The notion of blogging as a means of connecting with others is quite a leap in thinking. It's like starting a conversation on your own and ending up with a room full of people all adding their thoughts and perspectives; with the added bonus that those other people involved in the conversation can be anywhere in the world (as long as they have an internet connection) and at anytime of the day. If I think too long about all that it makes my head hurt. Being in Sydney today means I can connect with people who are still in yesterday! Have we stepped into the Twilight Zone?
Once you have established that connection though, the decision is how you will maintain it. For many bloggers they may have one off visitors who simply leave a message and never return. Others may find they have a meeting of minds with people far away and so they want to follow up this connection and read the blog regularly. This is where RSS and aggregators (like Google Reader or Facebook) really come in handy. Really Simple Syndication is an amazing way to channel new posts on blogs that you enjoy and want to read regularly. There are many choices of how to do that but for the beginner, Google Reader is definitely quick and easy to set up and use. Visiting the conversations pages of the Teacher Challenge has given me lots of information about other ways to RSS and how to set up a single visit webpage that you can use as your homepage so that the blog posts come to you rather than you having to visit them individually.
There is much to learn about RSS feeds and what method works best for your needs and situation. The Teacher Challenge Activity for this has certainly had some interesting feedback as beginner bloggers who have never used aggregators before, find the new, time efficient streaming a significant improvement for their enjoyment of reading the blogs they wish to follow.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Activity #3 Posts vs Pages
For beginner bloggers, the whole problem of the distinction between posts and pages may not be important if the template you choose has enough space and appropriate design for your needs. However it certainly isn't long before you want to expand your blog and the issue of when to use a post or a page will surface.
Many blogs have a single front page where posts are streamed in reverse date order and one other About page. However, for my professional blog I wanted to do a series of pieces of writing around explaining the choice of name of my blog: Applied Chaos Theory. So I had to figure out how to add a series of individual pages that people could comment on if they chose. I wanted individual pages because I didn't want people to have to scroll up and down a long way in order to follow the series.
The template I am using in Edublogs didnot seem to want to make it easy for me to add pages that included comment fields. My solution was to do some Navigation hocus pocus! I put a new gadget on the right sidebar that gave the pages as individual hyperlinked pages. I also put a hyperlink at the bottom of each piece of writing (on individual pages) which gave the reader the option of moving to the next section (or Lesson - which would be explained if you went for a visit to the blog). What this all means is that I have 3 page options at the top of the template: Home, About, "Why Chaos Theory?" - so it looks like just 3 pages. However, nested behind the third option is a series of other pages which don't have tab navigation but can be arrived at using the sidebar navigation.
I'm sure I could have explained all that a bit better - Mathematics teachers... ha! What does amuse me at times is that many bloggers don't appear to check the navigation of their own blog. I know that sometimes it is difficult to sort out these issues on your own, but leaving your blog in a difficult navigation hole is really not how you attract readers. I am amazed at the number of times that comment fields have been missing (so I couldn't leave a message) or the only way to navigate around a blog is to use the back function in the browser. If we don't make navigation user-friendly then we can't expect to attract a group of regular visitors with whom we can establish connections and build our network of advisors and friends.
The Teacher Challenge lesson around this issue of Posts and Pages has a really useful table explaining the distinctions and uses, so I will include a link here in case needed: Activity 3 outline link
Many blogs have a single front page where posts are streamed in reverse date order and one other About page. However, for my professional blog I wanted to do a series of pieces of writing around explaining the choice of name of my blog: Applied Chaos Theory. So I had to figure out how to add a series of individual pages that people could comment on if they chose. I wanted individual pages because I didn't want people to have to scroll up and down a long way in order to follow the series.
The template I am using in Edublogs didnot seem to want to make it easy for me to add pages that included comment fields. My solution was to do some Navigation hocus pocus! I put a new gadget on the right sidebar that gave the pages as individual hyperlinked pages. I also put a hyperlink at the bottom of each piece of writing (on individual pages) which gave the reader the option of moving to the next section (or Lesson - which would be explained if you went for a visit to the blog). What this all means is that I have 3 page options at the top of the template: Home, About, "Why Chaos Theory?" - so it looks like just 3 pages. However, nested behind the third option is a series of other pages which don't have tab navigation but can be arrived at using the sidebar navigation.
I'm sure I could have explained all that a bit better - Mathematics teachers... ha! What does amuse me at times is that many bloggers don't appear to check the navigation of their own blog. I know that sometimes it is difficult to sort out these issues on your own, but leaving your blog in a difficult navigation hole is really not how you attract readers. I am amazed at the number of times that comment fields have been missing (so I couldn't leave a message) or the only way to navigate around a blog is to use the back function in the browser. If we don't make navigation user-friendly then we can't expect to attract a group of regular visitors with whom we can establish connections and build our network of advisors and friends.
The Teacher Challenge lesson around this issue of Posts and Pages has a really useful table explaining the distinctions and uses, so I will include a link here in case needed: Activity 3 outline link
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Finding time
From a tweet, I found a really interesting blog post about managing social networking within the confinements of a 24 hour day! That's the problem with this stage of the development of a PLN - so much to learn, so much to read... panic sets in and I start to feel overwhelmed. There was a great long list of pieces of advice but what I came away with was two ideas:
1. For every ONE blog post you owe FIVE blog comments! I really like this idea of giving back. You can't expect people to visit your blog and read and leave comments if you don't participate in the payback process.
2. Write on a specific day with time set aside for it. This blogger used Sunday as his day for writing, which doesn't really fit for me, but the idea of scheduling time for it so that you make a date with yourself - that really sits with me.
Am continuing to visit lots of blogs and found a new gadget today to replace the Blogger fishbowl - with another fish gadget... my Aquarium. Colourful and calming - meets my needs for the moment!
1. For every ONE blog post you owe FIVE blog comments! I really like this idea of giving back. You can't expect people to visit your blog and read and leave comments if you don't participate in the payback process.
2. Write on a specific day with time set aside for it. This blogger used Sunday as his day for writing, which doesn't really fit for me, but the idea of scheduling time for it so that you make a date with yourself - that really sits with me.
Am continuing to visit lots of blogs and found a new gadget today to replace the Blogger fishbowl - with another fish gadget... my Aquarium. Colourful and calming - meets my needs for the moment!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Activity #2 Effective and Engaging Blog Posts
The outline for this activity gives some really good advice about how to engage your audience and come up with effective posts for your blog. Activity 2
Wandering around other teacher blogs has cost quite a bit of time - time I probably should have been spending on my own blog. However, reading the first attempts of beginners as well as the offerings of really experienced bloggers - there is so much to learn about writing high quality posts. On Yammer this morning there was a link to a post of a primary teacher (US so probably more appropriately called elementary teacher) as he evaluated an interaction between himself and a student over use of a pencil. I really enjoyed reading his post and the picture he created with his words. There is much for a Mathematics teacher to learn about engaging your audience using authentic experiences and your evaluation of them.
Interestingly, over the past couple of weeks (since finishing up at Ramsgate Public) I have had a number of emails from kids at Ramsgate who have asked for various bits of information regarding their web travels. One in particular, a young girl starting high school in 2011, has sort my advice about her desire to complete her first novel by age 13 (she turns 12 in Feb 2011 so she has set a realistic goal!).
Why she would ask *me* is a question to set aside... but my advice has been simple. To write well you need to practice. To write a book you need planning. So I have suggested to her that she set up a blog (first step - ask parents for permission) and use it to engage with her audience and practise her writing. She has subsequently sent me some poems to read and respond to... she is one to watch! It is wonderful to be able to open her eyes to the possibilities of how a blog can give her a medium by which she can publish. This generation of students certainly has opportunities that have not been previously available.
Thinking about this brings to mind a blog I found on my web travels last year. I was looking for a student blog to show Year 5 and came across livtodance. Her teacher was being showcased on edublogs and there was a link to Olivia's blog as well. So I visited and had a wander around and was startled by the passion and clarity of her vision for her life and her blog. She was in Year 8 in 2010 and yet her writing was as polished and fluid as her passion for dance. I asked her, through a comment, for permission to show her blog to Year 5 and she was gracious in her response. Visiting her blog is always time well spent.
So writing posts can look like lots of things - I've seen short, pithy, opinionated offerings as well as long, deliberated, thoughtful musings... and everything in between. When I visit blogs it is interesting to see how long I stay. There are lots of factors involved but the quality of the writing is close to the top of the list - probably along side of how easy is it to navigate this blog.
Wandering around other teacher blogs has cost quite a bit of time - time I probably should have been spending on my own blog. However, reading the first attempts of beginners as well as the offerings of really experienced bloggers - there is so much to learn about writing high quality posts. On Yammer this morning there was a link to a post of a primary teacher (US so probably more appropriately called elementary teacher) as he evaluated an interaction between himself and a student over use of a pencil. I really enjoyed reading his post and the picture he created with his words. There is much for a Mathematics teacher to learn about engaging your audience using authentic experiences and your evaluation of them.
Interestingly, over the past couple of weeks (since finishing up at Ramsgate Public) I have had a number of emails from kids at Ramsgate who have asked for various bits of information regarding their web travels. One in particular, a young girl starting high school in 2011, has sort my advice about her desire to complete her first novel by age 13 (she turns 12 in Feb 2011 so she has set a realistic goal!).
Why she would ask *me* is a question to set aside... but my advice has been simple. To write well you need to practice. To write a book you need planning. So I have suggested to her that she set up a blog (first step - ask parents for permission) and use it to engage with her audience and practise her writing. She has subsequently sent me some poems to read and respond to... she is one to watch! It is wonderful to be able to open her eyes to the possibilities of how a blog can give her a medium by which she can publish. This generation of students certainly has opportunities that have not been previously available.
Thinking about this brings to mind a blog I found on my web travels last year. I was looking for a student blog to show Year 5 and came across livtodance. Her teacher was being showcased on edublogs and there was a link to Olivia's blog as well. So I visited and had a wander around and was startled by the passion and clarity of her vision for her life and her blog. She was in Year 8 in 2010 and yet her writing was as polished and fluid as her passion for dance. I asked her, through a comment, for permission to show her blog to Year 5 and she was gracious in her response. Visiting her blog is always time well spent.
So writing posts can look like lots of things - I've seen short, pithy, opinionated offerings as well as long, deliberated, thoughtful musings... and everything in between. When I visit blogs it is interesting to see how long I stay. There are lots of factors involved but the quality of the writing is close to the top of the list - probably along side of how easy is it to navigate this blog.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Accessing the dashboard
Reading the comments on the Edublogs feedback pages for the Teacher Challenge ( link ) I noticed that a number of participants have mentioned issues to do with establishing their blogs and the accessing them again after navigating away. The whole notion of a dashboard as the interface to be used to monitor comments and change design and appearance, is something that beginner bloggers need time to get used to. This is where I am lucky to have had the experience with NSW DET BlogEd in 2010 which has a completely different access and interface but has taught me the steps required to access and use the dashboard.
One of the most common problems seems to be that people don't remember to login to the website before trying to open the dashboard. I think also, that some people are forgetting these access needs and designing the pages in such a way that getting back into the dashboard is more difficult for them than need be.
It is so important to have a really good explore around the dashboard and familiarise yourself with the way it is organised and what it enables you to do. Even having a look at the Stats page here on Blogger gives you some really interesting insight into your blog construction process.
Don't forget to SAVE your post though before you go navigating away from your post interface... although Blogger will probably have saved your work as a draft!
One of the most common problems seems to be that people don't remember to login to the website before trying to open the dashboard. I think also, that some people are forgetting these access needs and designing the pages in such a way that getting back into the dashboard is more difficult for them than need be.
It is so important to have a really good explore around the dashboard and familiarise yourself with the way it is organised and what it enables you to do. Even having a look at the Stats page here on Blogger gives you some really interesting insight into your blog construction process.
Don't forget to SAVE your post though before you go navigating away from your post interface... although Blogger will probably have saved your work as a draft!
Self-promotion and blogging
Writing here, about the blogging process, is really helping me think through decisions I am making for my professional blog (over at edublogs).
Things got really serious this morning - I finalised a significant piece of writing and transfered it to the new page I had set aside for this post thread - something that I have wanted to start for ages. Re-reading that it doesn't make much sense to anyone but me!
Why I mention it at all is because I have been thinking all day about how when you bare your thinking to the world, using a blog as the tool of revelation, it is a stage of vulnerability that I hadn't realised before. It brings a couple of decisions with it.
Firstly, are you completely comfortable with having other people view and assess your writing piece? Once again I was lucky here because @2sparkley was kind enough to proofread my new piece for me before I did anything else. She made some gentle suggestions and encouraged me at a time when I needed a kind word!
So what do you do with it then? Do you leave it up there on the web and let it sit as an undiscovered treasure out on the web? Or do you participate in some sort of self-promotion using social networking sites and your PLN contacts?
What I chose to do is to make ONE tweet this morning about my brand new blog and include a direct link to the page that includes the writing I had finalised. Did it attract any traffic? Well... no... but that's fine too - just because you write it doesn't guarantee they will come! Like everything else in this new venture - much to learn about all these issues.
Things got really serious this morning - I finalised a significant piece of writing and transfered it to the new page I had set aside for this post thread - something that I have wanted to start for ages. Re-reading that it doesn't make much sense to anyone but me!
Why I mention it at all is because I have been thinking all day about how when you bare your thinking to the world, using a blog as the tool of revelation, it is a stage of vulnerability that I hadn't realised before. It brings a couple of decisions with it.
Firstly, are you completely comfortable with having other people view and assess your writing piece? Once again I was lucky here because @2sparkley was kind enough to proofread my new piece for me before I did anything else. She made some gentle suggestions and encouraged me at a time when I needed a kind word!
So what do you do with it then? Do you leave it up there on the web and let it sit as an undiscovered treasure out on the web? Or do you participate in some sort of self-promotion using social networking sites and your PLN contacts?
What I chose to do is to make ONE tweet this morning about my brand new blog and include a direct link to the page that includes the writing I had finalised. Did it attract any traffic? Well... no... but that's fine too - just because you write it doesn't guarantee they will come! Like everything else in this new venture - much to learn about all these issues.
Monday, January 17, 2011
The collaboration process
Only a week into the challenge and I have already learnt so much... probably about 0.1% of what there is to learn about blogging for teachers!
@2sparkley continues to mentor me across a range of communication tools - leaving comments here and sending direct messages on Yammer... amazing generosity of spirit! Her latest tip was in regard to my previous post. I had copied the whole URL for dvolver and she recommended I restrict the text to just its name rather than the ugly, whole URL within the post! I love all the finer points being provided by my visitors!
It's also fun to visit the blogs of other teachers on the challenge and encourage them in their journey - new connections everywhere!
@2sparkley continues to mentor me across a range of communication tools - leaving comments here and sending direct messages on Yammer... amazing generosity of spirit! Her latest tip was in regard to my previous post. I had copied the whole URL for dvolver and she recommended I restrict the text to just its name rather than the ugly, whole URL within the post! I love all the finer points being provided by my visitors!
It's also fun to visit the blogs of other teachers on the challenge and encourage them in their journey - new connections everywhere!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Another gadget...
On my webtravels today I found dvolver so I quickly made a little movie so that I could test out embedding the result in the sidebar of this blog. If you scroll down the page you will find it in the right sidebar.
I have used copy and paste to embed objects before but I think this is the first time that I have actually used a webtool to create a movie and then transfer the html across to insert it. Too much fun!
I have used copy and paste to embed objects before but I think this is the first time that I have actually used a webtool to create a movie and then transfer the html across to insert it. Too much fun!
It's only a mistake if you don't learn something!
Had a visit from @2sparkley on my main blog today... lucky she visited because she tried the link to the blog I had mentioned in my post, and it didn't work! Bless her, she left a comment to notify me of the problem. When I went into the dashboard and edited the post I found the URL had a double http: at the front so it generated an error.
I remember how I inserted that link - typing the text, highlighting it and then changing it into a hyperlink... which obviously is the wrong way to do it so I'll copy and paste directly from a live website from now on!
Lesson for today: CHECK all hyperlinks after posting to make sure they work properly!
I remember how I inserted that link - typing the text, highlighting it and then changing it into a hyperlink... which obviously is the wrong way to do it so I'll copy and paste directly from a live website from now on!
Lesson for today: CHECK all hyperlinks after posting to make sure they work properly!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Navigation
Visiting other teacher blogs and navigating around them is a sure way to make you realise the mistakes you've made in the design of your own blog! I realised it was difficult for a visitor to return to the HOME page of this blog and also that a first time visitor was not immediately presented with a raison d'etre (a reason for being!). So back to the design interface and another text gadget added to introduce the blog at the top of the home page.
Creating this gadget was easy, however it took a bit of click and drag to pull the page wide gadget up to the top of the page below the page navigation gadget. I think it works well and is a better way to help a visitor remain engaged - depending on the reason for their visit.
Creating this gadget was easy, however it took a bit of click and drag to pull the page wide gadget up to the top of the page below the page navigation gadget. I think it works well and is a better way to help a visitor remain engaged - depending on the reason for their visit.
More pages?
Either my logic had failed me or adding a page to a blog in blogger is NOT user-friendly! I did not think to look on the POSTING page then click Edit Pages and then Create a new page! So I had to use the Help facility and found buzz.blogger - a handy place to visit... and may be needed in the future.
So now I have created a gadget to be able to navigate back to the HOME page and have also added an ABOUT page - which will have to wait for some text.
I have also added another gadget to list the links of other blogs that I am finding have been created by other teachers completing the Edublog Teacher Challenge 2011. On twitter this evening there was one mentioned from a teacher in Indonesia and it was great to visit and read and leave a comment.
When I returned here to add the link for this new found blog I was amazed to find that my Clustr Map had been updated and there were DOTS ON IT! Amazing! Of course it is probably just visits from people who navigate here via the "next blog" button... but hey - they're visitors too!
So now I have created a gadget to be able to navigate back to the HOME page and have also added an ABOUT page - which will have to wait for some text.
I have also added another gadget to list the links of other blogs that I am finding have been created by other teachers completing the Edublog Teacher Challenge 2011. On twitter this evening there was one mentioned from a teacher in Indonesia and it was great to visit and read and leave a comment.
When I returned here to add the link for this new found blog I was amazed to find that my Clustr Map had been updated and there were DOTS ON IT! Amazing! Of course it is probably just visits from people who navigate here via the "next blog" button... but hey - they're visitors too!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Blogging platforms
It is interesting running this blog here on Blogger and using edublogs for my main blog - it gives me the opportunities to play with the various features for each platform. I must admit that Blogger is very user friendly but I haven't figured out whether you can actually set up separate pages on Blogger so I went with edublogs. Besides, there is a significant Educator profile around edublogs and their website is packed with tutorials and resources to support the blogs of classroom teachers - the choice was obvious in the end. Wordpress appears to also be in this market but maybe a step up from straight forward basic - too much too soon for me!
The immediate advantage that Blogger presents is the ease of incorporating gadgets and the range of colour choices to personalise themes. Much fun can be had here!
The immediate advantage that Blogger presents is the ease of incorporating gadgets and the range of colour choices to personalise themes. Much fun can be had here!
Settings - Formatting
Note to self: if you change any of the design features to alter the appearance, DON'T FORGET TO SAVE before navigating away from the page.
Also... finally... figured out how to change the time zone so that it reflects Sydney time (instead of USA west coast!)... it is under the Settings tab then choose the Formatting tab and in the long list is the reference to timezones! Ahhhh.... that's better!
Also... finally... figured out how to change the time zone so that it reflects Sydney time (instead of USA west coast!)... it is under the Settings tab then choose the Formatting tab and in the long list is the reference to timezones! Ahhhh.... that's better!
What does my blog look like?
Sorting out the appearance questions for a teacher blog opens up a whole world of questions. My concern is that my blog needs to include a range of elements so that other teachers and, significantly, MY STUDENTS who visit my blog, will get an impression of my own comfort zone with regard to manipulating widgets etc. Some of my favourite teacher bloggers include specific elements that are quite common across teacher blogs. So there are those sorts of elements to find out how to include.
The other sorts of widgets are those that tell the reader something about the individual teacher - like Librarian blogs that include the Shelfari widget, or teachers who are also photographers who include a feed from flickr.
There is also the monitoring of visitors widgets e.g. Clustrmaps... and deciding if these are useful or just indicators that NO ONE IS VISITING!
So I decided to dive in and find out how to incorporate Clustrmaps. Turned out to be pretty easy - just go to their website clustrmaps and enter in the url for your blog and your email address, and the HTML code will be generated for the link to your map. Now, the method for creating the gadget (in Blogger.com terms) or widget that is generated by html is different across the platforms... here in Blogger you copy the code into the html gadget on the BASIC LIST... but once you have sorted it out the first time, then there are all manner of gadgets/widgets to have a play with!
So then all I had to do is decide... how many gadgets/widgets is TOO MANY?
The other sorts of widgets are those that tell the reader something about the individual teacher - like Librarian blogs that include the Shelfari widget, or teachers who are also photographers who include a feed from flickr.
There is also the monitoring of visitors widgets e.g. Clustrmaps... and deciding if these are useful or just indicators that NO ONE IS VISITING!
So I decided to dive in and find out how to incorporate Clustrmaps. Turned out to be pretty easy - just go to their website clustrmaps and enter in the url for your blog and your email address, and the HTML code will be generated for the link to your map. Now, the method for creating the gadget (in Blogger.com terms) or widget that is generated by html is different across the platforms... here in Blogger you copy the code into the html gadget on the BASIC LIST... but once you have sorted it out the first time, then there are all manner of gadgets/widgets to have a play with!
So then all I had to do is decide... how many gadgets/widgets is TOO MANY?
What do I blog about?
Reading the comments of the other teachers who are completing the challenge at http://conversations.edublogs.org/ I noticed how hesitant some of the participants are about knowing what to write about. So I decided to have a look around at friends' blogs and twitter recommended blogs and tried to feed my mind with their knowledge and perspective. A number of bloggers explained - you don't have to come up with something original, you just have to apply your own perspective.
Let's start 2011 with a blogging challenge!
After deciding at the end of 2010 that I really needed to dive in and start a blog (as part of being a professional educator in this new connected/collaborative world!)... I visited lots of teacher blogs and analysed their choice of blog hosting platforms and decided on edublogs (for loads of reasons!). So I followed their instructions and got a blog started but got stuck when I wanted to change the appearance... so I stopped.
Christmas came and went... and wouldn't you know it I get a link off Yammer telling me that edublogs were providing the perfect professional development for teachers of all blogging shapes and sizes - and levels of experience! So I am completing the challenges in the time I have available, but I also thought I would blog about the Teacher Challenge so that, maybe, others could learn from my first efforts too.
So this blog is simply going to be about the learning process that I complete as I learn about blogging as a teacher and complete the Teacher Challenge 2011.
http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/2011/01/10/kick-start-activity-1-%e2%80%93-beginner-%e2%80%93-setting-up-your-blog/
Christmas came and went... and wouldn't you know it I get a link off Yammer telling me that edublogs were providing the perfect professional development for teachers of all blogging shapes and sizes - and levels of experience! So I am completing the challenges in the time I have available, but I also thought I would blog about the Teacher Challenge so that, maybe, others could learn from my first efforts too.
So this blog is simply going to be about the learning process that I complete as I learn about blogging as a teacher and complete the Teacher Challenge 2011.
http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/2011/01/10/kick-start-activity-1-%e2%80%93-beginner-%e2%80%93-setting-up-your-blog/
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