ and see if it works for you.
We had a great time today. Participants were eager to learn more about RSS, Tags and the writingmatrix concept. Please, keep asking! Vance is ready to keep interacting here with you. These are some of the essential elements of blogging, so even if these concepts seem a little abstract at first, go ahead and experience them yourselves. Read, watch the videos of Week 3, write posts (tasks 1c and 4a) and search technorati to check the latest posts our group is writing.
We're waiting for you!
And remember: tag it blogging4educators and b4echallenge (task 4)!
Carla Arena
On behalf of The Blogging Team
b4echallenge
# 830
It was such an exciting week, full of discoveries for all. The b4echallenge (Task 4) was such an interesting way to establish conversations and connect us all. For the ones who haven't had the chance to try it out, do so, as it is the practical part to give you a sample on how the writingmatrix concept really works.
Check our latest posts on the challenge which we've been collecting in our session Google Reader
Also, make a search in technorati to see who has tagged b4echallenge and just by tagging his post has been part of technorati's aggregation.
Fun, inspiring, engaging! Blog, share and connect!
Carla Arena
Special guests at WiZiQ
# 848
The Exciting News of Week 4 - IMPORTANT
As mentioned by Carla R., there's much excitement awaiting for us on Week 4 and beyond!
Just some announcements:
- Konrad Glogowsky, our very special guest of the week, wrote an inspiring post for the group about blogging pedagogy and the establishment of true connections and conversations among learners and educators. Get inspired, ask him, comment. He's ready to interact with us.
- On our blog sidebar (on the right), you'll see that we posted a clip with participants' blog entries with their reflections for week 4. This is a cool widget available in google reader! Let us know if you want to learn how it works. We'd be more than glad to keep discussing aggregation and the power of tagging and RSS.
- On Wednesday, Feb. 6th, at 2 gmt (check your local time here, we'll gather in WiziQ (yes, fun time again!) for a get-together with the powerful WoW2.0, the Women of the Web2.0 to talk about making blogging a unique experience for us and our students. For more information check our wiki.
This live session will certainly be a wonderful and insightful experience for all! We hope to see you there.
- For your task 1 of the week, TAG your post: *edublogtalk* . (this is our unique tag of the week to aggregate all the content we produce and search in technorati
Edita was the first one. Who's next?
- On Sunday, February 10th, we will wrap up the week with a live session with Konrad Glogowsky and Paul Allison. Time will be announced later this week. So how exciting is it?
Have a wonderful blogging week full of discoveries!
Carla Arena
Add your perspective
#939
The discussion with our special guest of the week, Konrad Glogowsky, is just an amazing reflective ride. Besides showing his blogging pedagogy in the classroom, the reflections are providing a practical example of how blogging can be an engaging, open learning opportunity for all. Konrad has been replying to all who have left comments to him in our blog http://blog4educators.blogspot.com
Some extract of his comments:
*"The students need to see that writing is not something that we do in order to get a grade or to get paid. Writing is something that provoked thoughts and discussions."
"And so, that is exactly what I want my students to experience. I want them to see that writing is not a solitary pursuit but an immensely enriching activity that can lead to great conversations and insights. I want them to realize the power of the community and see that writing is essentially a conversation because no text is ever truly finished."*
and also in his blog http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/2008/02/04/towards-reflective-blogtalk/
*" Gradually, they all realize the value of talking about writing and feel empowered by conversations in which they can be themselves. Also, knowing what kind of impact their work had on others or analyzing why certain entries impacted them gives them a great insight into what good writing really is. Knowing what they should be aiming for when composing helps them realize that writing is not just about ideas and organization but also about voice. I guess that's why I really enjoy these conversations - you can see how voices emerge through close reading of their own and peer texts."
*
*"A blogging community is different - it can certainly provide tremendous support, but can never be a self-contained environment. There will always be other conversations and other entries that, while potentially distracting, also add to the richness of the community and its interactions."*
We are sure there are lots of food for thought for this week.
So, our suggestion for you:
- Leave a comment to Konrad in his blog, ask him questions, inquire...For us to start blogging with our students, we need, first, to engage in blogging ourselves to understand how conversations develop.
or/and
- Write a post as suggested in Task 1<http://blogging4educators.pbwiki.com/Week4#Tasknbsp1DiscussionTopicnbspHowtoGrowaBlog>for this week.
Remember to tag it, tag it and tag it: blogging4educators and edublogtalk !
Waiting to check for your posts in technorati:
http://www.technorati.com/tag/edublogtalk?authority=n&language=n
--
Carla Arena
On behalf of The Blogging Team
WiZiQ session - Konrad Glogowsky and Paul Allison
#960
Dear all,
We are thrilled to announce our live session at WiZiQ <http://tiny.cc/fXQI5> on Sunday 14 GMT: Edublogtalk with Konrad Glogowsky from Canada and Paul Allison from New York City.
Yes! We will be able to engage in reflective blogtalk with these two educators who are eager to share their experience and discuss ways of faciliating the blogging process in the classroom with all of us. They are looking forward to our feedback and reflections! You can't miss this unique opportunity!
WiZiQ reminder to make the most of our session:
-If you have never attended a live session there, sign up at WiZiQ <http://www.wiziq.com/> before the session.
-Remember to use headsets or earphones during the session.
-Mute your mics when you are not speaking
Hope to see you all there! :)
Carla Raguseo
The Blogging Team
#984 Re: Konrad's Wiziq session - when?
Dear Michael, eanne and all,
I sincerely apologize for the short notice, but we had some last-minute problems with the session schedule.
Unfortunately, WiZiQ is having some problems with the recording at the moment, but you should be able to view the recording here: http://tiny.cc/fXQI5 .
Konrad and Paul shared their experience and reflections with us on many different aspects of blogging: the blogging platforms they use, the special features these platforms should have to support community building and interaction, the multiple literacies blogging entails and how teachers can use blogging for reflection and action research in their classrooms. Above all, they pointed out that each learning community has to work out the best blogging practice that will meet its specific interest and needs. I'd like to thank all the participants and moderators who posed questions and shared their views with all of us. I'm sure this is just the beginning of a very fruitful discussion. Remember to add the "edublogtalk" tag to your posts with reflections about this topic.
Carla Raguseo
The Blogging Team
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More blogging tools
#856
Dear Bloggers,
Look just at this fantastic widget I came across today: twitt this for your blog.
I have just embedded it to my own blog.
This is so cool. I am really into twitter now! :D
Hope you enjoy it too.
Just thought I should share it! ;-)
Cris
#873 Re: Twitt this
Twitt this is very easy. You add it to your blog as a widget. Then people who like your blog can click on it and immediatelky a message from yout twitter is sent with the URL of the blog you are reading. You will have to be logged in to your twitter account. I also found out that there is a way to twitt from skype...I just need to learn more about it!
I just love twittering around! LOL
Cris
#877 Re: Twitt this
My twitter is set in skype, so I receive all the updates there and can write there too. Now that I have the carlaarena twitter plus the bloged08 it's easier this way. I check my twitter in skype and our session's straight on the web.
I'll check twitt this!
Carla Arena
#878 Re: Twitt this
How do you embed twitter in SKype?
Cris
#885 Re: Twitt this
That's where I learned about it http://www.pacificit.ca/article/319
Carla Arena
#920
A very easy, free tool for class projects might be Windows Movie Maker you can find on your computer. I usually use my digital camera, bring it in class, record my students and then put the short movies together using this software - it is really easy, since you don't have to add sound to the pictures, you just use the short videos on your camera. After that you can also crop the video, add titles, arrange then in any order you like and adds pecial effacts and transitions. After that I encourage my students to use their digital cameras to do the same. Check on our video (I posted it before the first week, and if you haven't seen it, you are welcome to tell us what you think about it!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncW5tzMvP0
Daniela Munca
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Some info for newcomers
Welcome to Blogging4Educators!
# 843
I'm Carla Raguseo from Rosario, Argentina, one of the moderators. We're delighted to have another Argentinian teacher in our group!
You can check out our weekly tasks on our Wiki.
Please, take your time to familiarize yourself with the group environments and have a look at the discussions we have had on our blogs during the first two weeks:
Edublogs Blog and Blogger Blog
Don't hesitate to ask questions. There's always one of us around to help you out. We'd also love to know a bit more about you and your teaching experience.
Make yourself at home.
Carla Raguseo
The Blogging Team
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More recommendations
To Horacio
# 850
...
I just checked your blog http://racebis.edublogs.org/ . Fantastic photos! Look, bubbleshare is too big to be on the sidebar. There are two ways you can deal with that. First, write a post and add your bubbleshare to your post, not to the sidebar. Another way is to get the code you pasted and edit the width and height of your slideshow. Sometimes you have to play around with it a bit to figure the right size.
As for Bubbleshare, it's not going forward automatically because you didn't set it up for that. When you create your album and choose the one you want on your page, there's an option "start the slideshow automatically". Also, there are different templates you could use. If you're really considering it for the sidebar, maybe you might play around with the vertical slideshow, like I did on a wiki I set up some time ago http://teachers4tell.pbwiki.com/
Carla Arena
TAG for week4: edublogtalk
#876 Re: to Alison and all, feeling overwhelmed?
... I saw your post to Janina and could resist it when you asked her if she was overwhelmed. Well, I know the feeling when I attended my first EVO session.
I couldn't even sleep well as my mind kept processing so much information, different thoughts, and new ideas. I didn't even know how I could use all that I was being exposed in my classroom. It was daunting!
Well, I tried to take advantage as much as I could of the live sessions, the exchange of ideas, testing new tools during the 6 intense weeks. Then, after it was over, I started to "study" some of the resources I had in my hands to see how they could be best incorporated into my teaching practices. I started with blogging, then later on moved to blogging + wikis, and kept
going, kept going beyond and never stopped. Every new year I set some personal, professional goals for my teaching practices in a way that I feel will impact positively on my learners.
Yes, it's overwhelming, but respect your own pace and timing, and you'll have lots of learning opportunities with this wonderful group!
Carla Arena
The Blogging Team
Video & Music to new blog
#985 Re: To Tatiana (and all!), About your new class blog
I'm sure your students will love the surprise! http://www.11aclass2008.blogspot.com/
If you plan to have one blog as a class blog where everybody can share and create content, make sure you invite your students as editors of your blog so that they can add entries. Go to "Settings", "Permissions" to invite them to contribute to the blog. Another option is for them to have individual blogs and you aggregate all of them using a reader (like pageflakes, google reader, bloglines), as discussed on week 3 of our session.
Video and music to your blog? Check our tutorials page
Also, you can add the code on your post just like you did with the slideshow I saw on your page!
If you want, let's say, a You Tube video, click on "edit html" when you're writing your post and add the html you find on the You Tube video page, then "publish post". Voilà!
Let us know if you need further instructions.
Just a reminder: don't forget to ask for written permission to publish your students' photos. Work on the safe side to avoid problems with parents and the school you work for.
Carla Arena
The Blogging Team
http://explorations.bloxi.jp
Practical Tips for blogs and wikis
#987
Dear Stella,
1. While working with blogs and wikis, I always try to involve my students as much as possible. I try to post materials that would be fun and useful at the same time for them. I try to ask them what they like reading and how they study best and I design my lesson plans according to their answers. When I teach grammar, for example, I encorgage students to find interesting articles from CNN or USA Today and identify specific grammar patters and only after that I teach them the rules they need to learn. In this way, they have fun reading about Britney Spears and how Puff Daddy encourages young people to vote (for Obama I guess) issues and I get to meet my lesson objectives.
I love the CNN Funny News section and http://m.cnn.com/cnn/item/fun_ne ">Yahoo Odd News and I am sure you can teach anything with that: grammar, vocabulary, writing, etc: I usually teach grammar inductively and ask for my students to formulate it after I present them relevant strucures in specific contexts, which should be interesting to them and useful to me as a teacher. On this page, for example, I asked my students to analyze a piece of news and find out what tenses are used and why: each student was responsible for one attachment on the page of the wiki.
2. My blog is a our main working space: I post videos as warm-up activities and then articles they need to read for their homework readings. I require them to use all the tools on the right side of the blog, especially the online dictionaries and grammar links, and I usually give them extra points for each blog entry.I always save their work online on Slideshare or Teacherweb and I encourage them to check how many viewers they have each week (Slideshare gives you an actual number of how many people watched the presentations), which motivated them to do their homework on time and revize it more carefully, as it will be exposed online to a huge audience.
3. At the end of the semester the students have to work on a bigger project: this can be a blog of their own, (you can see what my students did last semester here:) a video or a digital essay on one of the topics covered in class. This is how I mot ivate them to keep updated on what is going on on the blog. They usually go back to the posts to find resources for their own projects. This is how I integrate learning in real life contexts instead of asking them to work FNPP: for no particular purpose :)
4. I have just started working with the wiki and I intend to use it as a basic working space: I post entries with links, videos and online quizes and the students are responsible for filling them up (this is an "empty" type of wiki, which is built on its users content) with their own reviews, games, videos, etc. they don't have to create everything by themselves: sometimes they can suggest a video for the rest of the class (Check on the Lord Syntax video - one of my students recommended it and now I am planning to use other episodes from the same series all the time!)
http://dvmuncaesl.wetpaint.com/page/Adverbs+and+adjectives
5. In the beginning of the semester I gave my students a list of topics we will cover in class - they chose a topic each and are responsible for designing a separate page on the wiki with materials they created by themselves. This is how by the end of the semester I am planning to fill up the wiki with my students' work: they will work on their page in groups and when the page is ready, they will actually role play as teachers and will present it to the rest of the class - I hope that this will incourage them to be more responsible as learners an dmore creative than I am! I am sure they can teach me a thing or two! last year my students were so creative, but i did not know how to put together their work, so that is why this semester I created our wiki.
I hope that I have answered to all you questions and that you could use some of my own teaching reflections to make your classroom more interactive and fun. Let me know what you think about it!
Daniela
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Q & A
RSS widget
# 858
Do you mean the widget we just added to our blog http://blog4educators.blogspot.com?
What I did was tag this week's posts as edublogtalk in google reader. Once participants start writing their posts for the week, I'll keep tagging them. Then, I just got the tag code in google reader and added to our blog. How is it related to RSS? We've been keeping all the RSS feeds of your blogs in pageflakes as well as google reader. So, as we see the updates in Google reader we can go ahead and tag the posts and share them with you bundling in one single topic. For example, we've already shared with you the posts on RSS and the ones for b4echallenge you wrote last week because we're using the RSS feeds plus tagging in Google Reader.
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/10503397427751792851/label/RSS
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/10503397427751792851/label/b4echallenge
As we discussed in our last WiziQ session, pageflakes is great for visualizing all the blogs, but Google Reader has some cool tricks and features to make our lives easier and to help us connect and establish conversations.
Keep asking! It encourages us to try to make things even more clear for you.
If you still have questions on the topic, just shout! We're around.
Carla Arena
The Blogging Team
Lilian Farag Allah wrote:
Hello Expert bloggers,
I have a question but I'm not sure how relative it is to what we're doing this week. What's the use of the RSS widget in our blogs? How different and/or similar this is from the RSS we've been learning about and doing last week??
Widgeting Lilian :-))
Lilian W. Farag Allah
# 862 Re: RSS widget [Edublogs, Lilian]
Good questions, Lilian. Let me try to answer the first one with a for instance.
Your Edublog (TEFL Hard Times <http://lolitablog.edublogs.org/> ) currently sports a Blogroll (sidebar, right) listing two blogs. Instead of links there, if you wish, you could have at least two RSS feeds. Two's the number of RSS widgets I see in my Edublog presentation interface (Dashboard/Presentation/Widgets). Here's how:
1. Just drag and drop an RSS widget from the parts list onto your sidebar (Dashboard/Presentation/Widgets);
2. Open the editing window for the widget (small button on the widget in your sidebar),
3. Copy and paste a blog feed (for example: http://edublogs.org/feed/ <http://edublogs.org/feed/> ) into the URL field;
4. Pick a number of items to display (default = 7);
5. Close the widget editing window (X);
6. View your blog; and
7. Refresh the view.
That should do it; I just tried it myself.
Cheers, Paul
#869 Re: Number of (RSS) widgets on Edublogs
As regards your comment :
"Two's the number of RSS widgets I see in my Edublog presentation interface (Dashboard/Presentation/Widgets)." (message #862)
You can add the number of RSS widgets or any other widget that you want by choosing a number from the drop down menu (below the avavilable widgets part at the bottom of the screen) and saving the option.
For more information about widgets on Edublogs, please check out out the tutorials available on our tutorials wiki page <http://blogging4educators.pbwiki.com/tutorials#WidgetsEdublogs>
Carla Raguseo
The Blogging team
#913 Re: RSS widget [Edublogs, Lilian]
Perhaps the reason you are getting an error message is because the URL of a blog and the URL for a blog's feed are different. Just like Paul said in step #3: "Copy and paste a blog feed (for example: http://edublogs.org/feed/ <http://edublogs.org/feed/> ) into the URL field" ( See Paul's original message #862 at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blogging4educators/message/862 )
In other words, you need the URL for a blog feed. For example, the URL of my blog is http://maryhillis.blogspot.com but the URL for my blog post feed is http://maryhillis.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
If a blog is hosted on Blogger, you can scroll to the bottom of the page, there is something that says "Subscribe to Posts (Atom)". If I click on this, I will be taken to a new screen, and I can copy the URL for the feed from the location bar. Alternatively, some blogs display a subscribe button in the sidebar; also, you may be able to click the orange button in your browser's location bar. After copying the URL for the blog's feed, then you can paste it into the correct place while editing your RSS widget.
I hope my explanation makes sense, but if not, I'm sure someone can help us out!
Mary Hillis
The Blogging Team
#975 Re: RSS widget [Edublogs, Lilian]
This is a reflection on both your message (below) and on your blog: http://lolitablog.edublogs.org/
It isn't clear whether you are referring either to feeds for recent posts, for recent comments, or to other feeds on your blog.
If you could spell out what's magical, perhaps we could all follow suit.
Cheers, Paul
writing matrix project
#867
...
I'm just catching up on Week 3 and getting into Week 4... I wanted to respond to the following (but didn't see threads in either the blogspot or the edublog blogs)--which reminds me, I better add those two blog feeds to my google reader so I don't have to keep checking them!
c. Ask your questions related to tagging and the Writingmatrix project in our group blog.
I liked the point made in the Writingmatrix project video, that tagging will motivate students to actually submit blog entries
because tagging will help them see how wide an audience they can reach... I'm anxious to see this in action! A co-teacher started a blog last year that sort of fell by the wayside due to lack of student participation, so I'm interested to figure out how to make it work.
I don't actually have the hang of tagging yet... I found some of links on Ms Duff's site to be more confusing than helpful... I guess I have to move onto task #4 and just get on with it..
Gina
#890 the writing matrix project
Dear Gina,
...
Look, you don't know how tagging works? You taggerd your b4echallenge, so now if you make a search in technorate, bingo!
http://technorati.com/tag/b4echallenge?authority=n&language=en
Your post is there! And you were added to our conversations and fun!
So, keep asking about tagging and the writingmatrix project. We'll be more than happy to keep answering your queries.
Carla Arena
pinging + technorati....
#870
I have a question about pinging + technorati.... I used David Warlick's Blog tag Generator. The second step asked:
Copy the html code here, and paste it in the bottom of your blog article. Make sure that your blog will take HTML code.
Where do I copy this into the blog? (I'm using Edublog)... Does it go at the bottom of the actual blog--go back in and paste it in?
Gina
#881 To Gina, about tags, ping, claim and technorati
Now that Edublogs takes tagging, you don't really need to use David Warlick's tag generator. Just add the tags in your blog post. Now, about pinging + Technorati, the best way to do it is to go to http://technorati.com/ping/ and add your blog url to inform technorati you have a new post. Want to do it automatically?
Claim your blog at technorati http://technorati.com/signup/?f=account&destination=%2Faccount%2Fblogs%2F and they will track new posts (and tags) automatically. It seems that technorati has been properly working with our group even when participants don't claim or ping their blogs, we can see their new posts aggregated in technorati. In the past it was kind of inconsistent (and that's why we suggest you claim your blog there), but these days it's working fine!
For example, the tag for this week is *edublogtalk *. If you make a search there, you'll see that some participants have already tagged their posts and they are showing there:
http://technorati.com/tag/edublogtalk?authority=n&language=en
Did it help you? Let me know if you understood the idea, which is exactly the writingmatrix concept.
Carla Arena
The Blogging Team
#871
At the Dashboard of your blog, and under presentation, you'll find widgets. Drag one of the 'text' widgets into the sidebar area. Then click on the 'configure' button (the small square). It will open a text area. Choose the title you want for it and paste the HTML code in the text area. don't forget to hit 'save changes' after you finish and check your site then.
Lilian
tagging
#904
Hi, I'm a bit late with the group activities, in fact I'm working on week 3 and trying to advance in week four too. I think I understand what is tagging, but I still don't know how to do it. Can anyone help me?!!!!
Thanks a lot.
Christian
#908
Sure, at the bottom of your blog post you'll see a field where you can write in tags for your post. In some blog softwares these are called LABELS or CATEGORIES. Essentially you're meant to write in a few words (or strings in computerese) there that best describe your post.
After a while you'll find that a lot of the words you use repeat themselves in such a way that they develop a classification system, and in aggregate with millions of other people doing the same thing your classification system forms a 'folksonomy' (a word similar to taxonomy, which is a pre-ordained classification system).
Powerful tools have been developed to feret out tags from among the millions of posts created in the blogosphere. We use Technorati but there are 12 more tools listed here: http://mashable.com/2008/02/03/13-tools-for-tracking-discussions-in-the-blogosphere/
We have found that by using a tag unique to a project we can 'aggregate content' (or 'find all the posts on the topic'). This can be used in classrooms as with the writingmatrix project. The best way to see how it works is to try it here.
To start, tag a post. Next look your tags up at Technorati. More instructions here: http://advanceducation.blogspot.com/2008/02/all-i-know-about-blogging-and.html
Vance
Akismet???
#955
...
I'm working on this... and have Akismet installed (edublogs). One question: Do I have to check it or anything? Does it keep a file or list or send me a warning? (I did check the box that says to dump stuff after one month).
GIna
#977 Re: Akismet???
http://blogging4educators.pbwiki.com/Week2Threads#Akismet
Paul
# 965 Feevy - To Gina
On the Feevy page, you add the URLs of the blogs you want. Then, when you add the code to your own blog, all the blogs you specified will appear on your blog sidebar.
Lilian
Hyperlinks in comments
#966
I have a question regarding formatting the blog comments. How can I add a hyperlink to a comment? I mean it's easy to do that in posts after turning the Advanced Editor on, but I can't figure out how to do it in a comment.
Any tips?
Lilian
#969 Re: Hyperlinks in comments
In order to add a link to a comment, you can use the following html code: <a href="/url">Text to be displayed</a>
url is the webpage address you want to add and between > < you should write the text like "visit my bolg"
I don't know if there is an easier way to do it, but this is what I use.
Hope it works!
Erika
Signature to each email
#1010
... how do you add thу signature to each email? and i see you have a hyperlink at the end. how do you add that hyperlink eac time (i assume you don't cut and paste it from your blog site)
kim
#1012 My signature - To Kim
...
What you have mentioned is simply my signature. You can customize this from 'Options' on the right of your Yahoo mailbox. You'll find 'Signature' on the list. You choose whatever goes at the end of all your messages.
As for the URL of my blog, I just add it at the end of the customized signature.
Lilian
#1022 Re: Signatures for your email messages
...
I think this article is what you're looking for: http://email.about.com/cs/oetipstricks/qt/et112703.htm
How to Create a Signature in Windows Mail or Outlook Express
Success!
NOTE: it's considered good manners on the Web to personalise your signature for different groups (for instance, messages to this group could be signed with your name and blog URL, and perhaps country; whereas messages to your business contacts might include your phone number or school name)
Gladys
Permalinks
#967 A question about using Pages and a problem with Permalinks
I was wondering why, when I change the entry links to permalinks (using Wordpress), the pages stop displaying. Is there something else I should be doing?
Also, I wanted to separate blog topics, so I created a page called "Teaching English" but I found out that it's just one static
page and not a second area where I can blog. Is there a way to have multiple blogs under one blog? Or do I just blog in one place and let the tagging take care of the rest?
Mira
#970 Re: A question about using Pages and a problem with Permalinks
Edublogs only offers one "blog" page - your main page. what is different about edublogs (=wordpress) in comparison to blogger, for instance, is that it allows you to add static pages to it. I'd say it is almost like creating a small website 2.0! :-)
If you tag your posts in a coherent way - then your problem will be solve, since users will be able to access all the posts in your blog related to a specific tag when clicking on it in your blog.
Cris
#971 Re: A question about using Pages and a problem with Permalinks
In the widget section, there's a widget for pages. You can modify it to show the pages you want in your sidebar on the blog main page. i tried this and it worked with me. It will show the pages as links. Check mine and see the pages in the right sidebar http://lolitablog.edublogs.org
Lilian
#1026 Re: A question about using Pages and a problem with Permalinks
If I'm getting you right, Mira, "categories" should help you. You can specify which categories each post belongs to (as many as you like), and then visitors can browse through each category ignoring the others, according to their interests.
Have a look at "Categories" in the left´hand side bar of my Edublog: http://gladysbaya.edublogs.org/ to see if that's what you're looking for.
Ignore the rest, I'm considering alternative templates and it's a mess right now!
Gladys
Voki on the sidebar
#973 To Gina: Voki on the sidebar
Voki is really a great tool. I normally use it as a virtual hostess to my blogs but last semester I used it in a different way with my Basic 2 sts. What I did was: every two weeks I recorded the voki message in the class blog according to the topic we were covering in class and also editted the background accordingly. Check the final message last December http://www.b2-2007.blogspot.com/
To add the voki box to the sidebar first you have to copy the EMBED/ HTML code voki provides you after you´ve recorded the message and copy to the sidebar.
In blogger:
1. go to TEMPLATE
2. click on add a PAGE ELEMENT
3. look for the HTML/ Javascript (ADD TO BLOG)
4. paste the voki code into the box and save it.
In wordpress, I think you have to
1. go to PRESENTATION
2. click on WIDGETS
3. grab a TEXT 1 BOX
4. paste the voki code into the box and save changes.
anamaria
http://lifefeast.blogspot.com
Widgets
#1031 Widgets. To Ana Maria.
Hello, Ana Maria. Working with edublogs has been a little hard to me. If you open my blog, you´ll see my widgets at the sidebar went down to the bottom of the page. Please tell me how to take them up to the top.
Horacio
#1048 Re Problems with the Sidebar in Edublog
Hello Horacio!
Your blog looks OK on my screen if I open it with Mozilla Firefox, but when I open it with Internet Explorer your sidebar appears at the bottom, under your posts. I had exactly the same problem two weeks ago, so I think I can help you now... The problem seems to be your Voki, which is too large for your sidebar. Can that be resized so that it fits?
A very kind Ning member of "Building a Better Blog" (Simon Thomas) helped me with the following explanation when I faced the same problem (I'm now sharing it with you all!):
"...some of the content is too wide for the sidebar, so it moves to the next available space (i.e. under the rest of the content). It might be happening in IE and not FireFox because of the different "box models". A box model is basically the way content is separated and measured. IE measures one way, standards compliant browsers (FireFox, Safari, Opera etc.) do it a different way.
If you are comfortable with HTML and CSS you could edit the styles to try and make it fit in IE (it's usually only a couple of pixels) or, probably the easier option, try taking things out of the side bar, trial and error style, until is looks ok"
If you're a Ning member, you may want to have a look at the whole discussion here:
http://betterblog.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1064388%3ABlogPost%3A19023
Gladys
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Sharing Blogs
How to use ESL Class Blogs collaboratively
# 864
I have just finished playing with Voicethread - I tried to put together a model I am using with my class blog to show how to work collaboratively with the students in and outside class. Check it out and leave your comments - I would be more than glad to see what others think about it!
danielamunca
#872 hope you will visit my blog...
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My blog is called http://unschoolingteacher.blogspot.com/ Please do visit and post a comment or two.
It was fun to take a look at a couple of other blogs on the PageFlakes page. If it weren't for the enthusiasm and excitement and encouragement of the moderators, I don't know where we would all be. ...
Alison Miyake
Yamaguchi-ken, Japan
#900 Hi from a 2007 B4B lurker !
... it finally IS worth a visit !) - http://eliza-bethsphotos.blogspot.com Anyway, I wanted to say that by hanging in there, I HAVE finally started a class blog with my 3rd year university students ... who are absolutely thrilled. We only started this week, so there's nothing really there yet. But the enthusiasm of the students is enormous. So Hi Veronica, if you're lurking too! and to anyone who is feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all, just keep going ...
Elizabeth
#917 Re: Hi from a 2007 B4B lurker !
.... blogging is about habit. It takes time to blossom, there are so many little details involved. We were just discussing with the Women of the Web2.0 last night that there's not a single, right way to blog, to write. There are as many as bloggers. It's a matter of finding your own tone, your uniqueness, your blogging style. So, hang in there, and if you need any support for your University blogging, let us know.
You can always count on us!
Carla Arena
The Blogging Team
#927 Songs that speak for themselves
it's time to invite you to visit my blog http://eaustralia.blogspot.com/ month. The latest post talks about national songs. Is there a song which best represents your country? I'm eager to find out what it is. ;-)
Fabiana Bridi
http://eaustralia.blogspot.com/
skype: f_bridi
MSN: f_bridi@yahoo.com
What's your style?
#938 25 styles of Blogging -
Vicky Davis calls the attention to a slideshow on blogging styles.
What's yours? Where are you heading with your blog and blog posts?
Just some food for thought in this bright Key West morning!
Carla arena
Windows Movie Maker and Blogging
# 940 Re: To Daniela and all, Windows Movie Maker and Blogging
First, let me tell you that I just loved to see your students' perspective on blogging. It just adds to what we've been discussing for the past weeks.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncW5tzMvP0
I am a big fan of Movie Maker, and once we produce videos just by using a digital camera and adding the videos to Movie Maker, it's just a matter of Upload it to YouTube, and voilá!
I've been using it for some time, and here are some examples: (video my students sent to our blog mystery guest - If anyone is interested, I can explain it how it works next week) (Mystery guest's reply - Students were thrilled to see he was real and that I didn't make him up!)
(Follow up video after discussing for 3 classes relationships, how to start a date, dating, how to overcome a breakup)
(here, you'll see a video Erika's class produced and the explanation of the activity)
Carla Arena
The Blogging Team
http://explorations.bloxi.jp
Creating a Tutorial with Voicethread
#943
I have just created and posted a tutorial for my ESL students on how to use the wiki I designed for our grammar class. I used Voicethread and I just love how fast and easy it is! Screen captures and a cell phone - that is all you need! I guess I could do the same thing for my blog as well: a short video on how to navigate around it or use the tool bar or how to post comments, etc.
http://dvmuncaesl.wetpaint.com/
Daniela Munca
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