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WeeklyThreadsWeek4

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on February 9, 2007 at 12:45:24 pm
 

Weekly Threads Week Four

 

The Week Four threads are a work in progress!

 


 

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.
Weekly Tasks for Week 4

Looking forward to a fun and productive week!

The Blogging Team
 
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!

 

 

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.
 
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.

 

   
   

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.
Paul Beaufait

(6/2/07)

Zorko, Vida. (2007). A rationale for introducing a wiki and a blog in a blended-learning context. CALL-EJ Online, 8 (2 [January 2007]). Retrieved February 6, 2007, from http://www.tell. is.ritsumei. ac.jp/callejonli ne/journal/ 8-2/zorko. html

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.
   

 

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!
   

 

 

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.
 
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.
 
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.

 
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.
 
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).
 
   
   

 

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?
Claudia 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!
 
Veronica 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.
 

 

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.

   

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.
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.
 Gladys

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:
 
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!
 
Gladys 8/2/07
 
VCatching 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?

 

 

 

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!
   

 

Audio or Text?

Name Comment
Paul
 
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
 
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!
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!
 
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 ... ;-)

 

Resources

Name Comment
 
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.
 
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!
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

 

 

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!
 
   

Thank-you notes

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 @>---;-
Linda Neas 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!

 

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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