Week 3 - What is your blogging philosophy?

It seems like the first two men are writing to anyone of any age about blogging. Both were interesting, but I especially like Jim's thoughts about the writing of a blog is really for the writer and his/her own reflections even though it is in a public viewing space. This means to me that we should encourage others to blog as another venue for writing/thinking - it doesn't have to be for a grade or others' approval.
I see Konrad's blog as where we need to go with assessment and writing. Online work offers the perfect venue for the classmates to share and provide feedback, but we have a ways to go to get our assessment style changed to his suggestion.
I noticed on the link for "Top 100 Education Blogs" the article was dated Dec. 2006, but when I tried one of the top blog links it was dated for yesterday. It was from New Zealand about eportfolios.
In summary, the blogs seemed to be written for various readers, but all bloggers had their points of view on the topic of blogs and everything else they wanted to share and have feedback on, including the difference between USA and Australian Coke!

I think blogging is a tool we can't ignore in education for its excellent opportunities of writing, reflecting, sharing and gaining multiple feedback. If offers so many possiblities of use, that teachers and students can find ways to make blogging a part of their learning. Also, the quick world-wide publishing and viewing of one's writing on a blog is very exciting for both children and adults.

Week 2 - Templates and Widgets

I learned about choosing templates other than bloggers, but I spent hours trying to find a template where I liked the design and had the parts to the screen I wanted. I also tried editing the graphic they had and it didn't work. Several of the templates I liked would download, but not upload to my blog. I gave up and used a very simple one. This was a very frustrating process. There are just so many choices and options layout. I was looking for a template that had tabs, at least 2 columns, and posts displayed the name, date and time. I wanted a clean look with a little flourish, but as I said above I just ended up with simple and will add my own photos to it later in a widget or Picasa.
The widgets were easy to add, but they will not keep the settings I want. For instance the weatherbug goes back to New York even though I put my zip and saved. The countdown will not keep the date/time and I have reset and saved it several times both on the Layout screen and on the blog Home page. The widgets can add a lot of fun and information to the blog. I don't see how you can change the layout on the screen of the widgets and other information in the sidebars.
Next week, how to improve the spacing/layout of the home page. I know there is lots more I don't know about blogs so anything y'all think we need to learn. I was a lot more comfortable with teacherweb blogs and edublogs than blogger for editing and changing the setup.

Testing the Mail2Blog

We will see if this works!

Charlotte Hanna
Instructional Technology Specialist, Round Rock ISD
Charlotte_Hanna@roundrockisd.org
464.6896 Great Oaks Elementary
867.9235 Pager

Week 1 - Blog Settings

I am very excited to learn some of the options available - especially the comment moderation. I want to share this with teachers. I think they will really like being able to approve a comment before it is visible like they can with teacherweb blog pages.


Questions I still have...after I edited the blog Home page to take away the "New Blog" line, then I have trouble getting back to the dashboard and to where I can Customize Settings. Is there an easy way/link that I am not seeing? This has been frustrating. I put the "New Blog" line back so I could continue the assignment tasks and then just now took it off again.


I tried the Mail-to-Blogger feature using my own school email and it worked. I don't know yet how I would use this with students or colleagues.

Vacation

MimiHanna,
How was your vacation??? I can't wait to hear all the details.
We are planning on going to Disney August 4th-12th. The summer is going by really fast.
I am still working on my house. I have painted the interior walls downstairs, upstairs hallway and my bathroom. I am hoping that I will have time to paint my bedroom. I think I need an extra month of summer to get everything completed.

Susan