Well I figured that now that I have my class and staff on Edublogs that I should switch over my ECI 831 blog site as well. Getting students working on their blog sites was pretty easy and they caught on really fast. Students had their themes and colours picked out before I could say click appearance!
As for the staff that’s another story…
I found that the staff had the most difficulties getting up a rolling. Students were waiting and helping them find where to click and it actually slowed us down quite a bit. Although I love it when students can teach us things and support our learning, for time sake I may not do it this way next time. I would probably get the staff set up on theirs first and then have them watch the students get set up.
So now that I have us all on we will start our first posts this week. I am curious to see how it comes together once students are on and posting. I still don’t really have a visual of how that will look but will fond out soon enough. I really liked the last blackboard session, because the first thing the STAFF asked is why do we blog, and whats the purpose of this? So it was great to have some answers to those questions as well as direction for me in setting this up.
The funny thing was that all the students wanted to know is if they can message their friends on the blog.
One issue I am having is I have switched over to edublogs for my blog but I don't know how to connect to ECI 831. I am sure it is really easy but I just haven't figured it out yet. So for now I will continue using this one
Well done, Benita! What grade level are you blogging with? It always amazes me how knowledgeable students are about technology. I am sure that you will both learn from this opportunity.
ReplyDeleteHi Monica, well I have some grade 6's to 9's that are blogging. They are all new to it but I'm site they will surpass me very quickly! I am learning soooo much. I'm not sure I would have done this if it wasn't for this course so I'm grateful and thankful for everyone's support and knowledge. I hope I will be a ble to return it.
ReplyDeleteHi Benita
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing what you are doing with your students. I've found your class blog on Edublogs and check how you are your students are going.
Did you want If not you, who? If not now, when? embedded into the post as a YouTube video? Let me know if you had wanted it embedded within the player and I will change it over for you.
Your students are doing well. The theme Jayden has chosen on his blog is a slightly harder theme to set up. It may be worth considering if one of the other mobile friendly themes would work better or let us know if he wants to keep this theme and needs our help setting it up.
For your age students I suggest you look at Sue Wyatt's student blogger series - http://www.eschoolblogs.org.au/students/category/basic-blogging/ Her tasks were developed for their age and will guide them through the process of setting up their blog.
Messaging is a really interesting question. Most teachers would like a way to message students privately to provide feedback but often don't want students to be able to message each other.
My choice would be to explain to them how you interact by leaving comments on posts and guide them through the process of quality commenting - http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/step-4-teach-quality-commenting-skills/
If you wanted to use Edublogs for ECI 831 then it is better to set up a personal educator's blog so you keep your class blog and personal blog separate from each other. If you decided to switch over then you just need to let them know your new blog URL and they would add it to the Course hub feed. Or you could keep using the blog for your course. Please contact me if you do decide to set up a personal educator blog as I will need to provide some assistance with it.
Also please include Att: Sue if you contact Edublogs directly so any support requests you submit are assigned to me.
Sue @suewaters
Hi Sue, Thanks so much for checking our class blog! Yes I would like the "If not you...." embedded within the player...i think haha. I will talk with Jayden about her blog. If it is complicated she may want to try something else to start with. I will check out Sue Wyatt's student blogger as well. I need all the support I can get right now.
ReplyDeleteI have started an edublog for myself the url is struik.edublogs.org
What I am wondering is how do I break my blog into two parts so that I can have a area for my Major project blog and my class blog. I tried to go into categories and make two but every time I went back to check it only had the one "uncategorized" in there.
Sue one more question I have is when I set up our classroom blog I upgraded to the pro and never received a receipt. Am I able to still get one? I need to submit on when processing payment for the school division.
Thank you again for all your help and feel free to offer anymore advise and/or suggestions. Benita
Hi Benita
ReplyDeleteThanks and I've now embed the video in a player. If you open up the post in Edit mode you will see how easy it is (once you know how).
Thanks for sharing your new blog URL. I've upgraded to Edublogs Pro for 12 months for your course.
I've also attached the username you have for http://struik.edublogs.org/ as a user to http://bstruik.edublogs.org/ as it is best to have all blogs attached to the one username or you can end up confused. From now on I recommend you log in with username struik. You just use the links to your blogs under the My sites menu in the top navigation to go between the blogs.
Sorry about the delay in sending the receipt :( We've just changed over to a new payment system and there is an issue with the receipts. I can see they have been discussing best options but they forgot to send a response to let you know they are working on it. I've organized for one of my support staff to send a receipt.
I'm assuming your course blog http://struik.edublogs.org/ needs to be set up similar to other students in the class? Can you share a link to one of the other student blogs that you like the look of how they have approached their major project so I can explain how to do it?
Sue @suewaters
HI Sue, Thanks for the upgrade and linking my blogs together!!! One of the blogs that I like is andrewforemanblog.wordpress.com
ReplyDeleteHe has an area for his thoughts and an area for his major project. I am just not sure how to do that on my blog page.
Hi Benita
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing an example. That helps!
Andrew is assigning the categories Andrew Thoughts and Major Project to his posts when he publishes them and then using a custom menu to link to the category page from his top navigation.
If you assign categories you want to use to your publish posts I can set up that navigation structure. You can read how to add categories here - http://help.edublogs.org/adding-tags-and-categories-to-a-post/
Sue
Thanks Sue. I actually got it figured out and now have the categories on my blog site.
ReplyDeleteWell done! Most need my help setting up the custom menu for the top navigation.
ReplyDeleteSue