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WeeklyThreadsWeek4
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last edited
by Mary Hillis 17 years, 2 months ago
Weekly Threads Week Four
This Week's Tasks
 The Blogging Team |
5/2/07
Hello B4Bers!
Welcome to Week 4!
First, we would like to thank all of you for the great job done and constructive interaction in Weeks 1, 2 and 3!
We all know how hard it is to work, take care of our families and still find time to try out so many different tools. It's rewarding to check our emails every day and see that you are all doing your best to share what you have already learned and help other participants around!
The live session with Phil Hollow last Thursday was an enriching experience to all of us. We all learned more about Feedblitz and how it can make our lives easier!
Most of us have already built our blogs. The next step?
Time to start thinking about ways to promote interaction in our blogs; to motivate our readers to come back and write more!
Our main goals for Week 4 are to reflect on the use of blogs in the classroom and to discuss the basic issues related to blogging pedagogy.
The main tasks of the Week:
* to read about blogging pedagogy
* to create a list of "The best Blogging Practices" (B4B blog)
* to analyze different blogs
* to discuss error correction in blogs (optional activity - yahoogroups)
* to participate in the Live Session "Successful Blogging Practices"
(include your name in our database)
Check the B4B wiki for instructions and links to each task.
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| The Blogging Team |
(Live session)
Blog pedagogy is our exciting topic of the
week, (see Weekly Tasks Week Four), but the highlight of Week 4 will be our Guest Speakers Bee Dieu and Aaron Campbell!
Don't miss this chance! We will all be there waiting for you!
Just for a little taste of what they are up to, check their joint project Dekita
Let us know if you are planning to attend our gathering by filling out our group database
Get ready to use Alado and meet us there! |
| The Blogging Team |
9/02/07
Dear all,
Now that many of you have been testing and using blogs, what would say are some good blogging practices?
Have you checked our "Blogs of the Week"? There's a selection of posts with lots of interaction going on. When and why does this happen?
The Blogging Team is eagerly waiting to know what you think:
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This Week's Collaborators
| Name |
Comments |
 Sharon |
7/2/07
I see by my calendar that collaborative blogging is one of the topics being discussed this week.
If this is the case, I should introduce myself once again as Erika's blogging partner in some informal activities that we collaborated on last spring with her class.
The medium that we used to engage the students' interest was my dog (an ancient German Shepherd dog) Holling. The children responded positively to Holling and his story. As one who believes that culture has a significant impact on language, I was happy to see that the children had an opportunity to learn more about a part of the American culture through H.
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 Erika |
7/2/07
Yes Sharon, this is the week we are discussing Blogging Pedagogy and ways to foster interaction and motivation in blogs, especially in our class blogs.
We would like all participants to read two blog posts that are listed in week 4 - task 1 and then post their ideas to our group blog.
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Live Sessions
| Name |
Message |
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Bee
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10/02/07
Dear all,
I'd like to thank the moderators and all who were with us for the synchronous session yesterday evening and tell those who could not make it or cannot open the Alado recording that I have just uploaded a pdf file with all the slides here to Yahoo Groups.
Wishing you a active and productive week. I hope to see many of your learners blogging soon, visiting Dekita.org and joining the exchange.
Warm regards from Brazil,
Bee
Barbara Dieu
http://dekita. org
http://beewebhead. net - - - - - - - |
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Erika
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10/02/07
Hi Bee
I really enjoyed your session at Alado yesterday. It was one the best live sessions I've ever attended! You are becoming more and more professional every day! The session ran smoothly, the slides were great and very thought-provoking! You and Aaron make a great team! Thanks a million!
The chat log and, screen shot, participants' names and slideshow are already on our wiki page "Live Sessions".
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To Correct or Not to Correct?
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Name
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Message
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The Blogging Team
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Should the teacher correct students' mistakes when they write on a blog? How should students' errors be addressed?Check some of our students' mistakes at the wiki
How would you go about correction in the blogging classroom?
Waiting to know your opinion on the topic.
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Please refer to this B4B wiki page for participants' responses to this topic.
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Going Beyond
 Paul Beaufait |
5/2/07
A very recent Teach and Learn Online Google Group message announces a SCoPE seminar on Blogging to Enhance Learning Experiences
It has been a pleasure to take part in previous SCoPE seminars. They're free, but Moodle registration is required.
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Paul Beaufait
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6/2/07
Abstract
An increasing number of language teachers are using wikis and blogs to enhance the teaching process. This paper describes the future use of a wiki and a blog as online collaborative environments in blended learning. The applications will be used to complement problem-based learning sessions of English for Specific Purposes at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The paper outlines the teaching/learning context and discusses both applications in terms of pedagogy, content, design, use and potential risks.
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Monica Veado
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8/2/07
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Carla
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9/02/07
Mônica Veado kindly shared with us this video and it sums up all we've been discussing here and what we're all doing here!
It's a short, but very powerful video.
How do you plan to incorporarte Web 2.0 concepts in your classroom?
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 Carla R.
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9/02/07
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Copyright
| Name |
Message |
 Mary H |
Since there were some readings on copyright issues in the week three tasks, I thought I'd pass along an article from the WOW2 Newsletter (Women of Web 2.0) called "Hey, that's mine..." by Karoli Hayes. It deals with ownership issues and Creative Commons.
You can find it in the WOW2 Newsletter and also take a look at the WOW2 site.
I just recently joined this community and this was the first newsletter I received. Hope it is useful to some of B4Bers!
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Widgets
| Name |
Message |
| Jennifer |
5/2/07
I decided to create another blog. I am struggling with the template. If you take a look at it there is an enormous gap in between my poll widget and the currency converter widget. Can´t manage to figure out what´s wrong.
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| Carla |
5/2/07
As for the Widgets you included in the sidebar, the problem there is that their "width" is bigger than what the sidebar accepts. So in the html code for the ones who are outside the bar, you need to change the size (width), playing around a bit to see when it looks best.
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 Claudia |
5/2/07
I don't know if this has to do with the gap in your sidebar, but both the dictionary and currency converter widgets seem to be too wide for the available space on the sidebar. Check the code and try to make them narrower by changing the width figures and see what happens. You can do this directly from the Google gadget page before copying the code.
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| Jennifer |
5/2/07
Clau and Carla thanks for your tips. I played around with the widgets and was able to reduce the size of all of them except Frapp. ...
Frapp gave me two options of maps to add to the webpage. Standard or Compact. Obviously I choose Compact but still seems too big for my site.
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| Claudia |
7/2/07
Dear Jenny,
I'm afraid you won't be able to reduce the Frappr map to fit the sidebar. Changing the width value affects the map appearance (it looks incomplete on one side). So I'd suggest you provided just a link to the map on the sidebar. Click on "Add a page element", then on "Link list", type "My Frappr Map" on the title box and paste the URL to the map in the corresponding box. If you want, you can add another page element with a screenshot of your map (either above or below the link).
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Pictures
| Name |
Message |
 Simon |
5/2/07
I've been trying, with no great success, to upload pictures to my blog
The problem I am having, and which I can't find any solution to in the tutorials that come with Blogger, is that only the first picture I am trying to upload goes where I want it to. When I tried to add a
second, which should have gone below the second paragraph of text and to the right, it went to the right OK but above the first paragraph rather than below the second. ... Can anyone help, please?
On a related topic, can anyone explain how to add a caption to a picture in a blog?
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Claudia
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6/2/07
What I do in those cases is click on the HTML tag of the post where I want to rearrange the pictures, cut the code corresponding to the photo I want to move and paste is somewhere else on the post (in your case, below the second paragraph of text). Preview and save!
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Veronica
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6/2/07
I think my solution may be easier if, like me, you avoid anything to do with html! I uploaded all the pictures first (reverse order of how you want them to appear), and then I was able to put text beneath each one and adjust the text as I wanted.
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Jargon
| Name |
Message |
 Karim |
After 3 weeks of hard work, we surely deserve a 5-minute break. Here is a video about computer jargon
As a teacher trying to integrate technology in my teaching, I surely recognize myself in this show. But remember, laughter is the best medicine. Enjoy it.
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Comments
| Name |
Message |
| Mary H |
6/2/07
Hi David,
As you said, you want to reply to the people who commented on your blog via e-mail. When you receive an e-mail notification from Blogger that someone has left a comment on your blog, sometimes you can just hit "reply" to respond to that person directly through e-mail.
However, like you said, this sometimes work and most of the time it doesn't! I think that you are only able to reply via e-mail if the person has made his or her e-mail address available through the Blogger profile. So, that would explain why you could reply to Gladys, but not to others, such as me, who hadn't made their e-mail addresses available.
Some people have already been discussing whether to reply to comments via e-mail or the blog; it seems most people just respond to the comments directly on their blogs.
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| Carla |
6/2/07
The idea of commenting directly on the blogs is that you keep the conversation flowing...It gives everybody who was part of the dialogue to have a follow up on what it's being discussed.
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Gladys
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7/2/07
My students are usually young adults, but you should have seen their excitement and how it affected their approach to writing when they found a comment in their blogs (from somebody who was not a classmate or me, in particular!) . And if the commentator introduced themselves and let them know where they came from, so much the better!!!
They seemed puzzled because somebody cared about what they had to say.. but then, I'm still astonished by the fact that some people are interested in my words, and I've been doing this for years! ;)
See this related post in one of my blogs, with links to somebody else's blog post on the same issue:
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 Erika |
7/2/07
Last Friday I presented a workshop for other teachers at my school. We worked with Audacity, podcasts and other tools. You should have seen their faces when they read comments from all over the world in my students' podomatic. There were comments from Sharon in Boston, Berta in Venzuela, Hala in Sudan and many others. My colleagues said: "Oh Erika, you have some cool friends!!!", and some of them think it is all fake. They think I make up the comments! Can you believe that? That is our students' reaction sometimes. They just don't believe that people from other countries would be interested in reading their blogs! And I'm so glad it is all real!
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| Gladys |
8/2/07
Catching up by probably reading backwards, and possibly repeating what somebody has already said (:-P!), the best way to react to a comment at Blogspot would probably be to post a comment after that one on the blog, PLUS cc the message to the poster via email, if the person has made their address available via their Blogger profile... I feel it's important to leave your reaction on the blog too, it shows new visitors see the blogger is still around...
At Wordpress, you needn't worry about emailing the commentator directly, since each visitor chooses whether they want to get notified if further comments are entered to the discussion at the very moment when they submit their comment.
What about other Blog hosts? Which offer RSS for comments (not simply posts)? Which offer notification of reply for comments posted on other people's blogs?
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| Gladys |
10/02/07
Editing comments in Edublogs
Right you are Carla R.! It took me a while to find out how...
Administration/ Manage/Comments , and then Edit for the one you want to, or "Mass Edit Mode" to edit it all...
I've just tried HTML for link in the comments, and they worked! The only problem is that there's no preview option, but it's acceptable since you can always edit them later! And I noticed you can even "unapprove" already published comments! The editor for comments has lots of icons that enable WYSIWYG when editing comments, quite similar to what you get when entering posts (just more limited, no options for embedding.) Pretty easy to format a
just entered comment! The editor for comments has lots of icons that enable WYSIWYG when editing comments, quite similar to what you get when entering posts (just more limited, no options for embedding.) Pretty easy to format a
just entered comment! The editor for comments has lots of icons that enable WYSIWYG when editing comments, quite similar to what you get when entering posts (just more limited, no options for embedding.) Pretty easy to format a
just entered comment!
Comparing Blogger and Edublogs: I can delete comments I've entered to any blog (not only my blogs)by clicking on the grey trashbin in the comments blog... Is there any way to take my words back in comments I post to other people's Edublogs, apart from emailing the owner and requesting they delete my comment? Not that I need to, just exploring the options!
I think I'm finally "falling in love" with Edublogs... not as
intuitive as Blogger, so I'll stick to that one for my class blogs for the time being, I hope I'll be posting more regularly to my Edublog myself!
Gladys
http://gladysbaya. edublogs. org
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 Elizabeth Anne |
10/02/07
Following up the link suggested by Carla, I read that one of you guys on the blogging team had CHANGED THE DATE OF A POST - I found that earth shattering and wanted to tag it but I lost it and couldn't find it again.
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Blog Potential
| Name |
Comment |
 Linda Neas |
6/2/07
Hi All! I just saw the movie "Freedom Writers" and it is exactly about "speaking up just to see if somebody hears!" Adolescents, especially, feel that no one listens to them ...not their parents, not the authorities, not their teachers or clergy, not even their peers. It is so important to help them see that they are not alone and that someone is listening!
I see blogging in the classroom as an amazing tool for this type of healing, growth, awareness, learning or whatever you want to label it.
If you haven't see the "Freedom Writers", I would recommend it. It is a great teacher affirmation flick, but be forwarned, bring lots of Kleenex!
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Audio or Text?
| Name |
Comment |
| Paul Beaufait |
Whilst announcing a wonderful interview on her blog, MaryH suggests that she'll try podcasting interviews "in the future" . In response, Gladys points out a recording tool - blog sharing link-up (Podomatic: Blogger) that used to work for her, yet expresses a preference for "text in blogs"
Elsewhere on the B4B list (forgive me, please, for relying here upon our memories rather than citations), contributors note challenges related to bandwidth limitations, making it difficult if not impossible to download media- (audio or video) rich blogs. They also may face restrictions on downloading media players or browser plug-ins to playback A/V blog elements.
...
Rather than rant on about the drawbacks of podcasting, and before I develop a fuller argument for properly framing podcasts to develop learners' listening skills and vocabulary, I'd better point out the LearningTimes Green Room and suggest that you check it out before the folks there quit providing nearly complete transcripts in show notes on their website as a prelude to their podcasts.
Full version
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| Mary H |
8/2/07
You both mentioned that you prefer text to audio in a blog. I agree, as a blog reader, *most* of the time I do prefer text entries because it is easy to get through them quickly. I don't have a lot of time to listen to podcasts (because my commute to work is exceptionally short). However, I LOVE Japanese language learning podcasts and yoga
video casts. Like anything else, it depends on the details of the given situation whether to use text, audio, and/or video!
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| Paul |
8/2/07
With just a microphone, even a built in pin-hole mic. in a laptop, you can make short recordings in the studio at odeo.com
With a video cam. & built-in mic., starting at a few thousand yen, you can make short Springcast videos at springdoo.com - like the one Gladys points out in message 1479.
Out into the rain :) with music on the player!
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| Gladys |
8/2/07
Though the idea of providing (almost) full transcripts for all audio is certainly great, I dismay at the thought of how long it can take a blogger to type the whole thing... And, of course, if you're recording to "force" your students to develop their listening skills, providing a transcript would go against your objectives, in most cases..,
As for myself, I'll start recording more regularly once I have the certainty that nearly all of my target audience have speakers (not the case with many of my students yet!), and once at least a few of my acquaintances are aware that you can download podcasts to their iPods... people in their 20s have started buying them during the last year, but they only dowload songs and are puzzled when I suggest they can subscribe to materials in English , even for free!
But of course, this wil be taken for granted in 5 years' time ... ;-)
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Carla
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8/2/07
You know, girls, I was always too embarrassed to record anything.. but then on the day of my Graduation at Becoming a Webhead 06, I spoke to Jeff le Bow from the Webcastacademy, and it was such a nice experience that after that I just relaxed and started to do podcasts, record things to my students, have fun! My voice? Well, I still don't like it, but I record stuff for the sake of my students!
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Carla
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9/2/07
I just love Dan and Susan. I've been following their webcasts in Learning Times.
Guys, I'd highly recommend that you join learning Times. They have fantastic podcasts, webcasts that are of great interest for teachers.
Thanks for sharing this podcast. I'm writing this email and, at the same time, listening to it!
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| Paul Beaufait |
9/02/07
In bloggingforbeginner s@yahoogroups. com (Message 1577), "Carla [A]rena" <carlaarena@ ...> wrote:
> ... I just love Dan and Susan. I've been following their webcasts in Learning Times.
Me, too - so much so that I've subscribed, for free, to their Learning Times Green Room podcasts through the iTunes Store: link
If you haven't got iTunes, also free, you must download it to subscribe and get iTunes podcasts: iTunes (Mac & Windows)
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| Paul Beaufait |
9/02/07
Then, if you've got time and bandwidth to spare, you might want to get some iTunes TED Talks podcasts, audio or video. One of my fav's is:
TED : David Pogue (2006) video
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Resources
| Name |
Comment |
| |
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| Paul |
8/2/07
Here is a link to a new tutorial on the B4B pbwiki explaining in detail how to irreversibly delete a Blogger blog:
I've tried the steps myself, and sent the step-by-step instructions ahead to a blogging associate in Japan.
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| Paul |
6/2/07
In (Message #1043), BárbaraTous asks:
... Can I delete my blog at blogger in the future? I mean after finishing the course, when I don't want to use it anymore...
Yes, you can. Just go to your Blogger Dashboard, pick a/the blog that you want to delete from the Dashboard, select Settings for that blog, then scroll down past Global Settings to Delete Your Blog.
If you have more than one, make sure to pick one you want to delete from the Dashboard; there may be only one, "Are you sure?" sort of dialog before the blog you choose goes completely virtual!
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| Mary H |
Just a reminder to everyone that you can find all of the sites our group has mentioned, visited, or created by visiting the
B4B Blinklist
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HTML
| Name |
Comments |
| Gladys |
8/2/07
Blogger comments accept only 5 HTML tags:
<i> <b> <em> <strong> and <a>
You can read about it here:
As for YG:
"Most HTML is OK" (but not all). Click here for a complete list:
The "target" attirbute for the <a> HTML tag seems not to be accepted in either case... :-(
Hope I've made myself clear... One year ago, I wouldn't have understood even what I'm talking about!
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Thank-you notes: Just a few!
| Name |
Comment |
| Susan |
6/2/07
Thanks so much, Carla and Silvana, for your kind words of welcome! And thanks to those of you who have kindly left comments on my blogs! It's great to be in such company; I'm sure I'll learn more than just blogging from being with you all! :)
Warm wishes from Iran,
Susan @>---;-
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Linda Neas
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6/2/07
Welcome, Susan! I just posted a comment on your site. The tears are still in my eyes.
We are so blessed to have you with us.
Peace and love, Linda
PS. Love the cyber rose...roses are my symbol, too!
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Andrea G.
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9/02/07
I DID IT TOO!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!
Sorry for my shouting, but I could add, in the end, my pic to my profile. I feel like being Carlos Gardel and his musicians, Maradona etc.
Thanks.
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 The Blogging Team |
10/02/07
Dear Bee and Aaron,
The Blogging Group would like to thank you for the thought-provoking session you provided us with yesterday. There's much we'll have to explore with the group with so many ideas that popped up.
You are great blogger, educators and facilitators! And you're doing an invaluable job to our community, spreading your ideas on educational blogging in the language classroom. Thank you for sharing your time and knowledge with the group!
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| Elizabeth Anne |
10/02/07
While listening to Friday's session, which was most thought provoking, I realised that probably the most useful blog for me would be one for my teacher collegues (who are mostly allergic to computers!!) .
Thanks Bee for taking the time to talk to us ... One of the things I have realised now that my head has started to stop spinning (this
workshop really is my introduction into the world of blogging and it's MOST destabilizing) ...anyway ... what I've realised is... that it's not the Web 2.0 which is fantastic, but rather it's people like you and Carla and all the others who are fantastic... REAL teachers, taking time to share and lead.
Three cheers for the blogging team !!! ... er ... hang on... that's what people were saying a couple of weeks ago already... I guess that's what being new is all about.
amitiés
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Carla's Birthday
| Name |
Comment |
 Dennis Oliver |
7/2/07
Today is Carlinha's birthday and I've made a simple blog so we can have all our birthday wishes (in English and your first language) in
one place.
Many Years
Have a WONDERFUL birthday, Carlinha!
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| Carla |
9/02/07
Dear Dennis and all!
Thaaaanks so much! What a big surprise I had today! My birthday was great, but today you made it even more special...
I left a comment on the blog. Dennis, you are one of a kind!
Beijos,
Delighted Carla
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