Training Agenda

Blogs in the Classroom
Presented by Danielle Bolduc, Oyster River School District

A G E N D A

What is a Blog?

Why Use a Blog in the Classroom?

Examples of Blogs used in an educational setting
 Mr. McCormick’s 4th grade blog
 Civil War Tumblr blog
 6th Grade Blog for Ancient Egypt

Ideas for using Blogs in the Classroom
 An online journal
 As a web page
 A place for responses

Blogs I use:
 Blogger
 Tumblr

Fun Tools to Use With Blogs
 Audacity (www.audacity.sourceforge.net)
 Voki (www.voki.com)
 Slide (www.slide.com)
 Videos (youtube or schooltube)

Hands – On Activities

1. All participants will log on to the (doetraining.blogspot.com) Blog that I have created and add a comment.
2. Participants will take photos using their new camera and upload them to Slide.com
3. Participants will work with Audacity, and upload to GCast.
4. Participants will create their own Blog and include
a. Post
b. Slide.Com slideshow
c. One more fun thing (Voki, GCast, voicethread)

Video

TO add a video:
1. Take a video with your digital camera or digital video camera
2. save it to your C; (hard drive)
3. Add a post in blogger and click on the video icon
4. browse to find the video
5. the video will process, it takes a long time. You can save the post and come back later to publish it.

What Do You Want to Learn?

List one thing you would like to learn about setting up blogs today.

Podcast

TO add a podcast:
1. go to www.gcast.com
2. set up an account
3. add a podcast (use Audacity to create one and export as MP3)
4. Click on the link under the podcast that says add to my blog
5. then choose your settings and copy the code to the clipboard
6. go to blogger and paste the code to a post.


Subscribe Free
Add to my Page

Educational Blog Examples

Professional Blogs-ORCSD Technology Integration Blog (using tumblr)

6th Grade Social Studies Blog
3rd Grade Classroom Blog
4th Grade Classroom Blog
4th Grade Blog
Mast Way ESOL Blog
5th Grade Classroom Blog
5th Grade Classroom Blog
6th grade Classroom Blog
Computer Essentials HS Blog

BLOGS you should read!

What is a Blog?

Check out this great video from Common Craft on Blogs.

Blogs in Plain English.

Why Use a Blog in Your Classroom?

There are many ways to set up a blog and several different blogging sites. We will use two today. Blogger (www.blogger.com) and Tumblr (www.tumblr.com)

Why Use a Blog in Your Classroom?
Classroom management: Use a blog to post assignments, handouts, and notices. You can also put up study notes and have students take turns summarizing what happened in school that day.
Learning journal:small-group blogs as a place for students to "write reflectively" on what they learned from a particular assignment and how they might do better next time.
Online notebook: Limiting access to teacher and individual students only, you can use the blog as a way to track students' progress.
Class discussion: Assign blogs to small groups, or set up a single blog for each discussion topic.

Great Article:Edutopia: Digital Discussions

More Fun Tools!

Slide.com--Once you set up your slide.com account you can upload pictures and create your slideshow. Then choose share slide show and choose Blogger. Then Copy the code and embed in a post.

Fun Tools to Use with Blogs

1. Audacity--Sound Recording Software Free download! (Used with Tumblr Blog)

Example of Podcast on Tumblr Blog

2. Voki --Add a voki to introduce your blog.
First go to voki.com and create your own voki, when finished choose embedded in: Blogger and choose size:small then click get code. Then copy the code in the window.

THEN:Go to Dashboard (or customize)
Click on layout tab
Add Page element
Click on HTML/JAVAscript
Title it and then paste the code into the window. Save changes