30 days to get your Students Blogging (Beginner)

January 27, 2012
by Sue Waters
14 Comments

Student Blogging Activity 9 (Beginners): Add Your Student Blogs To A Folder In Google Reader

It’s important that you and your students are able to quickly read the latest posts from all student blogs because:

You need to encourage your students to be reading and learning off each others’ posts (and comments)
Learning as part of a community leads to greater knowledge gain and innovation than working independently of each other
It makes monitoring what’s written less time consuming and easier

In this ninth activity you will:

Be introduced to RSS
Learn how to set up Google Reader
Set up Google Reader and subscribe to student blogs

Step 1: Introduction to RSS

RSS is an acronym which stands for Really Simple Syndication.

In simple terms, RSS is a simple and effective way of keeping in touch when new information is added to a website without having to visit the website to check for new updates.

How it works is you subscribe to your favorite website using the RSS feed in a RSS feed reader such as Google Reader. Whenever new information is added to the website it is automatically sent to your RSS feed reader where you can read it at your convenience.

For example, whenever your favorite blogger publishes a new post it is automatically sent to your Feed reader.

Sites with RSS feeds are normally indicated with the word RSS and/or the orange RSS icon.

For more information, watch RSS in Plain English

Please note :

Blogs on all standard blogging platforms automatically include RSS feeds and don’t necessarily use words or an icon to indicate the presence of the RSS feed.
For all Edublogs, the rss feed is found by going to yourblog.edublogs.org/feed. However, RSS feed Readers like Google Reader automatically detect your RSS feed from your blog URL so there is no need to know the feed URL.
RSS lets you do lots of cool stuff including adding latest updates from your favorite blog(s) or news website(s) to your own site using RSS widgets like FeedWind’s RSS widget

Options to bring latest student posts to one location include:

Feed Readers such as Google Reader and Bloglines
Personalized homepages such as NetVibes, PageFlakes, ProtoPage, iGoogle

Ultimately it’s personal preference whether you use a Personalized homepage or Google Reader.

With personalized homepages you can add a range of different widgets, besides RSS feeds from student blogs, to really customize the page with helpful content for your students. However, reading posts on a personalized homepage isn’t as easily as reading them via a shared Google Reader folder.

Step 2: How to set up and use Google Reader

A key aspect to managing reading other people’s blogs, being able to quickly respond to their posts and connect with them is to use a RSS feed reader.

The most commonly used RSS Feed Reader is Google Reader.

Here’s how you set up Google Reader:

1. Create a Gmail account (if you don’t have one)

2. Go to Google Reader and sign in with your Google Account

3. Add the blog to your Google Reader account by:

Clicking on Subscribe
Entering their blog URL
Now click Add

You can also subscribe to all the comments published on student blogs by adding their student comment feed by:

Clicking on Subscribe
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

You follow the exact same steps to subscribe to any other website that has an RSS feed. However, you’d normally locate the RSS feed you want to add and then paste in the feed URL.

4. Next create a folder and place all the student blogs into the folder as follows:

Hover your mouse over the blog title to display the drop down arrow.
Click on the drop down arrow to display the subscription options.
Select New Folder.
Name your new folder and click OK.

Adding subscriptions to your folder is as simple as:

Left mouse click on a blog title.
Drag the blog into the folder.
Then release your mouse to place it in the folder.

Alternatively, you can bulk add subscriptions to a folder using your subscription page:

Go to Options and select Reader Settings.

Click on the Subscriptions tab.
Select the subscriptions you want to add to a folder.
Click on drop down arrow next to More Actions and select the Folder you want to add the subscriptions to.

Here’s how to read posts inside Google Reader

Latest posts from the blogs you subscribe to will automatically be added to your Google Reader when they’re published and you read them as follows:

Latest posts from the blogs and websites you subscribe are automatically added to your Google Reader when they’re published.

You read them inside Google Reader as follows:

1. Log into your Google Reader account

2. Click on the folder you want to read.

3. Make sure it is set to Expanded view so you see the full post.

3. The number of unread posts is shown in brackets next to the folder name.

4. Just scroll down through the posts in the folder to read all posts.

5. As you scroll the posts will automatically be marked as read and the number of unread posts listed next to the folder name will decrease.

6. Just click on the post’s title to visit a post to add a comment

Step 3: Set up Google Reader and subscribe to blogs

Now you have learnt about RSS and Google Reader it is time to set up your own Google Reader account.

Here is where you find the other activities from this series:

Thanks to everyone who has participated in the 30 Days to Get Started Blogging with your students! And if you missed out, it is never too late to work through the challenges at your own pace!

You can always form your own team with other educators and work together!

Enjoy!

March 20, 2011
by Sue Waters
6 Comments

Student Blogging Activity 8 (Beginners): Add your student blogs to your blogroll

Your 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.

The blogroll on your class blog is what links together all the blogs — helping you, your students and others locate the student blogs easily.

In this eight activity you will:

Learn what is a blogroll.
Learn how to add links to your blogroll and how to use Link Categories to organise student blogs
Learn how to edit links.
Learn how to add your blog roll to your sidebar
Set up your blogroll
Complete the extension activity (if you have time)

Step 1: What is a Blogroll?

A blogroll is a list of links that you display on your blog.

Bloggers commonly use blogrolls to list their favourite blogs. Blogrolls help readers locate other blogs worth reading — you are saying “these are some blogs I like – which are worth checking out!”

Blogrolls on class blogs are used slightly differently. The blogroll on your class blog is what links together all the blogs — helping you, your students and others locate the student blogs easily.

Here’s an example of a blogroll on Leawood Middle School Blogs.

Step 2: Adding Links To Your Blogroll

Every newly created Edublog has the same default widgets in its sidebars — including a blogroll.

You add links to your student blogs as follows:

1. Go to Links > Add New

2. Add the first name of your student (and initial of last name if necessary) to the Name Module

Tips:

Normally only first names of students are used online.
This is the text that will be clickable and takes you to their blog

3. Add the student’s blog URL to the Web Address Module

4. Select Blogroll in the Categories Module and click Add Link

You can sort students from different classess into separate categories as follows:

1. Click on Add A New Category in the Categories Module

2. Add the Class name then click Add

3. Now instead of selecting blogroll you just choose the correct category for their Class and click Add Link

Step 3: Editing links

After adding links, you may want to edit them or delete the default links included on the blogroll of newly created Edublog.

1. Go to Links > Edit

2. To delete a link, hover over the link name and click the Delete option that appears below it.

3. To delete multiple links, select several links and then choose Delete from the drop down Bulk Action menu, and click Apply.

4. To edit a link, hover over the link name and click the Edit option that appears below it.

5. An edit screen will open — just edit the link details and then click Update Link

Step 4: Adding your blogroll to your sidebar

The Links Widget is used to display the links you added to your blogroll in your sidebar.

Every newly created Edublog has the same default widgets in its sidebars — including a blogroll.

However, when you add any widget to a newly created blog (via Appearance > Widgets) it automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets.

If you want to keep the link to log into your blog dashboard you’ll need to add your meta widget back into your sidebar once you’ve added the links widget.

You add your blogroll back into the sidebar as follows:

1. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your Dashboard

2. Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

3. Drag the Links Widget from the Available Widgets area into the Sidebar area on the right

Step 5: Set up your blogroll

Check out how Leawood Middle School Blogs set up the blogroll for their student blogs and then set up your blogroll on your class blog.

Alternatively, if your students don’t have their own blogs then create a blogroll of links to helpful websites.

Please leave a comment on this post if you need help setting up your blogroll! We’re always here to help!

Step 6: Complete the extension activity (if you have time)

Have you joined the Student Blogging Challenge? There’s still time to join! Check it out.

And for those that are currently participating in the Student Blogging Challenge – we’d love to hear from you and your students!

Please leave a comment to let us know how you are going with the Student Blogging Challenge.

Here is where you find the other activities from this series:

Thanks to everyone who is participating in the 30 Days to Get Started Blogging with your students!

And if you missed out, it is never too late to work through the challenges at your own pace!

You can always form your own team with other educators and work together!

January 27, 2012
by Sue Waters
10 Comments

Student Blogging Activity 7 (Beginner): Set up your student blogs

Class blogs are an excellent starting point. But the most incredible outcomes are observed when students are progressed onto their own individual blogs.

Why? Human nature!

As individuals we’re all driven by personal ownership; class blogs have less sense of ownership than an individual blog.

In this seventh activity you will:

Learn about the recommended approach to setting up individual Student Blogs
Gain tips for creating student blogs
Learn how to create student blogs using the Blog & User Creator – Edublogs Pro/Campus users only
Learn how to create student blogs using the Edublogs Signup page – free Edublogs users only
Complete the extension activity (if you have time).

Step 1: Recommended Approach to Setting up Student Blogs

As highlighted in Student Blogging Activity 5 (Beginner): Add Students To Your Class Blog So They Can Write Posts the best approach to student blogging is to take it slowly.

Benefits of this approach include:

Gives you time to increase your own skills while educating your students on appropriate online behaviour.
You’re less likely to have problems if you take this approach.

If you decide to increase your students’ blogging roles it’s a good idea to introduce it slowly in the following three steps:

Write comments on class blogs

Write posts on the class blog

Write posts on their own student blog

The idea is as they show increased responsibility you move them onto the next stage of blogging. And remember you can stage granting students rights to post on the class blog and having their own student blog.

For example, you might gradually allow three students at a time rights to post on the class blog. Then use these students to teach the next group of three students how to post on the class blog and so on.

Once they’re working well on the class blog then you start creating and assigning them their own individual student blog.

Step 2: Tips for creating student blogs

#1 Choosing Usernames and Blog URLs

Educators normally use the same name for both the student’s username and blog URL. Keep them simple and easy for the student to remember.

Most use a combination of their student’s first name followed by numbers that might represent the year, class number and/or school initials. They do this to protect the identity of the student by not including their last name and to ensure their username is unique (as Edublogs has close to 1,000,000 users).

For example, username misty16 or mistybp16. For example, username mistybp16 and blog URL mistybp16.edublogs.org.

If you want the students to use the blog for their entire school life then use a combination of letters combined with a number that represents the year they started school or are finishing school.

#2 Adding yourself to your student blogs

Always add yourself as an administrator to your student blog.

This means if you need to edit/delete a post, page or comment you can quickly access their blog from your blog dashboard.

The easiest way to do this is to set up your student blogs using the Blog & User Creator inside an Edublogs Pro blog — making sure you select add as Admin.

Accessing a student blog’s dashboard is as simple as:

Click on Dashboard > My Blogs
Click on the Dashboard link under the Blog Title you want to access and this will take you to the dashboard of that student blog

#3 Moderating Comments

Educators either prefer to let their students moderate their own comments or they moderate all the comments for their students. There are pros and cons to each approach.

For those comfortable with students moderating comments we recommend you subscribe to the comment feeds from your student blogs — here is how to subscribe to their comments using Google Reader.

If you want to moderate all comments, so comments are only posted once you have approved them, you need to create the blogs using the gmail+ method.

How it works is you set up one Gmail account for your class and then add a + sign and a different number and/or letter(s) to the end of your email name for each student.

Gmails ignores anything in the first half of an email address after a plus sign.

So if you create each email with the format username+studentname@gmail.com all emails will be sent to the inbox of username@gmail.com

REMEMBER:

You must use a real gmail account– educators either use their own gmail account or set up a gmail account for their class e.g. room13@gmail.com

#4 Assigning Student Role

You need to think about how much responsibility your students are given. Do you want them to be able to write own posts/pages, change themes, add widget and approve comments or do you want (or need) to limit their level of responsibility?

The five roles for users you can give students on their student blogs are: Administrator; Editor; Author; Contributor; and Subscriber.

Deciding which role to assign them is a balance between:

How much responsibility you’re comfortable with assigning your students
School and District guidelines
Providing them with an environment that’s motivating

If you want to approve all posts before they can be published then assign them the role of contributors. If you do assign them the role of contributor it means their posts will be submitted as pending and you’ll need to visit their blog dashboard to approve their posts. If you’ve added yourself as an admin user you can see all pending posts and comments on your student blogs by going to Dashboard > My Blogs.

For more info refer to Managing Students on Blogs…What Role Do You Assign Students?

For those comfortable with students having a higher level of responsibility I recommend you subscribe to the post feeds from your student blogs — here is how to subscribe to their posts using Google Reader.

Here is a summary of their differences based on User Capability:

Here is a summary of their differences based on access to features in the dashboard:

Step 3: Create the student blogs

You can use any blogging platform you would like including Edublogs, WordPress, Blogger and TypePad. These detailed instructions are for those using Edublogs.

How you create the blogs depends on the type of Edublogs blog you have:

If you are using an Edublogs Pro/Campus blog – you create the student blogs using the Blog & User Creator inside your dashboard.
If you are using a free Edublogs blog — you’ll need to create the student blogs using the Edublogs sign up page. You’ll need to add yourself as an admin user once the blogs are created.

Remember spam filters, especially strict ones for institutional email addresses, often block activation and password reset emails from Edublogs.org. If unsure use free webmail accounts such as gmail, hotmail that don’t block these invitation emails.

There are no limitations on the number of student blogs you can create!

#1 Creating Student blogs using the Blog & User Creator

The Blog & User Creater is designed specificially to save time and make it easy for educators to mass create student blogs.

This feature is available only on Edublogs Pro and Edublogs Campus blogs.

Creating the blogs is a simple as:

1. Go to Users > Blog & User Creator in your Dashboard.

2. Click on Create Blogs tab.

3. Select their role on their new blog, their role on your blog, your role on their blog and select ‘Upgrade to give access to new premium features and other features’.

We recommend the use of pre-set passwords as it means students will be able to log in if you got the email address wrong or their login email is blocked by filters on their email account.

3. Add the usernames

Use only lowercase letters and numbers, with no spaces, in the username
The username is what they use to sign into the blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments they write. You can’t change a username, however you can change what name is displayed.
If you are creating a new username and see ‘Sorry, that username already exists!’ it means you need to use a more unique username. Remember there is over 1,000,000 users in Edublogs.org. A simple solution for students is to use a combination of their first name, school initials and their room or year.

4. Add their email address

You can’t create several usernames with the same email address because the system resets password based on email address. But you can trick it using the gmail+ method
Spam filters, especially strict ones for institutional email addresses, often block these activation emails. If unsure use free webmail accounts such as gmail, hotmail that don’t block these invitation emails.

5. Add their password

Leave this blank if you want to let the system automatically create the password

6. Add their blog urls

You can’t change a blog URL once a blog is created so choose carefully

7. Add Blog title

This can be changed later in Settings > General

8. Click Submit at the bottom of the page

#2 Creating Student blogs using the Edublogs Signup page

If you are using a free Edublogs blog you’ll need to create the student blogs using the Edublogs sign up page. You’ll need to add yourself as an admin user once the blogs are created.

Here is how you do it:

1. Go to Edublogs.org

2. Click on the ‘Free’ image

Click on Free image on Edublogs sign up page

3. This takes you to the Edublogs sign up page where you need to enter your desired username, email address, tick you agree to TOS (terms of Service) and then click Next.

Tips:

You will be sent an activation email once your account is created. This email normally arrives within 30 minutes.
You have 48 hours to click on the link in the email to activate your blog otherwise you will need to reset up your account.
Spam filters, especially strict ones for institutional email addresses, often block these activation emails. If unsure use free webmail accounts such as gmail, hotmail that don’t block these activation emails.
Use only lowercase letters and numbers, with no spaces, in your username
Your username is what you use to sign into your blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments you write. You can’t change your username, you can change what name is displayed.

Creating a blog

4. On the next page enter the blog domain (i.e. blog URL), blog title, select your preferred privacy and language, enter the Captcha word and click Signup.

Tips:

Use only lowercase letters and numbers, with no spaces, in your blog URL
Blog URLs can’t be changed once created
- Use a blog URL that reflects what your blog is about and is unique
- Keep in mind people need to be able to remember and easily type your blog URL into their browser – where possible try to keep your blog URL short but meaningful
Don’t stress too much about your blog title as this can be changed any time.

Add your blog details

5. Next you should see a page with the blog title and instructions to check email inbox. This email should arrive within 30 minutes.

6. Click on the link in the email to activate the blog account.

Activating the blog

7. This activates your account and takes you to the activation page on Edublogs.

8. You should also receive another email with the username, password and login details which the student’s use to log into their blog dashboard.

9. Once the blog is created you’ll need to add yourself as an admin user to each student blog by going to Users > Add New in each student blog dashboard and following these instructions.

Step 4: Complete the extension activity (if you have time)

Write a comment on this post or your own post to share your tips for creating student blogs such as:

What worked well?
What caused you problems?
What are the three most important tips you would give other educators when using individual student blogs?
What would you like explained in more detail?

And remember to leave a comment with a link to your post (if you do write a post) so we can drop past to check it out! We like to include these links to your posts in our weekly reviews!

Here is where you find the other activities from this series:

Thanks to everyone who is participating in the 30 Days to Get Started Blogging with your students!

And if you missed out, it is never too late to work through the challenges at your own pace!

You can always form your own team with other educators and work together!

January 27, 2012
by Sue Waters
9 Comments

Student Blogging Activity 6 (Beginner): Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar

It’s likely that your blog gets visitors from around the world.

But unless you find ways of displaying visitor numbers and their geographical locations, your students won’t appreciate that they’re publishing posts for a global audience.

In this sixth activity you will:

Learn about the benefits of adding a visitor tracking widget to your blog
Be introduced to commonly used visitor tracking widgets
Add a visitor tracking tool to your blog sidebar
Complete the extension activity (if you have time)

Step 1: Benefits of having a Tracking widget

Knowing you’re writing for a global audience is incredibly motivating for students.
Realizing people from other countries are reading what they’ve written increases their interest, excitement and motives them to blog.
It also provides built-in geography lessons — as most students constantly check for new visitors and enjoy finding out more about the countries where their visitors are from.

Step 2: Commonly used visitor tracking widgets

There’s numerous different types of visitor tracking widgets you can use, and it isn’t uncommon for teachers and students to use more than one type on their blogs.

Below are the most commonly used ones with instructions on how to install.

Please note:

All visitor tracking widgets require you to add embed code to a text widget

To be able to add the embed do you need to be either using:

An Edublogs Pro blog
free Edublogs blogs which have been upgraded using a Pro blog to enable embedding of HTML code

Each Edublogs Pro blog can upgrade up to 50 student (or other blogs). Once upgraded these blogs:

Will have absolutely no advertising displayed on them
Access to and full use of all 100 + Premium themes
The ability to embed videos, JavaScript and other third party code

ClustrMaps

ClustrMaps is a thumbnail hit counter map widget that shows the geographical location of all visitors to your blog. Number of visitors from a location is indicated by the relative size of the dot.

Clicking the ClustrMaps thumbnail takes you to a large World map so you can examine your traffic sources more closely.

There is a ClustrMaps widget in the left hand side bar of this blog.

Here’s comprehensive ‘how to’ add a ClustrMaps to Your Sidebar Using The ClustrMaps widget

Flag Counter

Flag Counter widget shows the total number of visitors from each country next to the country’s flag. Every time someone from a new country visits your site, a new flag will be added to your counter.

Clicking on the flag counter takes you to your Flag counter page which provides more detailed charts and information about your visitors.

See it in action on Technology in Our Classroom!

Here’s how to add a Flag Counter:

1. Go to Flag Counter

2. Choose the maximum flags to show, number of columns of flags and your color scheme then click Get Your Flag Counter

Please Note: most blog sidebars will only fit 1 or 2 columns of flags.

3. Copy the HTML embed code

4. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

5. Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

Please note: In new blogs sidebars in your dashboard are empty and adding widgets automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets

5. Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets or Inactive Widgets areas on the left into the Sidebar area on the right.

6. The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Flag Counter, click Save and then Close.

7. You should now see your Flag Counters in your blog sidebar and the flags will start appearing after 24 hours.

Feedjit Live Traffic

Feedjit Live Traffic Feed displays visitors to your blog in real time and includes:

Which city and country your visitors are in
Which website they arrived from, if any
Which page they visited on your website
Which external link they clicked to leave your site, if any

Your traffic feed is updated as each visitor arrives on your site. This update occurs before it loads so each of your visitors can see their own location displayed.

Clicking on the Feedjit Live Traffic counter takes you to your Live traffic page which provides more detailed information including the countries associated with web visitors’ IP addresses, the web browser, computer operating system, and referring website.

See it in action on Technology in Our Classroom!

Here’s how to add a Feedjit Live Traffic Widget:

1. Go to Feedjit Live Traffic Feed

2. Click on Click here to Customize It! below Live Traffic Feed

3. Choose your color scheme and width (ideal size for most sidebars is less than 170)

4. Once finished customizing, copy the HTML embed code

5. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

6. Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

7. Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

8. The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Live Traffic Feed, click Save and then Close.

9. You should now see your Live Traffic Feed in your blog sidebar and visitor data will immediately start appearing.

Feedjit Live Traffic Map

Feedjit Live Traffic Map displays real-time visitor tracking by showing the geographic locations of the last 100 visitors to your blog.

If you move your mouse over any point on the map the city and country for that visitor will be displayed.

Clicking on the Feedjit Live Traffic Map takes you to your Live Traffic Map page which provides more detailed information.

See it in action on Technology in Our Classroom!

Here’s how to add a Feedjit Live Traffic Widget:

1. Go to Feedjit Live Traffic Map

2. Click on Click here to Customize It! below Live Traffic Map

3. Choose your color scheme and width (ideal size for most sidebars is less than 170)

4. Once finished customizing, copy the HTML embed code

5. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

6. Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

7. Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

8. The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Live Traffic Map, click Save and then Close.

9. You should now see your Live Traffic Map in your blog sidebar and visitor data will immediately start appearing.

Step 3: Add a visitor tracking tool to your sidebar

Add a visitor tracking widget to your sidebar. You can select from any (or all) of the tools listed above or look for an alternative visitor tracking tool.

Remember to leave a comment with a link to your blog so we can drop past to check it out your new visitor tracking widget and add our location to your widget

Step 4: Complete the extension activity (if you have time)

Write a post to review top tracking widgets – discuss some of the best widgets, what each will do and why you would recommend them.

And remember to leave a comment with a link to your post so we can drop past to check it out! We like to include these links to your posts in our weekly reviews!

Here is where you find the other activities from this series:

Thanks to everyone who is participating in the 30 Days to Get Started Blogging with your students!

And if you missed out, it is never too late to work through the challenges at your own pace!

You can always form your own team with other educators and work together!

January 26, 2012
by Sue Waters
19 Comments

Student Blogging Activity 5 (Beginner): Add Students To Your Class Blog So They Can Write Posts

Normally when a class blog is initially set up you’ll be responsible for writing posts, and the students respond by writing comments.

This gives you time to increase your skills while gradually introducing your students to blogging and educating them on appropriate online behaviour.

However, ultimately you’ll need to make decisions:

Do you want students to write posts on the class blog?
Do you want them to have their own student blog?

In this fifth activity you will:

Consider reasons why you would add students as users to a class blog.
Learn about what role you can assign student users on a class blog.
Learn how to add students as users to a class blog.
Learn how to organise student posts on a class blog.
Complete the extension activity (if you have time).

Step 1: Why Add Students As Users To Class Blogs?

Factors you need to consider include student’s age, time and motivation.

As student’s age increases you are more likely to want them to write posts on the class blog or their own blog (i.e. as a general rule Kindergarten and Grade 1 students write comments only).

#1 Ownership and Motivation

Ownership is an important part of blogging; as it’s an important part of life.

We all take better care of and have increased motivation when we feel personal ownership.

Students are no different from adults.

Ever tried to set up adults on a group blog? Incredibly challenging — often one person does the bulk of the publishing! Yet each individual happily posts on their own blog.

#2 Time Involved

Increasing student’s blogging role increases the time spent providing guidance and monitoring their online activities.

However, your students learn more, are more motivated and their writing improves faster.

Check out these student bloggers to see for yourself: Best Student Edublog 2010

PS You can create your own GraphJam here!

#3 Introducing Blogging To Students

If you decide to increase your students’ blogging roles it’s a good idea to introduce it slowly in the following three steps:

Write comments on class blogs

Write posts on the class blog

Write posts on their own student blog

Step 2: What Role Do You Assign Students on Blogs?

When you add users to a blog you have the ability to assign and control what other users can do on the blog depending on the tasks you want each user to be responsible for.

The five roles a user can be assigned on a blog in decreasing level of responsibility are: Administrator; Editor; Author; Contributor; and Subscriber.

On a class blog you would assign students the role of contributor or author:

Contributor – used if you want to approve all posts before they are published. As a contributor they’ll submit their post as pending and the post won’t be published on the class blog until you’ve approved it.
Author – used if you are happy for them to publish their own posts. As a author they can’t edit or delete anyone else’s posts.

When the students log into the dashboard you’ll notice they have less menu items. This is because as a contributor or author they don’t have the same level of access as an administrator.

You can read more about what role to assign students on blogs here.

Here is a summary of their differences based on User Capability:

Here is a summary of their differences based on access to features in the dashboard:

Step 3: Adding Students As Users To Class Blogs

There are two main ways to add users to a class blog on Edublogs:

Using Blogs and Users Creator – use on Edublogs Pro and Campus blog.
Using Add New – use on a free Edublogs blog.

Please note:

There are no limitations on the number of users you can add to a blog!
The Blogs and Users Creator is the fastest and best way to add students quickly to your class blog

Bulk adding students using the Blog and user creator

The Blog & User Creator is designed to bulk add users to blogs and is the fastest way of adding new users to your blog. Click on Add more button at the bottom of the page if you want to add more than 5 users in a batch.

1. Go to Users > Blog & User Creator

2. Click on the Add New Users tab

3. Add suitable usernames.

4. Add their email address.

5. Add their password

It’s best to use a preset password (and unique password for each student) and record all student login details in a spreadsheet — in case they lose, delete or don’t receive their login email.

6. Select their role.

7. Click Submit at the bottom of the page to create and add them to your blog.

8. The students will be immediately added as users to the blog and you’ll see them listed on your Users > All Users page.

Adding students using Users > Add New

Refer to these instructions on adding users using Add New if you are using a free Edublogs blog.
Please note:

The Blogs and Users Creator is the fastest way to add students quickly to your class blog
Most use teachers use a combination of their student’s first name followed by numbers that might represent the year, class number and/or school initials. They do this to protect the identity of the student by not including their last name and to ensure their username is unique (as Edublogs has close to 1,000,000 users). For example, username misty10 or mistybp16.

Student accounts and email address

An email address is required when you create student accounts — it’s important for password resets, comment moderation etc

If your students don’t have email addresses the simplest solution is to set up their accounts using one Gmail account and then add a + sign and a different number and/or letter(s) to the end of your email name for each student.

How it works is Gmails ignores anything in the first half of an email address after a plus sign.

So if you create each email with the format username+studentname@gmail.com all emails will be sent to the inbox of username@gmail.com

Please Note:

You must use a real gmail account– either use your own gmail account or set up a gmail account for your class e.g. room13@gmail.com.
This also means that if you want to moderate comments on student posts they will be sent to your email address.

Step 4: Organsing Student Posts on Class Blogs

Educators new to blogging often struggle with when you write posts as opposed to pages.

The best way to manage your student work is they write posts and assign their name as a category to the post before they publish their post. This makes it easy to find and manage their work.

You display the categories assigned to posts in your blog sidebar using the categories widget (here is how to add widgets).

This means when you click on the name of a student in your sidebar it’ll loads a page with all posts that use that student name as a category — check this out in action on Mr.Toft.ca!

Watch Nathan Toft’s excellent video to see how he adds students to blogs and assigns them categories!

Here is more information on:

Before you get them writing posts just create a category for each student as follows:

All you need to do is add the categories widget to your blog sidebar (here is how to add widgets). Then when you click on the name of a student in your sidebar it’ll loads a page with all posts with that category assigned to it — check this out in action on Mr.Toft.ca!

1. Go to Posts > Categories in your blog dashboard

2. Add the first name of your student (if necessary include initial of last name)

3. Click Add Category

Tip:

Set up Category Parents before you create a category for each student if you want to sort your categories into groups.
For example, you might have Student as a parent category and then all Student names underneath. Then you might have another parent category for subjects and have all the subject names underneath.

Below’s what your categories might look like in your blog sidebar.

Please note that categories won’t display in your category widget until the category has been assigned to a post.

Video

Watch this video to learn about managing categories

Adding a category to a Post

Now when your students write their post it’s as simple as:

Write their post
Select their name as a category
Click Publish post or Submit for Review

Step 5: Complete the extension activity (if you have time).

Write a post (or leave a comment on this post) on one of the topics below:

Your thoughts on what roles students should be assigned on a class blog (and why?)
Design a check list sheet or instructions for your student bloggers in terms of what you expect from them when they write their posts.
Check out and review some of the class blogs that were shortlisted for the Edublogs Awards where students are involved with writing posts. Types of details to review include: what types of posts do the students write; how is the teacher organising students posts on the blog.

And remember to leave a comment with a link to your post so we can drop past to check it out! We like to include these links to your posts in our weekly reviews!

Here is where you find the other activities from this series:

Thanks to everyone who is participating in the 30 Days to Get Started Blogging with your students!

And if you missed out, it is never too late to work through the challenges at your own pace!

You can always form your own team with other educators and work together!

February 26, 2011
by Miss W.
0 comments

Blog with students – Visit these Week 2

Some more great posts this week especially about rules, etiquette, commenting in classes and involving parents.

Commenting

Marsha, Rorey, MsKirwin, Miss T, Malyn, Janelle,

Internet etiquette

Tracy, Space Between, Serge, Mrs R, Mrs Krebs, LMS Eagles, Malyn, Lyn, Sheri, Theresa, Claire,

Involving parents

Mr Carson,

Interesting posts

Mrs Brady, MsH, Perth Librarian, Deb, Mrs Krebs, Sheri, Mr Laidlaw, Marsha, Asli,

New class blogs

Ms Howard,

Original image: ‘Holiday Story‘

by: woodley wonderworks

Released under an Attribution License

March 20, 2011
by Mrs Kathleen Morris
23 Comments

Student Blogging Activity 4 (Beginner) – Helping Parents Connect with your Class Blog

This week’s student blogging activity is a guest post by Kathleen Morris.

This is the fourth activity in the “30 days to get your students blogging” series.

In this activity you will:

1. Learn why parent participation in blogs is important.

2. Learn about some initiatives that can encourage parents to be involved in your class blog.

3. Introduce some initiatives in your classroom to encourage parent participation in your blog.

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About parents and blogs

One of the many benefits of having a class blog is the strengthening of home-school relationships.

A class blog can provide a virtual window into the classroom.

After having a class blog for a number of years, I have got the message loud and clear that parents and families love being able to keep up with the classroom events and student learning.

You can’t leave parent participation to chance. Parents needs to be educated and regularly encouraged and invited to be part of your class blog.

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Educating parents

At the start of each year when I introduce my class to blogging, there are rarely any students or parents who know anything about blogs or blogging. It is nearly always a totally new concept for them.

I spend time each day helping my students learn about blogging, however I have also come up with ways to educate the parents. This is very important. Parents won’t be willing or able to get involved in blogging if they don’t know anything about it. As Linda Yollis says, everything is more powerful when parents are invovled in their child’s learning so I definitely like to encourage parent participation in blogging.

Like students, parents have different learning preferences and I like to offer my parents a range of different means in which they can learn about blogging.

Introduction to blogging handout

When I send home the initial permission form about blogging on Day One, I include this 2KM and 2KJ Blog Information Note (click this link to access a PDF version).

It lets parents know:

What a blog is
What our blog URL is
Why we blog
What our safety guidelines are

Handout to help parents navigate the blog

There is a lot to know about effectively navigating the class blog so I created a handout for parents called 10 Steps to Navigating the 2KM and 2KJ Blog 2011 (click this link to access a PDF version)

It includes information such as:

blog jargon
how to subscribe to email updates
how to leave and reply to comments
how to navigate categories and pages
how to search the blog
how to become part of our wider blogging community

Information on the blog

I have created a “learn about blogging” set of pages on our class blog. This explains to readers (including parents) what a blog is, why we blog and how to comment. For parents who prefer a more visual description, I have created a video explaining how to comment.

Other ideas for educating parents about blogging

Hold a parent information evening and go through the blogging basics.
Invite parents in to the classroom to help students compose and edit their blog comments.
Set up an email subscription so readers can be notified when you publish new posts. Click here to find Sue Water’s instructions on adding an email subscription to your blog.
Older students could create their own parents guide or letter to family members giving them some tips to navigating the blog.
Send out regular emails to parents with blogging news and tips. Encourage them to forward the email on to family and friends.
Create a post specifically designed for parents to comment on. Here is a post I published last year and a large number of parents enjoyed commenting.

Final advice

Always reply to comments (or have your students reply). It is good blogging etiquette and provides an example to students that comments are not just one-way; they are used to generate conversation and discussion. Parents may not be encouraged to keep commenting if they don’t feel their comments are being valued or acknowledged.

Your challenges

1. Come up with a few ways to begin educating your parents about blogging. You could choose to:

Create a parent handout (remember to create your own rather than copying others’ work).
Have your students create a parent handout.
Create a page on your blog with information about navigating the blog and commenting.
Have your students write a letter to parents that includes blogging tips and an invitation to comment.
Hold a parent information evening about blogging. Students could be presenters.
Invite parents in for regular or one-off blogging sessions and have them help students compose and edit their comments.
Set up an email subscription to your blog and let parents know how to sign up. Remember to click here to find instructions on this.
Set up an email newsletter for parents with blogging news and tips.
Publish a post specifically designed for parents to comment on (eg. “What was school like for you?” or “What are your hobbies?”)

2. Choose to either:

a) Write a blog post about your parent initiatives and submit a comment on this post with the URL. We’d love to hear about it!

b) Write a post proposing three things you are going to do to encourage parent participation this year. Don’t forget to submit a comment on this post with the URL.

Here is where you find the other activities from this series:

Thanks to everyone who is participating in the 30 Days to Get Started Blogging with your students!

And if you missed out, it is never too late to work through the challenges at your own pace!

You can always form your own team with other educators and work together!

February 27, 2011
by murcha
7 Comments

Blogging with Students, Activity 4 (Advanced) – 3C’s in the Parent Factor

Three C's in the Parent Factor

Comunication! Communication! Communication!

A partnership between parents and the school is of vital importance to the success of a child’s education.

Here is what I would like for my own children:-

My children when they were young

to become independent, self confident and motivated learners and citizens
take responsibility for their learning
be life long learners
experience a range of learning activities
take appropriate risks but learn from experience
enjoy learning about other cultures and be appreciative of different ways
be successful in life both within, outside of and beyond school
be safe at all times from predators and other dangers

……but not just for my own children but those who I teach as well.

Parents want the best for their child, most want them to be skilled in using technology but many are concerned about online safety, potential predators and are personally not confident with technology. Keeping this in mind, it is crucial that communication is maintained with parents. From personal experience, the more informed parents are, the more enthusiastic and more involved they become in the school, class or student blogs and child’s education. See parent involvement helps in child’s education.

As such here are some points to be kept in mind when using a class blog or individual student blogs:-

the age of the children
the age of the parents
the technical ability of the parents
the different means of communicating to parents
the best ways to communicate to parents
what MUST they know
what is useful to know etc
how can they become involved in blogging etc
how to calculate some of the above

This is the fourth activity in the “30 days to get your students blogging” series.

Your challenge(s):-

a. Read the beginner’s challenge on Parents Connect with Your Class Blog

b. Write a post on one of the following:-

5-10 ways in which a parent can get involved in a class/student blog
10 things parents need to know about class/student blogs
Tips for Parents on monitoring a student blog
Tips for coaxing reluctant parents
Each class blog, should have a page(s) devoted to parents. Discuss the validity of this statement and what content might appear on this page.

This could be in the form of a letter, presentation, poster, prezi embedded into the post etc.

c. When the post is completed, add the url back as a comment on this blog post.

d. Add the hashtag #ebshare #ksyb

Advanced challenge

Set up a parent page on your class blog, add and continue to add, appropriate content.

Are you a parent as well as an educationalist? What do you want from your child’s education? How do you see blogging from a class or individual student perspective?

January 26, 2012
by murcha
38 Comments

Student Blogging Activity 3 (Beginner) – Teaching Quality Commenting

This week’s student blogging activity is a guest post by Kathleen Morris.

Kathleen teaches grade two at Leopold Primary School in Victoria, Australia. 2011 is the fourth year she has blogged with her students. Kathleen writes a blog for educators about technology integration, educational blogging and global collaboration. Find Kathleen on Twitter @kathleen_morris

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This is the third activity in the “30 days to get your students blogging” series.

In this activity you will:

1. Learn why blog comments are important.

2. Understand one definition of quality commenting and create your own definition.

3. Discover some ideas on how to teach commenting skills to student bloggers.

4. Introduce quality commenting to students and parents.

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About comments on blogs

Comments really make blogs come alive and transform your blog from a static space to an interactive community.

I have found the best way to introduce classes to blogging is for the teacher to initially write posts while students (and other readers) comment.

Students need explicit instruction and guidelines to get the most out of commenting.

I was originally inspired to refine my teaching of commenting by the wonderful Linda Yollis and her third grade students.

From experience, I have found if commenting skills are not taught and constantly reinforced, students will limit their comments to things like “I like your blog!” or “2KM is cool!”. While enthusiasm is high with these sorts of comments, students are not developing their literacy skills or having meaningful interactions with other members of the blogging community. Conversations in the comment section of a blog are such rich and meaningful learning experiences for students. Conversations begin with high quality comments.

One of the main reasons I blog with my students in to provide an authentic avenue for developing their literacy skills. Over 2010, I documented the improvements in my students literacy skills which you can read about here. When you invest the time in teaching, modelling, revising and promoting high quality writing of comments, students can make great gains in their overall literacy development.

Set your standards high from the start and reap the rewards!

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About quality comments

I teach my students how to write “quality comments” and invest a lot of time in the first part of the year to helping students to understand what this means. My team teacher partner, Kelly Jordan, published our guidelines into a poster which we display in our room and send home to families. You can view the PDF copy here – 2KM and 2KJ Commenting Poster.

Teaching commenting skills

I teach commenting skills through:

Modelling and composing comments together with students on the interactive whiteboard.
Teaching students about the “letter” format and editing process during writing lessons.
Giving examples of a poor/high quality comments and having students vote whether the comment should be accepted or rejected. Example of a Sorting blog comments activity devised for our students here.
Having students read and comment on a post on our blog as part of a literacy rotation on the computer each week.
Taking students to the ICT room once a week to work on composing a quality comment with a partner.
Emailing parents and encouraging them to write comments on the blog with their child.

Here’s where you’ll find more information on working with comments:

Video

Watch the video below to learn how to manage comments

Your challenges

1. Watch this video by Linda Yollis’ students about leaving quality comments. Depending on your students’ age, you could watch it with your class.

2. Create your own poster to guide students on how to write a quality comment. Remember, don’t use others’ work without permission and acknowledgment.

Option 1: Create the guidelines poster and share it with students.

Option 2: Facilitate a collaborative discussion with students (perhaps after watching the video) to create the guidelines poster together.

3. Make parents aware of your expectations of quality comments. Send a copy of your poster home, have students create their own version of the poster to take home or email parents about the process.

4. Write a blog post about commenting and what you define as a quality comment. Have your students practise leaving a “quality” comment on the post. Leave a comment on this post with the URL of your blog post.

Here is where you find the other activities from this series:

Thanks to everyone who is participating in the 30 Days to Get Started Blogging with your students!

And if you missed out, it is never too late to work through the challenges at your own pace!

You can always form your own team with other educators and work together!

February 21, 2011
by murcha
15 Comments

Student Blogging Activity 3 (Advanced) – Conversational Comments

By murcha | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

“A comment a day encourages bloggers to have their say!” This was a quote by one of my online colleagues on twitter three years ago. Unfortunately, I have misplaced who said this and cannot attribute the quote.

Are our students learning by conversations on facebook, forums, twitter, blogs and other networking sites?
Does effective communication through conversations empower learning?
Do comments on blogs have any impact?

My answer would be:- Yes, Yes, and Yes! What would be your answer?

Comments on student blogs are one of the highest motivational factors and drivers that I have witnessed in my classroom over many, many years of teaching! I can still remember the excitement, when our classroom blog received its first comment. Someone was actually reading our post at Our Backyard

It read:- Your “backyard” is beautiful! Thank you for sharing it with the world. (Lori, California)

and the comment was from overseas!!

However, time needs to be spent learning about comments, considering eg:-

What makes a good comment?
How can comments keep conversations going?
How can blogging be empowered using conversations via comments?

Here are your challenges:-

1. Write a post on one of the following:-

10 things you need to know about blog comments.
The power of comments – (Discuss and illustrate, if possible, with real examples from your classroom or personal blog.)
5 ways to get more comments on blogs
Switch off blog commenting! Discuss potential impact(s).

2. Share your blog post in a comment to this post.

3. Check out the beginner’s challenge

4. Find another two blogs in this challenge and comment back on their post.

5. Become involved in the discussion question for this challenge.

Advanced Challenge

Put together a presentation with some sample comments both good and bad, for students to assess and discuss. Add to a post and share or
Create a cartoon strip to show an aspect of commenting on blogs.