Once you have your students writing quality comments you may then want to add them as users to the class blog so they can write posts.

You’ll find students learn more, are more motivated and their writing improves faster when they’re allowed to write posts.  And the best way to get them started is by writing posts on the class blog.

In this challenge, you will:

1. Get some tips for creating student accounts
2. Add students as users to a class blog
3. Set up categories to manage student posts

Tips for creating student accounts

#1 Choosing Usernames

Your students will each need their own username which they’ll use to sign into the class blog dashboard.  Their username is also displayed on posts and comments they write.

Most 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 and to ensure their username is unique (you can’t use a username that is already being used by another user).

For example, username misty16 or mistybcc16.

#2 Email address 

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

For example, mathiscool@gmail.com or room16@gmail.com.

Then you use your one class gmail account with the gmail+ method to create each student account.

Gmail ignores any letters and numbers you add after a + sign and sends all emails to the one account while our system thinks each is a unique email.

So for example, you might use room16+emmasblp16@gmail.com,  room16+liamwblp16@gmail.com and so on for creating their usernames and gmail will send all emails to the class gmail account room16@gmail.com

#3 Assigning Student Role

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Adding students as users to the class blog

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

1. Using Blogs and Users Creator  – use on Edublogs Pro and Campus blog.
2. 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.

Organsing student posts on Class Blogs

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

The best way to manage your student work is they write posts and you get them to assign their name as a category to the post before they publish their post.

This makes it easy to find their posts.

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!

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

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

Adding a category to a Post

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

1. Write their post
2. Select their name as a category
3. Click Publish post or Submit for Review

Sound Off!

Leave a comment below with links to your Class blog, if you’d like, so we can see how you are going!

Or let us know if you have any questions about the above, or have additional tips to share!

Perhaps the hardest part in setting up a class blog is getting the posts started!

In this challenge, you will:

• Be introduced to blog posts
• Consider who writes the class blog posts?
• Publish your first blog posts
• Learn how to teach students to write quality comment

Introduction to posts

Your posts are where you’ll publish your main content such as what’s been happening in class. assignment information, documents, and more.  They are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order with the most recent post at the top of the page.

If you look closely at a post you will see it is normally made up of:

1. Post Title – tells the reader what the post is about.  A great post title grabs readers attention and is more likely to encourage them to read your post.
2. Date published – all post display the date a post was published.  You’ll normally see this displayed at the top of the post.
3. Categories and tags - are used to help readers locate information in different ways.
4. Your post content – this is the main information that you want to share or reflect on with your readers
5. A link to comments - This is where your readers can click to write a comment in response to your post.  Comments allow students, and other readers, to engage in discussions, share their thoughts and connect with your class blog.

Who writes the posts?

You’ll also need to consider how you want to involve the students.  Do you want them just responding to comments on your posts. publishing their own posts on the class blog or publishing posts on their own blogs?

The best approach, regardless of their age, is to introduce blogging slowly in the following three steps:

Write comments in response to your posts on class blogs

Students write posts on the class blog

Students write posts on their own student blog

Publishing your first posts

So it’s time to get you started!

When you first create a new blog, a ‘Hello World’ post is already created.

To edit it you go to Posts > All Post and then click on the Edit link that appears when you put your mouse over the ‘Hello World’ post.

Video

 Watch the video below to learn about Editing Posts

1. Welcome to our Blog on 34′L Online Learning Space
2. We’re up and running! on 5A3 Dragon’s Lair
3. Welcome to the 2KM and 2KJ blog! on 2KM and 2KJ @ Leopold Primary School
4. Welcome back 2011 on  Mrs Yollis Classroom blog 
5. Happy New (School) Year on 110GS Grde 7/8 Virtual Classroom
6. Weigh Anchor, off we go! oX) on Mr Miller’s Classroom blog
7. Miss H’s Class questions about blogging – 2011 on Miss Hutchinson’s class – Room 3.14
8. Digital citizenship ad Internet Safety on Mrs Martinez’s Class blog
9. Blog first steps on Mrs Goucher’s Class blog 
10. Welcome to our class blog on Mrs Hamman’s Class blog

To write your next post you just go to Posts > Add New.

Check out the class blogs in the Student Blogging Challenge for ideas of what they post about!

Video

 Watch the video below to learn about Writing New Posts

• The differences between pages and posts
• Writing your first post
• Adding categories and tags to your posts
• Editing posts

Teaching students how to write quality comments

Comments are an important part of your class blog.  Comments allow students, and other readers, to engage in discussions, share their thoughts and connect with your class blog.

Students really do need explicit instructions and guidelines, with constant reinforcement, to get the most out of writing comments.   Without it you’ll find their comments very limited.

So how do you get them started?

1. First read Teaching quality commenting.
2. Next read “Learning  how to comment“

Now create your own post or activity aimed at getting your students to develop their commenting skills.

Video

 Watch the video below to learn about Managing comments

• Introduction to comments and writing comments
• Controlling who can comment on posts
• Managing, editing and approving comments
• Writing links in Comments

 Next steps…

Leave a comment with a link to your blog or with any questions you may have!

And we’d love to hear your tips about writing your first posts on class blogs and teaching students how to write quality comments!

In this challenge, you will:

• Take a look at excellent class blogs
• Setup your About page
• Set up your Rules and Guidelines
• Make it easy for people to find your contact info
• Create a blogroll or links in your sidebar

Example Class Blogs

Your class blog (or class website) is the online hub that extends your class beyond the four walls of your classroom.

As you get going, you will decide the kinds of content and information you wish to have on your blog such as assignment information, student discussions, calendars, documents, and more.

Here are some example (and real live) class blogs you should check out for some ideas:

• 2kmand2kj.global2.vic.edu.au
• teacher102.edublogs.org
• jmsalsich.edublogs.org
• edublogs.misd.net/theskinny
• thepluggedinportable.edublogs.org

You should be looking at the types of information available. There is a wide variety, huh?

Setting Up Your “About” Page

You never know how someone might make it to your blog – google search, twitter, facebook, or link from somewhere else.

One of the first things a new visitor will probably look for is an “About” page.

When you first create a new blog, an “About” page or “Sample Page” is already created.

To edit it you go to Pages > All Pages and then click on the Edit link that appears when you put your mouse over the About page or Sample page title.

Video

 Watch the video below to learn about Editing Pages

• City or school name
• Grade level and subjects
• Any bio info about you as the teacher you would like to share with parents and others
•  And just change the title to About if it’s title says Sample Page.

Setting Up Your “Blogging Rules” Page

An important part of using an online tool with your students is educating them on appropriate online behavior.  Just because your students grew up with technology doesn’t mean they appreciate or understand what is/isn’t appropriate to post online.

Your class blog provides an excellent opportunity to educate students, parents and other readers on proper online behavior such as:

1. Types of identifying information that is appropriate in posts and/or comments e.g., What are your rules about use of last names, IM, images and personal information?
2. What should/shouldn’t you write in posts and/or comments?

Here are examples of different ways they are used on class blogs to help you with the task:

• 2KM and 2 KJ @ Leopold Primary School! Our Blog Guidelines and General blogging information (Grade 2)
• Math Error Class Blogging Guidelines
• Mr. Salsich’s Class Blog Guidelines (Grade 3)
• Mr Mundorf’s Class Online Safety (Grade 5)
• Huzzah’s Commenting Guidelines (Grade 5/6)
• Endless Questions Responsible Blogging (Grade 6-8 )
• Mr. Pfluger’s Discussion Corner Blog Guidelines (Grade 6)
• Our Space Student blogging Guidelines (Year 6)
• Mr. M’s History Blog Posting Comments (Grade 8 )
• Mr Jorgensen’s Blogging Guidelines (Grade 8 )
• Scattergood Biology How To Post and Comment
• Biology in Action Blogging Guidelines (High School and College)

The Two Page Blog Guide For Parents by Kathleen McGeady is an excellent idea for a parent resource.

Why not facilitate a collaborative discussion with students to create the rules together?  This’ll give them more ownership and a better understanding of what is required.

If you want to include Online Safety activities as part of the process then, Larry Ferlazzo’s The Best Sites For Learning Online Safety post is a good starting place to identify suitable resources.

Once you’ve decided what you want to include in your rules and guidelines it is now just a case of publishing them on your blog.

All you need to do is go to Pages > Add New and create a new page for your blogging rules.   These are normally published as pages because pages are ideal for important information like this that you don’t expect to update frequently.

Video

 Watch the video below to learn about Writing New Pages

Creating Sidebar Links (Or a blogroll)

One of the things you may have noticed on just about all of the class blogs featured above is that in the right sidebar, they have links to different blogs.

Some link to student blogs of students in the class, some link to their favorite class blogs, and some have links to their school websites or other relevant info.

The idea is that you want to make it easy for visitors to find information they may be interested in. Proving links to your favorite blogs is also a great way of building an online network of like classes.

You have two ways of creating these links:

1. The old (but still good) method of using the built in “links” and “blogrolls”
2. The new (and also good) method of using custom menus and widgets

You can really go wrong with either way. Click on the links above to find more information about whichever sounds better to you.

Making Contact Easy

Those that visit your blog might also have a need to contact you.

Many teachers choose to create an entirely separate “Contact” page to go with the “About” page.

You might also choose to have a text widget with your contact information placed in your sidebar.

Either way, here are some tips to consider:

• It is most likely best not to put your email address on your blog. A contact form (using a contact or form plugin) is better as it protects you email address from spammers.
• If you do want to provide your email, use text and something like support (at) edublogs (dot) org to make it hard for spammers to pull your email address.
• Home phone numbers are probably not something you want to share as well – but perhaps a classroom phone number is.

Other things to share would be facebook, twitter, or other social media profile information.

Sound Off!

Leave a comment below with links to your about page if you’d like!

Or let us know here if you have any questions about the above, or have additional tips to share!

In this challenge, you will:

• Learn how to change your blog’s theme
• See how you can add widgets to sidebars
• Customize your blog’s header
• Create a custom menu
• Change your blog’s background

Changing your blog’s look and feel is the ultimate way to personalize your blog. 

You may have already completed some of the steps below – and you won’t really need to do everything outlined. Your theme and look is something you can constantly change and improve over time.

Here is a complete overview of the main things you can do to customize your blog:

Changing your theme

Every newly created blog has the same default theme (as shown below). This is what visitors to your blog see.

We already have several good resources on choosing and changing theme.

1. What to consider when choosing your blog’s theme
2. Here is a complete overview of all themes available which makes it easier to find one that meets your needs
3. Here is step-by-step directions on how to change themes

Adding widgets to sidebars

When you first create a blog, several of the most common widgets are already on your blog.

Widgets are tools that you can use to add, arrange and display content in your blog sidebars. Common content displayed in blog sidebars include blogroll, tag clouds, categories and monthly archives.

But there are a bunch of additional widgets available – and many plugins also add specific widgets as well.

Check out this help document on how to change widgets.
Video

Changing header image

In many themes, you will see a “Header” link which lets you add an image at the top of your blog.

You can add your own image header in 4 quick steps:

1. Create you image using your favorite image editor. You can find the image size (length and width in pixels) at the “Header” link on your current theme, or on the theme overview post here.

2. Go to Appearance > Header 

3.Click on Choose file, browse for the image on your computer and then click on Open.

• Only .jpeg, .gif, and .png files can be used for image headers.
• For best results we recommend you resize the image to the exact dimensions recommended for that theme before uploading by using an image editing program.

4.  Your image will upload and if it isn’t the exact dimensions you’ll need to select the area you want to crop and then click Crop and Publish.

5.  Your new image header should appear immediately on your blog. However if it doesn’t try clearing your web browser cache by holding the Ctrl key and pressing F5.

NEW! Creating a custom menu

Custom menus are a new feature of Edublogs – they allow you to really take control of the top navigation bar of your blog.

You may not need to make a custom menu, as in most themes, pages are automatically added to your menu – but they are great if you want to add categories to your menu, or outside links to places away from your blog.

Video

Here are some important links for custom menus:

1. How to use custom menus
2. Use custom menus to organize multiple classes or subjects on your blog

NEW! Changing the background

Custom background images are also new to Edublogs.

On many themes, much like custom header images, you can add images to your blog’s dashboard.

We even have some great pre-loaded images you can choose from under Appearance > Preset Background

Or you can upload your own by going to Appearance > Background

Next steps…

From here you should start really using your blog before making many major additional changes to your theme.

As you get more familiar with your blog, you will discover things you want to change over time.

Leave a comment with a link to your blog or with any questions you may have!

Over the next few weeks, we will be publishing posts that will walk you through the ins-and-outs of starting and maintaining a class blog.

The activities can be completed at your own pace and in any order!

In Activity 1, you will:

• Discuss the benefits of having a class blog
• Sign-up for your own blog if you don’t already have one
• Be introduced to the main features of a blog
• Write a comment on this post with a link to your class blog

Step 1: Why Blog?

So now that you’ve started building your PLN, we’re going to look at how to connect with more educators and build relationships.

Objective

In this activity, you will explore:

1. What you can gain from connecting with other classroom teachers.
2. Tips for connecting with different educators from around the globe.
3. Your challenge task to help you continue building your PLN.

Overview

Making connections with other classroom teachers has provided so many learning opportunities for myself as well as my students.  My teaching world was relatively sheltered up until this past year.  I would often collaborate with other educators within my school.  However, my collaboration was confined to that.  I hadn’t yet seen the vast potential in flattening my classroom walls and connecting with teachers from around the globe.

A couple of the ways that I made connections with educators have already been tackled in previous posts.  Using blogs as part of a PLN and using Twitter were really how I started out.  I started my class blog in December of 2010.  In researching other class blogs I stumbled across the Edublog awards.  I started commenting on some of the different blogs that I came across there and as I started posting interesting content on our blog, those comments started to become reciprocated.  Around that same time, I started out on Twitter.    I started talking to some of those other teachers that I blogged with, posting interesting sites that I came across, as well as whenever our blog had a new post.  My PLN slowly started to build.

As the year progressed, I found many new ways to connect with others.  We quad-blogged. Quad blogging is where four different classes, four different blogs, connect for a four week period. Each week the focus is on one of those blogs. The other three classes all visit and comment on that blog. That blog will take the week to post information about the school, their location, and any other interesting information they’d like to share. We were able to connect with a class from California, British Columbia, and Australia. It allowed for my students to learn information with others from around the world and I was able to connect with three other amazing educators.

On Twitter, grade level chats such as #4thchat, #5thchat, and #6thchat started popping up. Each week, we discuss a different topic that is voted on by peers. It may range from integrating technology into the classroom to back to school ideas. It’s an amazing way to connect with others. I’ve gained so many wonderful ideas just from these hour long chats.

I’ve also joined educator communities such as Edutopia, Classroom 2.0, and Teacher 2.0. All have great forums that really foster discussion amongst educators. The Teacher Challenge from Edublogs is also a great way to meet educators who have similar goals. Check it out next time it rolls around!

5 Tips to Develop Relationships

1. Put Yourself Out There!

The more you share, the more you’ll find you receive in return.  Whether it be sharing resources through blogging, bookmarking sites such as Diigo, Twitter, Google+, or Facebook, educators love hearing about great resources.  You’ll find that if you’re sharing quality content, you’ll make connections quickly!

2. Find What Works Best for You

I know all of this sounds daunting.  There are so many places to go to help grow your PLN.  You don’t have to sign up for every educator site or every social network.  Try them out though.  Find what you feel best fits what you’d like to accomplish and then dedicate yourselves to those.  I spend the majority of my time connecting between Twitter and blogging.  I’ll peak my head in to some of the other sites sometimes though just to see if there’s anything I find useful and to comment on a forum or two.

3. Always Follow Up

If someone comments on your blog, make sure you comment back.  If someone mentions you on Twitter, make sure you respond or at least thank them for the mention.  Having a PLN is all about the conversation.  Making sure that you respond back to others is a great way to get that conversation going.

4. Look for Innovative Ways to Connect

I’ve seen tools such as Skype used to connect with classes from around the world.  Instead of just a straight forward chat though, try Mystery Skyping or Family Feud Skyping.  Those will certainly get conversation going!  Or, try creating a chat on Twitter based upon an area of teaching you love.  You could do a weekly hour chat based upon botany in the classroom and create the hashtag #classbot.  Just an idea.  Be creative!

5. Be Prepared to Collaborate

In growing your PLN, you’ll find that it opens so many doors to new activities in the classroom.  Use these connections to collaborate with teachers and students from around the world.  I’ve seen amazing projects develop from these connections.  A great example is the Ugandan Global Project which was put together by Linda Yollis (California), Jonah Salsich (Connecticut), Kathleen Morris and Kelly Jordan (Australia), as well as Sarah Toa (China). Through the joint efforts of these classes around the world, they raised close to $20,000 (USD) to help build a play area next to a school in Uganda. I’ve also made great connections through the Kites Around the World Project created by Jonah Salsich and the Student Math Movie wiki. Or, if you have a PLN as wonderful as mine, maybe you’ll even have a chance to collaborate on a project such as this at some point in the future. Just know that collaborative projects will definitely help grow your PLN.

Challenge

1.  Write a post or comment about how you plan to connect with other educators.  What sites do you prefer to use to make connections.  Why?

2. Write a post or comment about how you currently or how you hope to collaborate with other educators.  What’s your favorite collaborative project that you feel helped you make connections with other educators?

3.  If you have any questions, please ask!  Again, growing a PLN is all about the conversation!

About the Author

Shawn Avery is a sixth grade teacher at Dennett Elementary, in Plympton, Massachusetts.  He has a passion for teaching and trying to find new ways to engage students by integrating technology into the classroom.  You can find his class blog at mravery.edublogs.org. You can also visit his wikis, Student Math Movies and #6thchat. He can be found on Twitter, @mr_avery and Google+.

Things were getting frantic – with just two hours until interested grade prep to 6  parents were to assemble in  our school library for our Technology Showcase,  videos would not display on our new iPod touches. One excited class had been busy making videos and they were to show them using the iPod touches.

Urgent messages for help were sent out to all and any email lists.  In sheer desperation, a discussion item was also placed on Classroom2.0. Within 10 minutes, we had the answer – not from anyone in Australia or our emailing lists, but from Matthew Needleman, in the USA. Following his instructions the videos displayed to a library overflowing with parents, grandparents and students.  The showcase was a great success!

This was my first taste of the power of networking and its ability to provide information NOW from anywhere across the globe! (It needs to be noted that I teach at Hawkesdale P12 College,  a small rural, geographically and culturally isolated prep to year 12 school, in South Eastern Australia.)

Four years ago, I joined classroom2.0 a ning set up by Steve Hargadon of USA. At that stage there were 3,000 members from all levels and tiers of education, all passionate about the use of technology in education.  Today there are more than 466,000 members and I am proud to be a welcoming host on this ning.

Wordle from current classroom2.0 page

Why join Classroom 2.0?:-

• It is free
• It is a space to make global connections and friends
• Empowers teaching and learning
• Allows discussions/forums. There are many active discussions over the years, many still applicable today.
• Keep up to date with the latest developments in education
•  Share learning and join in conversations
• Publish and read members’ blog posts
• Search for discussions, tags etc on tools, subjects, areas of personal interest
• Mailing list updates on upcoming free webinars and events
• Share and peruse photos and videos
• create or join in collaborative global projects
•  There is are easy search features on previous discussion topics, technology tools, subjects, areas etc

Where can such membership lead? Here follows some memorable stories  of classroom2.0 friends, connections and just some of the rather amazing  outcomes for my classes.

1. Chrissy Hellyer from New Zealand  taught us how to create a wiki, sharing the power that interactivity, connectedness and collaboration can bring. See anzacconnection
2. Lorraine Leo of USA,  introduced me to the power of  virtual classrooms using discoverE. Over the years, we have taught each others’ classes despite teaching at different age levels and living in different time zones. We have shared colleagues, photos, videos, experiences, festivals, celebrations and cultures. Lorraine has brought the following virtually to our school: a research scientist from her tent in Antarctica and Rich Wilson, a US sailor and his quest in sailing solo around the world. (Listen to Skipper Rich). Her  grade 6 student  spoke about Halloween to my fascinated students and Lorraine organised a  student of Dean Shareski from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada,  to speak to  my accounting students and much, much more. We have been part of exciting pioneering three to five way linkups, connecting a classroom in the Phillipines with mine plus teachers from three other continents, all in the one classroom.  We have worked on voicethreads together – a  firm favourite being “My question of you” where Lorraine’s  grade two students asked a question and my year 7s replied to them. Teaching and Learning Across the Globe is a recorded joint presentation for the online Global Education Conference 2010.
3. Ekaterina from Russia:- We have videoconferenced together using skype  (our classes were televised on Russian television as a result), shared student surveys eg Climate Change Questionaire, developed an  Across the World wiki together etc.
4. Govinda Panthy- an amazing educator from Nepal who has become e-connected and painstakingly, patiently and with great determination brought global awareness to the plight of his school and students in Nepal. Govinda would awake at 4:30am in order to skype because his power is frequently cut off during daytime working hours. With the aid of friends made on classroom 2.0, Our Open World Project is now raising funds to bring several computers to SAV school and much needed physical library requisites. Make sure you visit the Open World Project site to see the real power, empathy and learning that can extend from membership.
5. Alison Saylor -  We worked on google docs together and co-surveyed our students on their ownership of personal gadgets. Students in a school from Jerusalem were also surveyed. Students from each school  mapped the results in a spreadsheet for comparison.  The project  raised extensive local classroom discussion and provided many teachable moments.

There are so many more wonderful stories that could be shared.

And now for the long tail!:

1. In 2010, I was proud to be  the Australasian mentor for the innovative online Global Education Conference which connected educators from across the globe in a free three day online conference – a direct result of my membership at classroom 2.0.
2. Through the resultant friendship with Steve Hargadon, he encouraged me to be a co-moderator and organiser of eT@lking, online webinars using Blackboard Collaborate for the  Australia Series. This has led to even further connections and networks.

Tips for successful membership of Classroom2.0 or other similar networks

1. Ensure your profile has enough information to encourage others to consider and add you as a friend
2. Lurk, lurk and lurk! Watch the discussions, search the tools, subjects or areas that you may be into help,  network and share existing knowledge.
3. Introduce yourself on the  Introductions  discussion.
4. Watch the discussion thread on “Introductions” and befriend some of the others who may be like-minded across a number of countries.
5. Make friends where possible.
6. When confident actively join in the conversations and discussions.
7. Add your own discussion topic
8. Write some blog posts (these can be cross posted from your existing blog).
9. Set up an RSS feed for the discussions you are interested in.
10. Return regularly

In 2011, Anne teaches accounting and information technology to senior classes at Hawkesdale P12 College, a small rural prep to year 12 school, although in previous years she has taught prep through to year 12 students.   One day a week, Anne is a web conference coach for the Innovations and Next Practise division of the Victorian Education Department. Anne is a welcoming host for classroom2.0 and co- organizes and co-moderates two weekly educational webinars (which are free) – Tech Talk Tuesdays and eT@lking

Now your PLN is well under way maybe its time to take a look at other ways to strengthen and deepen the PLN by adding extra dimensions. Here we look at some of the potential benefits of actively participating in and/or presenting/facilitating webinars

Introduction

I can see you reading the title & thinking how are webinars part of a PLN? Aren’t they just a formal professional development activity? The answer to that is both “Yes” and “No”. Some webinars are large formal presentations, where interaction is limited and even the potential for backchannelling through textchat is restricted. However there are also webinar series such as the Edublogs Serendipity/FineFocus series where one of the main objectives is participant interaction and sharing. These are the webinars that have a major role in my PLN.

The background

Once upon a time (in late 2008) @suewaters and myself were talking about “e-stuff”. Slowly the idea was born from Sue Waters’ passion for sharing “e-stuff” my similar but latent passion and my Elluminate (virtual class) experience. The idea was weekly sessions through Elluminate for educators from anywhere to share and learn about ‘e-stuff”.

When we started the webinars they were just a group of people getting together to talk about anything relating to “e-stuff” and education in its broadest sense. Sue would Tweet before we started and then again once we had decided a topic. There were very few webinars happening at the time and those that did occur were more likely to be presentations moved to an online environment rather than the interactive unconference style we adopted. The Edublogs Serendipity/FineFocus webinars (if you want the quick summary instead of the full page go straight to the Slideshare below)  have continued and evolved. We still have webinars every week except for one or two weeks over Christmas. They are on the same day Thursday and at the same time (23:00 GMT/UTC) and in the same Elluminate (now Blackboard Collaborate) Edublogs community partnership room every week.

How can webinars be part of a PLN?

Below is my personal list (with some examples from my own experience) of ways that being involved in  a webinar series as participant and also as a presenter can strengthen your PLN:

1. Broadening of e-horizons through being in sessions with people from all over the world

At the beginning my e-horizons were bounded by physical area in which I live (ie Western Australia) with some tenuous links to the eastern states of Australia. The webinars have always had a global focus and attracted participants from around the world, initially because of Sue’s huge worldwide PLN. As a result my own PLN is worldwide and my e-horizons are now global!

2. “Meeting” new educators who become part of your PLN

My Twitter network consisted of Sue and about three others. Now even though I have never actively sought to grow my Twitter network it has reached 1500 followers – there are probably an equal number that I have blocked as I actively manage followers to remove sp*mm*rs and marketers and self styled experts/gurus. Much of that growth has happened because of my involvement in the webinars. The nucleus of my PLN is those people that I “met” through the webinars in the early days and I still regularly add to my Twitter network when we share Twitter IDs in the webinars.

3. Sharing experiences with other participants and sharing webinar experiences more widely

I now blog at least weekly about the most recent webinar. This has been great discipline for me. I am not a “natural” written reflector so have found blogging really hard to do consistently despite being very aware of its importance to my PLN. The webinars have given me a focus and I now also post more often about other topics.

4. Sharing links, ideas, content with other participants – they learn your strengths and areas of interest and thus will add you to their PLN because of common interests.

5. Networking through audio and the textchat backchannel with other participants

I have developed closer professional and social online relationships with PLN members who participate/have participated regularly in the webinars so I have more in depth knowledge about who in my PLN is particularly knowledgeable about different topics.

6  Broadening your experience through presenting

My experience in facilitating the webinars has enabled me to present/facilitate confidently with large audiences in virtual global conferences. This has also happened for other participants who have presented in one or more of the following: full sessions; short “show and tell” sessions or on an impromptu basis in Serendipity sessions. They have gain experience in a virtual context and this has given them confidence with the platform to go on to present in global conferences or other webinar series.

7. Raising your online profile through presenting – this means more people are likely to add you to their PLN.

Facilitating the webinars has itself increased my PLN because it has raised my profile with other educators as someone who can present/facilitate in a virtual room and or help others with this. Thus they add me to their PLNs.

8. Accessing the links shared by others

This has led me to many fantastic educators (via their blogs or other sites) who are now part of my PLN.

9. Hearing about other educators who could become part of your PLN

Again “word-of-mouth” personal suggestions from others in webinars have enabled me to find and include in my PLN many people whose e-interests are similar to my own.

Conclusion

As in all of my posts anywhere this is very much my own personal view of how a PLN can be extended and strengthened by becoming involved with webinars on at least a semi regular basis.

Your Challenge

Choose one or more challenge activities and complete it/them. Give yourself a deadline.  Leave a comment below (or preferably write a blog post and link to it from the comment) about what you have done and whether you think it will work / is working for you in strengthening and/or deepening your PLN.

1. If you have a passion for something educator and e-stuff related, a tool/application or student activity you would like to share then put your hand up to present/facilitate a FineFocus session about your topic of choice. This is not about jumping in the deep end! We suggest you come to a session first then chat with me about what you would like to do – I can then help you achieve this via Elluminate (Blackboard Collaborate). Post about the experience of presenting from a virtual room – has this had an impact on your PLN. Leave a comment or comments about this below and the link to your post or posts.

2. Participate in at least two webinars from a series (this is the link for the Edublogs room) it doesn’t have to be the Edublogs Serendipity/FineFocus series, any series that gives opportunities to take an active part in the session has the potential to enhance your PLN. Post about your experiences of participating in the webinars – especially whether you have gained anything with respect to your PLN. Leave a comment or comments about this below and the link to your post or posts.

3. Check out some of the webinar overviews on my blog choose two with topics that interest you. It would be good if one is a Serendipity and the other a FineFocus as they are very different in style. Follow the recording links and view the webinars (try not to get too frustrated because you can’t join in). Post your thoughts about the webinars (including the links to the overview blog posts for them) – did you see/hear activities happening in those sessions that would increase/strengthen participant PLNs about your experiences on your blog. Leave a comment or comments about this below and the link to your post or posts.

About the Author

Jo Hart is a lecturer in Literacy and Numeracy (with some IT) in the public Vocational Education and Training sector (TAFE) in Western Australia.  She has extensive experience working online with regional and remote students.

She is also the driving force behind the free weekly Edublogs Serendipity and Fine Focus online webinars.

So now that you’ve started building your PLN, we’re going to look at how educators use Diigo as part of their PLNs.

In this activity you will explore:

1. What is Diigo?
2. How to get started
3. Joining and creating a Diigo group
4. Ideas for using Diigo

What is Diigo

Diigo is a free social bookmarking tool that allows users to share online resources like websites and web 2.0 tools in a private or public group format.

There are tons of different groups on Diigo, many for professional and educational use. Diigo has also evolved into a place where you can store all your bookmarks, pictures, and notes too.

The main features of Diigo we will focus on are research, sharing, and collaborating.

The power of Diigo lies within the groups feature. A user can create both public and private groups for professional development purposes or perhaps a graduate class, study group, or classroom research project. Anyone with access to a group, has access to all bookmarks, plus special features like tagging and commenting on links.

As a music educator, I am interested in education technology, as well as music.

On Diigo, I have joined public groups that interest me like:

1. Classroom 2.0
2. Cool Tools for Educators
3. Educators
4. Teaching Music

Diigo was a powerful tool in my quest to create and build my PLN 1 ½ years ago. It is a tremendous way to share and collaborate with fellow educators.

I have also created private groups for students and teachers.

When my middle school bands were participating in a Lewis & Clark Expedition Cross-Curricular Unit, I created a private group of bookmarked websites pertaining to the Lewis & Clark Expedition. I was able to share the private group with my 2 colleagues so we could collaborate using the same websites and resources that were bookmarked in the group. Commenting and tagging these links were also very useful for our planning.

How to Get Started

1. Set-up an account and click on the link in the confirmation email to activate your account.

2. After activation, you will be directed to the My Library page.

If there are bookmarks you would like to start adding from your Delicious account or computer, go ahead and begin.

If not, click on the My Groups tab at the top of the screen.

How to Join a Group

To create and develop your PLN, you need to join some groups.

Diigo’s groups open a world of learning and professional development for the educator. There are so many groups to choose from. From Social Studies to ESL to Ed. Tech., there are bound to be groups that will interest you.

Click on the My Groups tab at the top of the screen. In the search box, look for groups that will help you build your PLN.

It may also be helpful to view the categories on the right side of the screen to guide your search.

I recommend finding 3-4 groups to join.

Once you find your first group, click on the group name.

If it is a public group, apply to join the group by clicking on the right side of the screen.

• If the group you selected is a private group, you will not be able to join it.
• Private groups are by invite only.

When you apply to join a group, you can also choose to be notified via email when new bookmarks are added. This feature makes it really easy to stay-up-to-date when new bookmarks are added.

More nice features on the group pages are the Most Active Members and Top 10 Tags.

How to Create your own Group

Perhaps you have already thought of creating your own group on Diigo.

Go for it!

Click on the My Groups tab at the top of the screen.

On the right side of the screen, follow the steps to create your group.

Second, follow the instructions on the next page. Set-up details like group name, description, category name, who can view, and public/private.

After you set-up all of the details, you will be prompted to invite others. Congratulations!

You have created your first group.

Begin adding bookmarks you wish to share with group members.

Ideas for Use

Here’s some ideas how you can use:

1. Create a group for your department or team to access and share bookmarks
2. Create a private group for your students to get bookmarks for a project or unit
3. Join a public group to create your own professional development and grow your PLN

Your Challenge

We’d like you to add your ideas to our ongoing conversation about PLNs by undertaking one or more of these challenges:

1. If you haven’t joined Diigo yet, head over to Diigo and sign up. Leave a comment on this post with your Diigo name so we can follow you.
2. Join some Diigo groups and/or create your own group(s).  Write a post (or leave a comment) about your initial impressions of Diigo. You could include – what you see as obstacles to taking part in Diigo, what you have learnt from using Diigo, or who you have connected with via Diigo. Don’t forget to leave a comment here with the link to your post.
3. Your tips for using Diigo.

About the Author

Keith Ozsvath is a self-professed techie and my blog, Teaching & Technology in Music, provides practical technology-infused teaching tips for music educators.

He has conducted numerous professional development classes for fellow educators on creating a PLN, educational technology, podcasting, blogging, and using social media as a professional development tool.

He currently team teach 6th-8th grade band, direct the Jazz Ensemble and serve as music department chair at Rotolo Middle School in Batavia, Illinois.

He has presented for the Illinois Music Educators’ Association and National Middle School Association and continue to be an active judge, adjudicator, and clinician in the Chicago area. You can check-out his program’s blog at Rotolo M.S. 8th Grade Band and follow him on Twitter @band_techie.

Now you know what a PLN is, and you’ve started to build your PLN, we’re going to show you how to use a personalised homepage like iGoogle to minimize information overload.

Introduction

Once your PLN starts to “take off” you may well reach the stage where you are just getting “too much information”.

This certainly happened to me!

I started very slowly and deliberately avoided seeking to build a huge Twitter stream or follow masses of blogs. However it didn’t seem to be long before I was beginning to wonder how I could handle all the new “stuff” that I was finding out. The watershed for me was when I started Tweetdeck in the mornings and there were too many overnight tweets for them all to appear in the columns. Then I realised I was going to have to do something about managing not so much the tweets themselves but all of the other flows across my desktop that were resulting from an expanding PLN.

I was very lucky in that I already knew about a good tool for the job, having been introduced to iGoogle as a collection point for lots of inflows by Sue Waters (the Edublogger) at a project start-up workshop, long before I had ever heard of a PLN!

At that time I got an iGoogle page – played with it bit – but just couldn’t see how I would ever use it “for real”. So when I realised I was hitting the information overload point I dusted off my old iGoogle page extended and refurbished it as a central point – a Personal/Professional Learning Environment where I could collect incoming feeds and access all the parts of my PLN from one place.

Before I go any further I will say as I often do when writing posts – this is my personal “take” on the PLE hub that works for me.

I hope that, whether you choose to use iGoogle or find something else that works better for you, this post will help you to think about managing all that precious information and learning that comes from your PLN.

How to get going with iGoogle as a hub

1. If you already have an iGoogle page you might want to just sign in and skip the rest of this section. Getting an initial iGoogle page is really easy just go to the “Sign in” or “Get started” page.

Creating the basic page really does take only about 30 seconds.

However that basic page will be the “Google take” on what you may like.

The next step is to delete some or all of the “gadgets” and add those of your own choice using “Add gadgets”.

You can also add more pages using “Add a Tab” (dropdown menu from your currently active Tab).

I have done this to make things easier to find as I hate scrolling down very long pages to reach the gadget that I want to use. You can personalise the look of each page in “iGoogle Settings” a drop down from the “gear” symbol in the top right of the screen.

Once you have made changes you will at some point need to sign in or sign up in order to save the changes to your page.

2. Trying to get all my PLN strands to meet in one place was quite a big ask, to some extent because of the number of connections but also because of the different types of links and inputs that I wanted to draw together. I see all of these as an interconnected web that can’t really be represented in two dimensions.

This didn’t translate easily into a more linear structure that works on an iGoogle page. However this diagram really helped me get my head around how I could manage all the information inputs and also have other useful gadgets to help me keep track of my life and work. This diagram is a work in progress and will never be complete because my PLN is a dynamic constantly changing entity. Some of my strands don’t have a direct input in the form of feeds into iGoogle,  either because  there isn’t a gadget that enables it or because they themselves are not sufficiently dynamic to need very frequent updates. Where this occurs I have used links. The next addition to my diagram and to my iGoogle will be Google+ which I am currently exploring and hopefully as it is a Google product someone will build a gadget to allow it to feed in.

To transform my PLN inputs into something that I could access through iGoogle I split the strands into three main groups (I have minimised the gadgets in these pics) each of which has a separate page:

a) Things I like to access from my desk (calendar, to do, weather, translation and maps)

b) Feeds (gadgets for RSS, Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and news)

This page is for me the heart of my PLE because all the “live stuff” comes straight here, and this is what mine looked like a few days ago!

c) Links – I have a several link gadgets. Enhanced bookmarks (those I want with one click), Google bookmarks (categorised), My delicious, and Visual bookmarks that I use for Diigo.

I have three extra pages for personal interests that are not directly related to teaching and learning.

While iGoogle is not perfect as a PLN/PLE Hub it works well for me at the moment because I can get to everything I want from any computer with Internet access just by logging in to my iGoogle page.

Once you have created your page and added your gadgets the next challenge is of course to make sure that you use it. I go there first thing in the morning and that page then stays open until I shut down the computer and go to bed.

You can make iGoogle your Homepage.

However although I have done so on my laptop I haven’t done this on my home computer and can’t do so at work.

I did need to make a conscious effort to remember to log-in at first but it very soon became as much part of my computer start-up routine as opening my home or work email client.

Conclusion

iGoogle is not the only way I keep up with my PLN but it is a great summariser as it enables me to check everything out all in one place and then choose to move elsewhere to see more.

For example I use Tweetdeck for most of my Twitter interaction because you can just do so many things with it.

In contrast I keep up with blog posts and comments using the Google Reader gadget on iGoogle and almost never accessing Google Reader directly for my RSS feeds. I love this as I can scan a list of titles and authors rather than scrolling through all of the feed contents.

Your Challenge

Choose one or more challenge activities and complete it/them. Give yourself a deadline.  Leave a comment below (or even better write a blog post and link to it from the comment) about what you have done and how you think it will work / is working for you.

1. Draw your own PLN/PLE web and share it with us
2. If you already have an iGoogle page and are using it as a PLE ie a hub for your PLN please tell us about how it works for you.
3. If you already have an iGoogle page but are not using it as a PLN hub then EITHER give it a try and tell us about what you have done and how you think it will work for you, OR tell us why you feel it isn’t the right solution for you
4. If you already use a different strategy or hub to manage all that information then please tell us what you use / how you do it
5. If you don’t have an iGoogle page or a way of managing the information flows from your PLN then give it a try:
   • Set up your page or pages
   • Find some gadgets that enable you to gather your PLN strands together
   • Tell us about one or more of the gadgets that you think will be most useful to you
6. Use iGoogle for three weeks and then let us know:
   • How easy it was to remember to use it and develop the habit of logging in every time you start up your computer
   • Whether you have found it helpful in managing information flows
   • How you might make better use of it to manage information flows from your PLN

Happy PLN’ing we look forward to seeing your posts and comments

About the Author

Jo Hart is a lecturer in Literacy and Numeracy (with some IT) in the public Vocational Education and Training sector (TAFE) in Western Australia.  She has extensive experience working online with regional and remote students.

She is also the driving force behind the free weekly Edublogs Serendipity and Fine Focus online webinars.