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Monday, February 21, 2011

Week 2: Register Your Blog-Thing 4

Okay you made it here!  Whoo hoo! It is time to register your blog.  Go to the page link on the right hand side and enter in your blog information (REQUIRED).  You are more than welcome to remain anonymous throughout this course but remember the overall main idea of Web 2.0?  If you said, "collaboration" you are catching on...bravo!  If you are interested in sharing your blog with others so we can learn together please post your URL as a comment under the page link Junkies Unite.

How can we apply blogs in our classrooms? Let me get your juices flowing with a Tech-tivity...


Tech-tivity Thing 4


2.  Click on create a class. (Pick a username and password- I suggest your VCS username)  Write this info down on your Log In Cheat Sheet.

3.  To enter in your students click on "user" tab and then "add users to class".  You can do this now or later...your choice on username and passwords for students.  K.I.S.S baby!

Kidblog is a elementary and middle school friendly blog site.  The features of this Web 2.0 tool are great because students are given their own blogs (just like you created your own to record your reflections) in the realms of your classroom and management.  Imagine it- you can replace those paper and pencil journals with a virtual journal and have collaboration (can we say Think-Pair-Share?).  All of their entries are kept safe and organized by date of entry.  For your students it is as simple as clicking sign in, new post and publish. BAM! Three clicks away from tons of learning and collaboration.

4.  Go through the settings and look at the different features of Kidblog. 

-This Web 2.0 tool is great because of the privacy settings.  You can choose to have the student's blog public in the class (so everyone can read journal entries and comment on them) or you can be the only viewer as the teacher (allowing you to respond directly to the student).
-You can select to have the students blog posts pending so you can approve what they wrote before it goes public (if you plan on having a open classroom).
-The teacher can decide who can comment on the blogs as well: teacher only, class members, guests, etc.

5. So anyone's juices flowing?  Take a moment and play.  Think about how you can use Kidblog in your classroom in one subject area and post a classroom application comment here on the Junkie Blog.

6.  Week 2 Thing 4 Reflection- go to your blog you created and post the link to Kidblog and a 2-3 sentence classroom application of blogs from your discoveries or another Junkies discoveries from the comments below.

Extra Credit
We will be visiting so many websites over the next several weeks and you will need a way to keep track of all these links. 

Delicious is a social bookmarking Web 2.0 tool which allows you to connect links with a network of people.  I have created a delicious site for the technology group @ http://www.delicious.com/technologyjunkiegroup . Join my network and you will have access to all of my bookmarks throughout this course.  Or check out http://www.delicious.com/ and sign up for an account.   Create your own bookmarking delicious so you can keep track of all your World Wide travels throughout this course.

Then, you can put the feed into your blog-like mine.  To do this simply go to http://www.delicious.com/help/linkrolls after you create a bookmark group then copy the html code and paste it into a gadget on the design tab of your blog.  This is really easy...watch the tutorial here.

You can even download browser buttons so when you come to a site you like you can click "save to delicious" and it will automatically go to your bookmarking site with no effort!  AWESOME!  This is under TOOLS on delicious.  Remember this gives you instant access to all your bookmarks from any computer anywhere as long as you are on the web....WHOA BABY!

12 comments:

Ms. Rackard said...

Delicious bookmarks is awesome....whoever knew I could have all my favorite bookmarks with me everywhere:-)

Anonymous said...

okay, Sometimes I'm a little unclear where to post.
The Kidblog is wonderful, I will use it in My Geojournaling in Geography.Delicious will be very helpful in organizing my bookmarks. A great way to share resources.

aljollie said...

Kid blog seems like a safe way to post student's writing. I really like the way I have control over what is posted. Since I only choose a few writing samples to read out loud to the class, the sudents can read their classmates blogs as a reading center.

Mrs. Stewart said...

@thomas:
If it says,"post to Junkie Blog" then you would post a comment here. If it says, "post to your blog" you will be posting a NEW POST on your blog you have created.

Hope this clarifies.

christine said...

I like the idea that someone else had of students writings being read by all. I can visualize this being done for a "book talk" idea... students read and post their reflections on a book that they just read.

Meredith Gilbert said...

I like having so much control over what is posted and who sees it. I like the idea of students using it to reflect on books and classroom activities (projects, science experiments, etc.)

Jason said...

Another great bookmark tool is Diigo. Check it out when you have a chance.

Love 4 You 2 Read said...

I like the idea of using kidblog for book talks, posting thoughts about daily lessons, collaborating on projects, clarifying information, the possiblities are endless!

Jason said...

I can definitely see this used as a virtual "exit card" with students posting what they learned that day. If we can implement BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), students could actually take 5 minutes at the end of the day and post before leaving for the day.

Katy said...

As far as media goes, Kidblog would be great for book reviews, as stated in other posts. Students can respond to each other's posts, giving their own opinions, views, etc. I can see it being used for inquiry-based learning as well - "we will be starting a unit on habitats; what do you know about habitats?" etc.

Web 2.0 Design said...

Its a great approach for students communication and feedback.

Michelle Deibler said...

I want to use kidblogs for book talks and for topic starters as posted in comments above.