Just for Teachers
Gail this area is for us. No kids allowed!
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September 16th, 2006 @ 12:24 am
Introduction
I can’t believe we are logged in! My kids have finished writing their scripts and are in the provcess of finding audio, video, and pictures to go with their scripts. We will check back in next week to see how things are going!
September 16th, 2006 @ 12:04 pm
A few quesitons…..
How do I upload my kids digital stories?
How can my kids talk/blog with your kids?
Do all my kids blog to you/your kids off the same site, or do they each have log-in names?
How do I blog to other schools and find out what other schools are doing this?
Thanks!
September 16th, 2006 @ 7:50 pm
Great to see you commenting. Try writing a post by logging in. You can always edit your posts and comments later if you make a mistake or change your mind.
We need to take one step at a time. Lots of things are possible. You can have as many blogs as you like for your students but we need to start the kids off with making comments to your blog and see how they go. They need to have you as a model before they really understand what to do with a blog. You could make teams and have one blog per team or each student can have a blog. All of the comments that are made on their blogs will come to you to moderate before they go on their blogs-this is for security reasons and it allows you to know exactly what is going on.
It is important to start small so that you don’t find it too much work and starting small will allow you to test the the needs of your kids. Check out some of my classes at http://gcasey.globalstudent.org.au/
You will see that some of my classes share one blog and another at the very bottom have individual blogs. There is a bit of monitoring involved for the teacher if each student has their own blog. The simplest project would be where all students use your blog.
If all the students used your blog then you would write a post as often as you like asking your students specific question that they would anwer by commenting on your blog. Their partner student would then also go into the comments, read the comments and give feedback. This can make the blog very congested but it is also very easy to manage. On the other hand if all of your students have their own blog then the partner students make comments directly to the student but the teacher needs to keep track of what is going on, how all the blogs are progressing and also teach the students how to write posts and manage their blog - more work for the teacher.
You need to play with your blog a little with your students. I don’t want to overload you with information.
Perhaps:
1. Write an introduction post
2. Write a post asking your students to make a comment, perhaps on, what their story is about and where they are up to.
3. After you read their resonses you will think of other questions that the world might want to know about the development of their story or where they got their ideas from or ………..
4. With you writing posts and them making comments they will quickly see how blogs work.
5. You will then probably make more pages on your blog. These pages can have pictures and uploads but they are static - they do not have comments attached to them.
What do you think?
To upload a file you need to login, write a post then scrole down and use the upload area. Once the file is uploaded you need to drag it onto the post before it can be seen by the world. Then click publish. File sizes need to be kept as small as possible.
The other schools and blogs are not set up just yet and the schools are not ready. Your class is up first :). My class will give your students comments until you have your partner school set up. Although we are on holidays at the moment until Monday 2nd Oct.
September 17th, 2006 @ 9:25 am
Hi Betsy
I have set this blog up now so that you should get an email when a comment come in. I have also edited the last comment of mine. Please let me know if you get an email to tell you about this comment
Thanks
September 18th, 2006 @ 11:57 am
Gail,
I set up a blog for my kids under the category My Class. All communication with you I will do under the category Teacher. I have not gotten an e-mail from you, but I will check again on Monday. I think I got the hang of this. I can set up different categories for different groups of students to blog on. I changed my settings so that a e-mail address is not needed to send a blog, because I wasn’t sure how my kids would leave a comment when they don’t have an e-mail address. I don’t understand what their partner student is all about. Is that a student from another class or another student in my class? I will catch up with you tomorrow when I get a chance to play around a little more.
Thanks!
September 18th, 2006 @ 1:39 pm
Great Betsy! You have not only written a post but edited one as well - fantastic.
Each time your students comment on your blog (or if I or anyone else for that matter comments on any part of your blog) you should recieve an automatic generated email - this is important so that you can monitor what is happening on your blog without having to check it all of the time.
I will organise each class to specifically comment on another classes blog hence develop that global communication at a later stage. Your students will comment on perhaps Karen’s class when they are organised but it would be good if everyone at times comment on other class blogs. (We are not really set up yet to do this just at the moment.)
Great that you seem to be working it all out - well done!
September 18th, 2006 @ 11:02 pm
Gail,
I am getting e-mail about all the posts, so thank you for setting that up. Where is Karen’s class from?
September 19th, 2006 @ 2:20 pm
Betsy,
I am not sure, I do not have her email address and she has not come back to the site hence she may not be part of the project. It is really strange that I got an email from you when you made a comment to the global page hence I knew your email address but I did not get one from her so I am not sure what happened. I have a couple of other teachers emailing me though - we shall see what happens.
September 26th, 2006 @ 12:13 pm
Gail,
Did you happen to ok the posts that my kids typed up today? All the posts were sent to my e-mail account, but they had already been accepted when I checked my e-mail. When I hit accept on eacch e-mail it showed that it had already been accepted. The only comment waiting to be accepted was your second e-mail to Bretlyn, your first one to Michael had already been accepted as well. Also Zach has written two e-mails that I was not going to accept, but it did not even show them anymore when I tried to decline them on my e-mail. I am confused???????
It was also very kind of you to give my kids some responses, I am sure they will be excited to see that someone outside our classroom is reading and responding!
September 28th, 2006 @ 5:22 pm
No Betsy I did not approve any. I shall pass on this information to my technical support. I have been away for a couple of days.
You can go into the manage area and select comments to delete any or edit them.
I am also confused….
September 28th, 2006 @ 10:49 pm
Gail,
It seems to be working now, only on the first day did it work funny.
Thanks!
October 1st, 2006 @ 4:41 am
Gail,
How do I upload a student’s story? I have a couple that will be ready this week!
October 2nd, 2006 @ 11:48 am
Perhaps first try to upload a picture of your class or room or school onto your blog. I will add a help video file for this tomorrow.
Great to see things comming along.
Well done.
October 3rd, 2006 @ 9:16 pm
Hi Betsy,
My laptop harddrive has died. My technicians have a replacement and hopefuly by the end of tomorrow I will have it back - hence have not been able to finalise the help clip for you.
What file type are your students stories saved as?
One of my teachers is putting each story into a separate post hence each story will have a comment link specially allocated to that story - without having to manage more than one blog. The story could be all text or some text with picture or multimedia uploaded onto that post.
To upload
When you write a post note that there is an upload section when you scroll down. Once the story or picture is uploaded into this upload area you must then drag it onto your post text area before it can be seen on your blog post.
Good luck.
October 3rd, 2006 @ 10:58 pm
Gail,
I think I understand, I will just ahve to try and find out. How do my kids find out what your kids are writing? I know they will be super excited to see responses from your kids in Australia!!! Their movies are made in Movie Maker and the first ones should be ready to go up by Friday, we are just putting the finishing touches on them.
Thanks and I will chat soon!
October 4th, 2006 @ 10:18 am
Great, friday is ideal. My link to my students work will be up and going by then. It will be linked from your page - I will organise the links working.
Some of my students have individual blogs and others will be posted on my blog.
Dont worry too much about uploading until next week. It would be good for some discussion and questions to occur before the movies are shown.
Your kids sound like they are doing some great work.
Well done.
October 6th, 2006 @ 6:07 pm
Hi Betsy,
My Mrs Casey blog link should now work and some students have their work up and going. Next week there will be a lot more and more students will ask your student questions.
My laptop has had the motherboard, ram, harddrive and keyboard replaced and is still not working.
Sorry, I am a little behind with things.
Cheers
Gail
October 9th, 2006 @ 7:24 am
Gail,
I just submitted a comment to Tom in your class. I had to give an e-mail address in order to submit it. My kids don’t have e-mail so are you able to make it so that my kids can submit comments as well? On my site I unchecked the box that said Comment author must fill out name and e-mail in the Options section under Discussions. Otherwise do my kids need to put in my e-mail address everytime they comment with your kids?
November 5th, 2006 @ 6:54 am
This is just a test with a made up email address.
November 5th, 2006 @ 7:03 am
Betsy,
I have been concerned with the spam that has been coming to my inbox - have you been having any problems?
I have been holding my students back from blogging for a little bit while filters are being put into place.
It looks like your students can make up their own email addresss as long as it is in the correct format.
Sorry about the delays.
November 6th, 2006 @ 1:47 pm
Hi Betsy,
My appologies, my technician was trying to fix a couple of things because moderation was coming to me when it should have been coming to you for your studetns and he acidently clicked moderate and so they have all been published on your student page. I have read them all and they all look fine. Sorry about that. Please log in and delete any you think not suitable - I think your students will be very happy.
Best wishes
Gail