North Alabama Technology Conference
What’s your name? Where do you teach (or do what you do)? Talk about blogging
What do you know about blogging already? Why are you interested in blogging? As of now, what do you think you’ll do with
blogging? Are you comfortable with “technology?”
(Careful—this is a trick question)
To gain an understanding of what blogs are and how they are used in the classroom
Establish, format, and use an Edublogs blog To be able to work with a variety of blogging
platforms To have a working knowledge of blog terms
Fortunately, teachers are good swimmers
Let’s look at some, then we’ll discuss them
Classroom 2.0 wiki page on blogs Some features that most blogs share are
Posts Pages Links
When should a teacher use a blog in the classroom?
Once again, let’s take a look at some blogs before we discuss them
(Introduce Dr. Felix’s material)
How many blogs will I have? Classroom, professional, and personal
Websites and wikis Blogs are a form of (gasp) social
networking Myspace and Facebook and texting, oh my!
I’ll have a “web presence?” Anonymous blogging or not? The Clever Sheep—”Take Ownership of Your
Identity” Links from your blog (including themes)
Before we start, make sure you have… A blog URL (or two) that you want to use
www.yournamehere.edublogs.org A name for your blog
This may be different than the URL An email address A password
Updates and changes can occur at any time
Appearance may depend on the browser, local settings, and the whims of fate
There’s almost always a help button to click on—this is a great feature to be familiar with!
• Check email and get password
• Password will show up on next screen and you’ll get a second email.
This is part of the dashboard Let’s discuss each of the major areas
that we can see
Where you select to write a post, page, or link
POST: An entry to the blog that is part of the main section of the blog. Posts are “bumped down” every time a new post is written.
PAGE: A “static” page that is not part of the main section of the blog. Pages “stand alone” and are viewed one at a time.
LINK: a hyperlink to another website. These links are found on the sidebar.
Where you can manage your posts, pages, links, categories, tags, media library, blog imports, blog exports, and forums. Whew.
Let’s look a little closer at categories and tags. (We’re not going to look at imports, exports, or forums today)
CATEGORIES: When you write a post or page, you can assign it a single category for later reference (you can show posts by category). A post for homework might be categorized as “homework.”
TAGS: These are similar to categories, but can include several words. The post above might be tagged “homework, math, extra-credit”
Video time: “Information R/evolution” by Michael WeschVideo time: “Information R/evolution” by Michael Wesch
Theme: the appearance of your blog including its layout and basic features
Widgets: small programs that run (typically) in your sidebar
Custom Image Header: allows you to place your own picture in the header of your blog
This is where you view and approve all of the comments that people post to your blog entries
School blogs will typically have moderated comments; this allows you to ensure nothing inappropriate appears on your blog
You can purchase additional features or storage capacity for your blog
This might be desirable, but probably not now
Theme and widgets Profile
A few important settings that might not be self-explanatory General
Blog Title: This can be changed; your URL will not change
Tag line: This shows with some themes Membership: This limits comments to members Time zone: We’re UTC-5 right now
Writing You may want to increase the size of the post box
to make it easier to see what you’re doing as you post
A few important settings that might not be self-explanatory Reading
Front page displays: this causes the same post or page to be displayed every time the blog is opened
A few important settings that might not be self-explanatory Discussion
Before a comment appears: This is where you control who can add material to your blog
Comment blacklist: you can select words that will prevent a comment from being displayed
A few important settings that might not be self-explanatory Privacy Miscellaneous
I personally de-select “crop thumbnail…” Delete blog
Be sure you understand what you’re asking for! Blog Avatar
Give your name a face to go with it!
A few important settings that might not be self-explanatory Blog type
Teacher: if you have a teacher blog, you can create student blogs in which you have administrative privileges
Student: very similar to the teacher blog, but without the subordinate blog option
Dashboard widgets This controls how users other than yourself see
the dashboard
Information on each of these can be found by clicking on the name
Authors and Users More than one person can control or
provide content to a blog Let’s take a look at a page that defines the
various users (outline) A subscriber can simply see the dashboard
and edit his or her own profile. They may be allowed to comment.
Your profile This is where you change your password
(an odd location, in my opinion)
Your avatar Add users
This allows you to add several users at once. Watch the role!
Invites This is one way to announce your blog to
the world; well, at least the part with an email address…
Blog and User Creator There are simple and advanced options
Teacher policy highlights Training (check, you’ve done that) Blogging service providers Manage (moderate) posts and comments Advise parents Notify local administrator Disclaimer
Student policy highlights Blogs are an extension of the classroom First names only (last initial if needed) No personal information Public space Links Teacher review
Student blogging policy statement Age appropriate explanation Parent signature
If there are no questions, let’s put together a list of our blogs
The biggest hurdle concerning technology usage in the classroom is…
How will your classroom be different this year? (This does not have to deal with technology)
In ten years, my classroom will probably…
A topic of your choice
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