We will be using Edublogger to create our blog. These instructions will be good for any wordpress powered blog as well. You may also download the powerpoint, which will give you the animations in a more step by step way. Just pause the slideshow to follow the instructions…

Creating a blog (1):  You will learn how to..

• Register with Edublogger, activate your blog and how to change your password.

[slideshare id=163606&doc=setting-up-a-blog-edublogger-1194891617968098-5&w=425]
Download Slideshow

Creating a blog (2):  You will learn how to…

• Change the theme (”Look & Feel”) of your blog
• Set up general settings (your blog title and tagline, timesettings, which page your blog should open on, comment notifications)
• Do your first post
  • Post settings
  • Inserting a picture

[slideshare id=183077&doc=setting-up-a-blog-part-2-1196203979355978-2&w=425]
Download Powerpoint

Creating a blog (3):  You will learn how to…

• create a banner (header) for your new blog!

| View | Upload your own

Download slideshow

A great downlowdable slideshow explaining how teachers can use blogs effectively in their classrooms..

[slideshare id=244107&doc=blogsfor-classroom-management-1201537269755031-3&w=425]

At our last workshop we discussed how we would do a “classblog”. We did not get round to exploring that in practice, so I would like to create a “ICT-4-Champions” classroomblog where only us (those who leave their names at the bottom) will be able to post and see each others post. eg only invited people can post = gated post.

Where would we like to make use of a gated post…..? Hmmm, …propably for specific projects… 

Anycase, leave your name at the bottom, and remember to fill in your e-mail. Don’t worry, it will not be visible publicly, only to me! I thought that we could tackle the issue of a “how to create a classroom-blog” (as in 4 our learners). If you would want to be part of this, please hop in, I will then create the blog and invite you all into the classroom! I promise to make sure to explain in detail how I did it and my trails and tribulations as I go along!

 Agenda:

•  What is a blog? Using the www.school2.co.za  blog as an example.
• • What is the blog about?
  • How is the blog used for teaching and learning?
  • What information is available and how is it organised?
  • What interactive elements can be found in the blog?
  • What is the difference between Pages & Posts,
  • Blogrolls, categories and links?
  • Posting to a blog (Scroll down and introduce yourself by leaving a comment at http://maggiev.edublogs.org/2008/01/08/crawford-blogging-workshop/
• Getting started with your own blog.
  • Decide on what your blog is going to be about. (Classblog/Homework/Parent info)
  • Brainstorm with partner (or mindmap at http://bubbl.us/)
  • Go to “Create a blog” /open file in resource folder called “setting-up-a-blog-1.ppt“
  • Open  “setting-up-a-blognew2.ppt” and of course……..!!!!
  • “setting-up-a-blog-part-3.ppt” !!!!
  • Add a widget
• What have you achieved? Go back to your comment at  http://maggiev.edublogs.org/2008/01/08/crawford-blogging-workshop/   and leave a note about the workshop. (or post a new comment)

   Announcement | Directions  | Summary

The fact is that we are teaching the New NET generation. They can Mxit in their pockets and have virtual identities that we know nothing about…They “poke” each other on Facebook, write on each others Funwalls, and socialise online.   How do we deal with this? Will our traditional teaching methods be sufficient to prepare them for a future world? The scary thing is that we do not know HOW to use the tools that they are so familiar with.  

To remind you what we have planned, see our previous Blog post

Looking forward to see you all at the blogging workshop tomorrow at Brescia House. Find included the directions to Brescia House. See you all at 09h30:

• Take the N1 (towards) Roodepooort
• Take the William Nicol offramp towards town (JHB/Randburg)
• Turn right into Sloane street
• Next left into Pytchley Road and left into Brescia House
• The Car guard (Max- a very friendly chap) will direct  you where to park and tell you how to get to the media centre.

Remember to bring on flashdrive:

• Chocolate for facilitators!!! Don’t forget!
• Photos/pictures for blog
• Anything you might want to use in your blog (Video/PowerPoint slides/Pdf’s/Spreadsheets)
• Resources to share….

We are having a F2F community blogging workshop on the 28th from 10 o’clock to 4 o’clock at Brecia House in Bryanston, Johannesburg, to get us all into the ‘Blogging thing”. You will have to ask your principal to release you, but I have done a flyer that you can present to your principal/ management. (overview-of-workshop.doc) This is Professional Development in its purest form and it is free! (Bring a chocolate for me and Jill)  If you can only join us in the afternoon, please feel free to do so (if there will be space…). We will also do the normal “sharing of resources” so please bring all your tests, worksheets, creations…. with you on a flash drive. I will ask Jill to organise someone to make disks of all the combined resources for us (and of course we will upload it to the community) or I will bribe my son to come and do it for us…You can also bring photos and stuff to use on your blog.

You will have to let me know if you are coming as ITschools (http://www.itschools.co.za/) have graciously agreed to sponsor the catering and of course there are limited spaces available in the computer room. So just leave a message below (click on comment)

Both Wilna & Sandra will be there as well to share with us their trails and tribulations in creating their ML learning blogs. I am planning to create a ML lesson on a blog using a Petrol price spam e-mail (current context) (please Alwyn- help me out here- he has done a lot with it!!!) and create web 2.0 resources around that to show you how you can extend your blog for teaching and learning.

I would like everybody to create their blog (just the sign in bit) BEFORE the workshop so that we can focus on the “How to use it for learning and teaching bit”  and the dollying -up of the blog during the workshop. I have created a BLOW by BLOW slideshow to help you get it up and running. Just download the powerpoint from here:

http://www.slideshare.net/maggiev/setting-up-a-blog-edublogger/ and follow it closely…..feel free to phone me (0835566962) if you are stuck (seeing that we are not yet part of the NET generation and still like to resort to old technologies!)
[slideshare id=163606&doc=setting-up-a-blog-edublogger-1194891617968098-5&w=425]

I would like to thank Jill at Brecia for making their centre available to us and doing the running on that end and of course ITschools for being a shining example of curriculum integration.

And please I only want brave teachers there, willing to wing it!!! And teachers who are willing to share…

Maggie 2.0

Ps this workshop will be both for my ICT-4-Champions teacher group and my Maths lit group teachers. It will sommer also be our Xmas end of year party as well!!!