[BTW this system works well for our class because we become 'experts' in different things then we teach others who also become experts and so on it goes. We won't do this all in one lesson (!) but the resource is here for us to return to as we choose. Feel free to use it as you choose.]

PLEASE NOTE … I find it empowering for my Year 3s to be involved in establishing their own blogs. But it’s the sense of belonging, the emerging and ongoing conversations, the networking and collaboration, the publishing and sharing, the reading and responding, the questioning and thinking, the pride and fun … of learning … that really matters.

****** Minis, please look for the coloured balls ******

Well done everyone! You’ve signed up with Edublogs [or Learnerblogs for students not in South Australian government schools] , received an email to activate your blog then forwarded that email to me. I’ve activated your blog, named your blog (eg Boris’ Blog 08 – you can change this), changed the password Edublogs gave you with your secret new one, made it so it says “Hi Boris” – or whatever your name is.
(This is done in ‘Users’>’Your Profile’)>type in Boris in nickname>’click ‘Update Profile’>select ‘Boris’ in ‘Display name publicly as’>’Update Profile’)
… and that’s about it.

NOW ITS ALL UP TO YOU - not really … we’ll do this together

Here are some steps for you to go through at your own pace.

*** login ***

On your dashboard look under ‘Welcome to Edublogs’ for some links

******

‘Write a post’ means write a new post …. This is what you have begun


This was the link you clicked for your first post.
You then uploaded images that were resized with ‘Microsoft Office Picture Maker’ or PIXresizer

‘Browse’ for your picture


Type in a title … click ‘Upload’


Click where you want the image to go … click ‘Send to Editor”

Leave this for now but you will be using it often.
Remember to add a few Tags at the bottom of your posts – these are keywords (miniLegends, learning, sport, games, fun, reading ….) tell other people what’s in your post

******

‘Write a page’ means write a new page

The above is mostly how blogging is done in Edublogs. Using your blogs to publish your learning and connect with others is the real (and fun) challenge

******

Now for the settings

*** Upload a blog avatar - this will appear in the sidebar of your blog
select a ‘real’ or filtered picture ***

Click this link then … ‘Browse’>open the image you want>’Upload Image’
You might now have to drag the handles on your picture so it fits and click ‘Crop Image’

*** Upload a user avatar - this will appear next to your comments
select a ‘real’ or filtered picture ***

Click this link then … ‘Browse’>open the image you want>’Upload Image’
You might now have to drag the handles on your picture so it fits and click ‘Crop Image’ then save your changes.

*** Click ‘Update your profile or change your password’ (your name and password have been changed as outlined at the top of this post) Please do not alter your password. Please add your ‘Website:’ eg http://borisk.edublogs.org/ … you could even copy and paste this but change borisk to your username ***
You might also like to add something ‘About Yourself’ … no identifying information please!

Don’t forget to click ‘Update Profile’

*** ‘Change your site’s look and feel’ … now this is fun .. you get to select from so many different blog themes (’looks’ and ‘feels’) … the blog becomes more and more YOURS! ***

There are so many to choose from. Explore them … click to activate … [to view your blog, right-mouse-click the 'View site >>' link at the top of your page, open in a new tab or window ... this can be refreshed (F5) as you look at the different themes.]

We chose Regulus because it has ‘Widgets’ and ‘Current Theme Options’ … many themes will but check for them please.
Explore options and save in ‘Current theme Options’ but please do not include your email address.

‘Widgets’ and ‘Current Theme Options’ can be found next to ‘Presentation’>’Themes’

*** Please drag the following ‘Available Widgets’ into the ‘Sidebar’ box above them
‘Avatar’, ‘Meta’, ‘Recent Comments’, ‘Links’, ‘Email Subscription’, ‘Tag Cloud’, ‘Text 1′ (type … Hi I’m a miniLegend which means I’m a Year 3 student in Al Upton’s class at Glenelg Primary School, South Australia. We use blogs, computer games and Quest Atlantis in our learning. It’s fun. … ***
or write something like that – copy/paste if you want then click the little x to close the window)
You might then like to drag ‘Text 1′ up between ‘Avatar’ and ‘Meta’ … > ‘Save Changes’

***

Now we work our way along the tabs to a few extra ones to get us started

‘Comments’>’Comments’

This is where you can Edit, Delete, Approve/Unapprove or Spam comments.
Leave this for now .. we will come back to it later or as needed.

‘Blogroll’>’Manage Blogroll’ .. a blog roll is a list of links and blogs you like to read and connect with. It helps visitors to your blog know who and what you are interested in. It provides them with a springboard for their further reading and commenting.

*** ‘Blogroll’>’Add Link’ … this is how you add people to your list of blogs to be shown on your sidebar.
*** Please add
‘Name:’> minilegends 08
‘Address:’> ‘http://alupton.edublogs.org/
‘Description:’ A Year 3 class and resource blog by Al Upton and the miniLegends ***
Copy/paste into your own dashboard (’Blogroll’>’Add Link’) if you want

‘Plugins’>’Plugins’>’Activate’ (if you want it) or ‘Deactivate’ (if you don’t want it)

*** Please activate all but one plugin … it’s called ‘Edublogs.org users only’ … we want to make our blog open to bloggers who might not be registered and logged in users of Edublogs ***

***

‘Options’>’General’
*** You can change your ‘Blog title:’ but please keep your name at the front eg ‘Alphonso’s Coolest Blog’ … capitals for titles please.
You can change your ‘Tagline:’ (the writing you see under your title in the header) eg ‘My Learning and Fun – All in One!’
You can change the time … ‘Times in the blog should differ by:’ .. in South Australia change this to 10.5 Here are the world time zones We are in Adelaide, the second one down ***
Don’t forget to ‘Update Options’

‘Options’>’Writing’
*** In a post you will have already added ‘miniLegends’ as a category
When you managed your first post, ” *** Please type in the word miniLegends and click ‘Add’ at the top right hand box called ‘Categories’ ***”
Change the ‘Default post category:’ … click the dropbox and choose ‘miniLegends’
Change the ‘Default link category:’ … click the dropbox and choose ‘miniLegends’ ***

‘Options’>’Discussion’
*** Uncheck (make it blank – no tick) the bottom option
‘Comment author must have a previously approved comment’
It should look like the following picture. ***
Click to enlarge, then back button to return here.

******

Well that will do for the pictorial for now … this is just a start … now it’s on with our learning. Because we aim to be student centered and student directed who knows what directions we will take? Exciting times ahead

Cheers, Al

*********

Some ‘first steps’ for making a class blog student centered and directed.

For teachers new to class blogging who might find some/much of it a bit daunting at first, I recommend establishing a rotation system of students to contribute a post relating to any aspect (or summary) of their daily learning. I’ve previously used “The next student on the roll chooses any friend to create a post and enter it toward the end of the day” – or any time to allow more posts. Please note here that only one computer in the classroom is all that is needed for an effective blog.
The single class blog is administered, logged into by the teacher and accessed by the students.

An extension of this is to have individual pages for each student.
Create a new page (use the link on your dashboard or ‘Write’>’Write Page’), Title = ‘Our Blogs’ (or similar), type a few words eg “In the right hand sidebar are our individual pages”>Publish … Create a new page, Title = student’s first name eg Alphonso (then Beata, Chantrice etc)>Open ‘Page Parent’>select ‘Our Blogs’>Publish … and so on through the alphabet.

[Hover mouse over picture to read title. Click to open then back button to return here]

My class also have their own blogs. Please note they are Year 3s (8 and 9 year olds) and much of what we do is initial exposure/exploration of online identity, collaboration and networking. This requires them to have their own email addresses. For consistency, I maintain the same structure for domain names, usernames and passwords. An example could be the first 3 letters of first name + first 2 letters of last name eg hugwe The password can have an additional number followed by two random letters/symbols eg hugwe4w! Personal, unique, readily remembered and easily identifiable to those who need to know. BTW did you recognise this famous Australian – hugwe4w! ?

*** Please be advised that parental/caregiver permission (in accordance with school/district/state/government policy) needs to be obtained to use images and names of students ***

[An idea I've heard suggested is that the teacher creates a blog from their own username for each student - 'create a new blog' link is on the dashboard. I believe this is not as effective as the student will not receive notification of comments etc. It's also less empowering, possibly not conveying the sense of personally belonging to an online community.]

As my class have their own blogs, they now can have editorial rights in the class blog.
‘Users’>’Authors & Users’>scroll to bottom ‘Add User From Community’>
‘User E-Mail:’ (type in student email address used for their blog)>’Role:’
Subscriber = (can add a comment – settings can allow them to be the only ones)
Contributor = (can write posts)
Author = (some increased management control)
Editor = (can create a page)
Administrator = (everything)
I quite like my class to be editors.

Individual blogs are not necessary to add students as users and/or give them editorial rights. Emails and usernames are necessary but instead of clicking ‘next’ with the default ‘Gimme a blog!’ select ‘Just a username, please.’ NB gmail, hotmail and yahoo are preferred by Edublogs but I’d rather use the school addresses as Edubogs emails aren’t being filtered – it allows me to better manage my students allowing them as much freedom as I dare. Click the picture below for what you see when you ‘Sign Up For Free’.
Sue Waters suggests setting up gmail accounts with your name as an extension so that all emails come to you – this is certainly worth consideration. Kim Cofino (always learning) has outlined this strategy beautifully here. Sue also wonders if you can moderate student posts before they go live. At this stage there is much you can do (see next heading) but I’m unsure of an Edublogs feature that allows moderation of posts in this way. I look forward to becoming better informed and/or the introduction of ‘post moderation’.

Moderating posts.
Keep an eye on your class and students’ blogs. Go to ‘Presentation’>’Widgets’ and drag up ‘Recent Posts’. Check out ‘Posts’ in ‘Latest Activity’ in ‘Dashboard’. Inappropriate content can be edited and deleted via ‘Manage’>’Posts’/'Pages’. Lead discussion on being ’safe and savvy’ online. Trust.
Great post here (by Mrs Vass I assume) reminding me of a strategy I used last year. “It’s quite easy to keep track of what is being posted on the children’s blogs by using ‘google reader’, or something similar” Many Thanks ….. I also use Google Reader

Moderating comments.
‘Options’>’Discussion’ … includes the ability to allow comments or not, notifying other sites and trackbacks from them (or not), moderation queue, a spam blacklist of words – this includes words within words so be careful.
It’s important to remember that settings can be changed for individual articles.
See this picture for detail of more and commonly used features.

Managing comments.
‘Comments’>’Comments’ (for all comments that are currently online) or ‘Awaiting Moderation’ (for those that you have indicated eg ‘Hold a comment if it contains 2 or more links’ – see picture above). Also you will find here ‘Akismet Spam’ if you have installed it … ‘Plugins’>’Plugins’>’Akismet’>’Activate’ … this is well worth doing. ‘Plugins’>’Akismet Configuration’ to activate the key … check it out.

Moderating individual student blogs.
Students must have their own email addresses to have their own blogs. I ensure I am added as an administrator. All emails regarding comments will still only be sent to the student. So I ensure that all emails sent to them are forwarded to me. (Simply done with the whole class step by step) This also allows me to monitor their school email traffic. Students are aware of this as they are the ones who activate these ’safe and savvy’ measures. I periodically check that all students retain these settings. When I send a group email to my class, all students should appear in my inbox. If not, I follow it up.

Some more protection strategies.
Please consider the advantages of having an open and public forum. The above strategies allow this to happen. In addition …
‘Options’>’General’>’Membership:’>’Users must be registered and logged in to comment’ … I don’t check/tick this box myself.
‘Options’>’Privacy’>’I would like my blog to be visible to anyone who visits, including search engines, archivers and in public listings around this site. ‘ OR ‘I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors’ … I choose the former.

You might also like to consider adding a contact form … ‘Options’>’Contact Form’ … and then put ‘%% wpcontactform %%’ (without the spaces and apostrophes) into a post or a page. We created a new page and put this basic code in (the editor not HTML) – click here to view it.
When creating a post or a page you can also open ‘Discussion’ in the sidebar on the right to choose to check/uncheck ‘Allow Comments’ and ‘Allow Pings’ – notification of other sites you have linked to.
Below ‘Discussion’ is ‘Post Password’ … type in your password. Click the ‘pw?’ page/tab in the header (meerkats) for a demo. The password is ‘pwdemo’.

Lastly,
remember to ‘Update Options’/'Save Settings’ for any changes you make.

Any requests, collaboration, deepening the dialogue and sharing … feel free to add and ask (comment here, email, twitter – alupton, skype – al.upton)

Cheers, Al

• Dashboard – Dashboard, Promote Your Blog

• Write – Write Post, Write Page, Write Tweet

• Manage - Posts, Pages, Uploads, Categories, Import, Export, Subscriptions

• Comments – Comments, Awaiting Moderation (0), Akismet Spam (0)

• Blogroll – Manage Blogroll, Add Link, Import Links, Categories

• Presentation – Themes, Widgets, Current Theme Options

• Plugins – Plugins, Google Analytics, Akismet Configuration

• Users – Authors & Users, Your Profile, Your Avatar, Blog & User Creator, Invites

• Options – General, Writing, Reading, Discussion, Privacy, Delete Blog, FeedBurner, Blog Avatar, Blog Type, Forums, Twitter Tools, Inline Google Maps 2, Subscribe to Comments, AMP, Contact Form (Editors are greeted by “nice try”)

• Upgrades – Upgrades, Credits, History

I also unchecked ‘Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.)’… who knows what someone might put in their post when they link to you?
Keep “safe and savvy”.

What it does mean is that students can’t change their passwords. They also can’t delete or change my editorial status from administrator.

I would still like a way for all posts to be sent to me although I do check them regularly. Currently I am the only administrator of their blogs.

I’m really in two minds about this. What do others think?

minis please share what you like (don’t like) about blogging