Week 4: Posting to other blogs

Not much learned this week. I attempted to post to another student's blog - after much typing, I just couldn't see what option to choose to upload my post. Finally selected google and gave my details and was on my way. I gather that blogger.com is associated with google (thanks to fellow student Alun) so I probably had registered with google anyway. I note that even now, it doesn't neccessarily accept my post first time round.

Made some pages on my wiki. I haven't got my class of students (my 2 daughters) to contribute yet so I may have to enlist a few cousins etc. I can somehow see a lot more potential for wikis in a classroom situation. Nice big project in history or geography (even my area of maths - history of various mathematicians) with each student having their area of research etc. I need to check on the restrictions of editing though. Wouldn't want student A to edit the work of student B in an unkind manner. Am I being cynical? Have I taught for too long?

This week I am going to learn how to upload a photo slide show into my blog - with the help of my new teacher. This could be an interesting exercise. I will now google 'picasso web albums'

Next day. Thanks to Alun. As you can see - I have managed it! Now to recall the steps before I forget.

• I got on to picasaweb.google.com and made up an account. Read that I could upload software for the picasa albums which basically collects all photos on one's hard drive. As our computer is very slow and old, I didn't want to do that.
• Instead, one can upload 5 photos at a time directly into picasaweb without any extra software - so I chose that option and uploaded 5 photos with ease
• It then looked like I could create a slide show by selecting my album and creating a link on the righthand side. Had to copy some code to embed in my site. Arriving back at my blog, I couldn't see where to embed the code so began another search (maybe this will be useful on my wiki)
• Answer was to select "layout" in my blog, then "insert a slideshow", then select my picasaweb album by providing my account details.

"Too easy" as Australians would say.

WEEK 3: RSS and wikis

Having created a blog site address using bloggger.com, I then read about RSS - Rich Site Summary- although there appears to be other descriptions of the acronym. The reader can subscribe to certain sites (eg news that interests them) rather than having to visit each of these sites. An aggregator then checks the subscribed sites and collects any new posts. If a website has an XML oe RSS logo, this logo will provide the address of the site's feed. Explanation of RSS that I read was at http://www.webblog-ed.com/ .

I signed on at http://www.bloglines.com/ and now have my own few subscribed sites. My main aim was to see how a teacher could use this to have a class list of blogs and be informed of new posts. I have managed to make my own blog one of the feeds by updating my blog profile and providing the URL of my blog, but I am not sure how I would access "students" blogs. It appears that these need to be made public by the individual. I really need to spend more time on this - is it the best option for creating a classroom network?

I have created a group on Facebook that is Private (the group link is at the bottom of the page on Facebook - I struggled to find it initially). This is my theoretical "class" of students group and I have enrolled family members in it. They (my family) are being a bit slow about responding to my request for them to join in. However, I can see a classroom network in the making. I have also created my own family wiki using www.wetpaint.com . This was really easy (and free provided you allow their adds to appear on your page). My family "class" have been notified of its URL and are expected to edit and add to the site - "school project" on our African ancestry. Now, will my class of students be inspired to contribute. Will there be effective learning in creating this online group? Will they see any purpose in collaborating in this manner? I have all the computer tools - it is up to me to use them effectively.