iTeach180 Project Day 8

Today’s lesson may vary depending on what homework you assigned last night. If you assigned a blog post to your students you had the opportunity to check them over remotely. Today we will focus on the responsibility of writing and publishing online and how we can add RSS feeds to our iGoogle page.

Objectives:
Students will be able to write responsibility and effectively online
Students will be able to add an RSS feed to an iGoogle page

Process:
Today’s lesson should start be reviewing the blogging process that happened last night for homework. Have students recall any problems they encountered and how they felt when the hit the “publish post” button.

NOTE: In the past, I have used my PLN or a small group of teachers online to read and comment on my students’ posts. This task will reinforce the presence of an audience and how important and powerful writing is when you are publishing to the world.

As you present the responsibility of being an author online, you may want to incorporate a writing rubric for your blogging assignments. You can easily create your own of there are plenty of rubric online (see below). Tell students that this rubric will be used on every blog post and that students still need to proofread their work that is being published.

Blog Scoring Rubric

Another good exercise might be to find blogs that you know are ill worded or grammatical incorrect and have students rate the blogs appeal with these errors. What does it do to the bloggers credibility? Would you read this blog again?

The next phase of this lesson will be how students can access their blogs in different forums.

1. Have students return to their iGoogle page. (NOTE: You might want to do a random check in of all their iGoogle pages to see how they are using them after a week and a half of school).

2. Have them open up another tab and return to their blog home page they created yesterday. Once they have these two tabs open watch the video below. The video will show you how to add a RSS link to your iGoogle homepage.

For homework, you might want to have your students subscribe to the classroom blogs or have them select one blog that they really enjoy reading that they can add to their iGoogle page.

iTeach180 Project Day 7

Last week we went over Google Apps and docs that will be staples in our class everyday. This week we will be setting up our classroom wikispace. The wikispace will incorporate many types of media and become our hub for resource sharing, hosting, and collaborative projects.

Yesterday we set up our wikispace and went over the criteria for using and navigating a wikispace effectively. Today, students will be adding their blogger accounts to the wikispace.

Objectives:

Students will be able to set up a blog via blogger.com

Students will be able to edit a wikispace

Students will be able to add an external link to a wikispace.

Process

The best way to begin this lesson is to model it for your students while their laptop screens are down and they are watching.  You may want to place screen shots into a PowerPoint and show them the steps or you can simply walk them through the process.

1. The first step is to have students set up their own blog via blogger or you can choose to have one class blog. I prefer to have students create their own blog. Allowing students to create their own blog gives them ownership and gives them an online presence that they are responsible for keeping.

2. Once students have created their blogs have them grab the link, and copy it.

3. Return to the wikispace and explain that the left hand frame of a wikispace is like a table of contents. It will show you everything that is on the page and allow you to navigate through the entire site. Also explain that an external link will have a small green arrow after the link name. This will usually take you to another page or another tab depending on which browser you are using.

4. Show your students that when they click below on “edit navigation” at the bottom of the left hand frame, they will have the ability to edit the navigation frame. Remind them that even though the navigation text appears in the main frame, it will still only edit the left-hand navigation frame.

NOTE: When I set this up before I edited the navigation frame the day before to display the title “BLOG ROLL” and underneath I typed in all of their names. This will save you time when setting up this feature on your wikispace. You can select this LINK that will allow you to see my AP English wikis setup.

5. Have students click the “edit navigation” link at the bottom of the navigation frame. The text of the navigation frame will now appear in the main frame on the right. Have each student find his or her name under the blog roll, highlight his or her name, and click on the link button in the editing toolbar. The “add link” window will pop up and allow you to add a link (see images below). After students select “add link” they will be taken back to the main page and their name will now be purple, have a line under it and a little green arrow will be following it. If they see all of these items, they have successfully created an external link to their blog. Make sure students click save, and the wikispace will be updated to reflect changes made.

Today students created a blog that will be used for this class and added an external link to the wikispace. Having a blog roll of your students on your wikispace allows you, the teacher, and your students to learn and collaborate in an organized setting. Tomorrow we will cover blog writing procedures and expectations. For homework, you may want to give your students a writing prompt to blog about and have them post a comment on one of their peers blogs. This homework assignment will help segue into tomorrow’s lesson. 

The Return of 1

In July of 2009, I launched The One Comment A Day Project. My mission was to promote new bloggers and bring comments to existing blogs. Initially, The One Comment A Day Project burst on to the scene with the celerity of a gazelle, however, it soon became another faded project. The members of the ning remained, however, the collaborative dialogue that made the project so amazing, faded.

This decline happened because the project took off so fast that I, as a moderator and organizer, could not keep up with the progress. Couple that with the start at a new school year and a flooded basement and you have the decline of The One Comment A Day Project. However, in my absence, the members of the project remained true and continued the project along with its collaborative heart.

Now is the time for a renaissance. The One Comment A Day Project will no longer be a project, but serve as a forum for promoting new bloggers and illuminating the voices of the education world. This project will continue to be collaborative, but open up an entirely new forum for discussion and educational dialogue. My vision is that every Thursday at noon and 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, The One Comment Project can come together and discuss two different blogs via twitter. These conversations will be filtered through the hash tag #onecom. After the conversation on twitter, members will then provide constructive feedback on each blog post for that day. The goal is to generate discussion from the content of a blog and continue the conversation through comments and feedback.

Each week, members of The One Comment Project will vote on which blogs to discuss that week. I will accept e-mail submissions for blog posts at ontheroad51@gmail.com. The submission deadline will be Sunday night at 9pm. Once the blogs are selected, we will read each post and begin our conversation on Thursday. Each twitter conversation will be archived so that bloggers can read through the tweets and dissect the conversation. The twitter conversations will allow for authors to participate in the dialogue and even lead the conversation. It is my hope that conversations will linger far beyond the hour time slot on twitter and provoke our thinking and generate new ideas for the classroom and beyond.

If you cannot make a Thursday conversation, there will be RSS feeds on The One Comment Project Ning. Members of the Ning will be able to see archives and also read the blogs that are discussed for that week. I have also set up a Diigo group for The One Comment Project that all members can join. This way, we can create an online resource library of blogs that are making progressive strides in education.

I hope that you join me in this venture and help make The One Comment Project a forum that promotes new and existing blogs, expands the educational dialogue, and provokes our thinking.

Please join The One Comment Project Ning at http://onecommentproject.ning.com/#

We will begin our first twitter conversation next Thursday, February 18, 2010 at noon and our second round will commence at 7 p.m. Please submit blog posts at ontheroad51@gmail.com by Sunday at 9 p.m.

Going Off The Grid

The last blog post I composed was August 20, 2009. That was the day I fell off the grid. I fell far; I fell fast. And soon I was trying to find my personal learning network and wondering where everyone went. The party was over and I was back at work, teaching, grading, designing, engaging and performing several other topical buzzwords used in current edu-speak. I was no longer mentioned in Tweets and my direct messages were simply tumbleweeds drifting by in the wind. My comments and blog readership began to fade and I was no longer engaging in a community that had given me so much and inspired me to transform the way I teach in the 21^st century.

Since I have last posted a lot has happened. William Safire passed away. He enjoyed buzzwords and was a columnist I looked forward to reading every Sunday in the Times. I grew half a beard a few times; thinking the exotic look of a beard would inspire me to write again. The Phillies lost the word series and all the while I was an inactive member of the personal learning network (PLN) I tried to promote so strongly in my previous posts.

I created the one comment a day project ning only to fall behind in my duties as chief executive commentator. I wrote the introduction to my book that I am attempting to write, only to stuff my edits in a drawer for that rainy day off that never came. I’ve continued to read blogs and visit TweetDeck occasionally to see what all my Tweeps are up to. It seems like they are having fun; it seems like they are really engaged in stimulating discussions about Web 2.0 in the classroom and redesigning 21^st curriculum to meet the needs of the 21^st century student.

So what happened? How does one fall off the grid so quickly?

I’m a teacher.

I teach, therefore my time is limited. My time is precious. I teach high school English by day and English composition by night at a local college. In between I browse hundreds of essays and paragraphs for run-ons, fragments and my all time favorite, dangling modifiers.

My free time is spent coming down from the day and relaxing with a cup of tea and some light harmonies. Going to bed at 9 pm seems practical, my DVR is overloaded and my Netflix canceled. I know! This is how I came to fall off the grid.

These are my challenges and this is where I came to fall off the grid.

So now what?

I’m using this blog post as my springboard back on to the grid. I want to tweet again! I want to get excited about 2.0 or maybe 3.0 learning. I want to revive the one comment a day project and make t-shirts! I want to write my book on web 2.0 curriculum and I want to collaborate with my Personal learning network! I want to transform my school into an environment where technology and education skip hand in hand down the hall. I want my students to read on level and I want to rediscover the power of my personal learning community!

This is me coming back to the party, head slightly down, but ready for acceptance back into the great collaborative environment of learners, educators and thinkers that became more than a tiny square icon, but inspiring voices in the world of education and beyond. I want to be there again, I want to collaborate and I want to plug back in to my Personal Learning Network.

The One Comment A Day Project

After my last post on discovering your Personal Learner’s Network (PLN), I had a brief epiphany. This vision came in from simply adding a comment to a bloggers post that happens to reside in my PLN. I read the post, processed the information and responded constructively. Simple. Painless. Helpful.

At this point I thought, wouldn’t it be great if everyone in my PLN did this at least once a day. Yes, it would!

So here is my idea…

I’m calling it the “One Comment A Day Project”. This project will help promote educational collaboration throughout the blogosphere and promote and stimulate educational dialogue. All you have to do is pick one blog a day (you can obviously choose to read more) and leave a positive, insightful comment for the blogger. That’s it! One comment a day and you can change the blogging landscape and make a blogger smile.

Here is the process.

1. Read a blog

2. Post a comment that is insightful and constructive.

3. Tweet a link to the blog and your comment. Use the hash tag #OneComment

EXAMPLE: I just read a great piece on iTeach blog, check it out! #OneComment

4. Bookmark the blog and return to it another time.

It is just that easy! This Project will help create a positive forum for all who blog and comment. There are so many good educational blogs out there and I look forward to hearing your feedback and engaging in your comments!

The second phase of this project will be a featured blog a week project. This forum will review and promote one educational blog per week. It will also try and introduce new edu-blogs into the learning community. I will be setting up a Ning for this venture. The sole purpose of both ventures is to promote learning and create an engaging dialogue between so many great academic minds. The twitter hash tag for this will be #1Newblog

Please send me your thoughts, suggestions and feedback on both new ventures!I would also like to put together a small team to help with this venture due to the time consuming nature of the project. If you would like to help your fellow bloggers and be an integral part of this venture, please contact me at onecommentproject@gmail.com

I have also set up a separate twitter account for this second phase. It will be @1commentproject. Please follow it for blog updates and blog promotions. When we spread the word about great blogs, we all shine!

I would be looking for help with the following:

1. Finding new blogs

2. Posting Reviews of Blogs

3. Archiving a Blog roll on the Ning

4. Monitoring the Ning

I am very passionate about this project and am putting a lot of time and energy behind it. My belief is that we can all learn from each other and have endless technologies to help us collaborate! I really hope to see my PLN jump on board with me and help promote the edu-blogging community!

One Comment Project T-shirts, beach towels and pillow cases to follow!

Bloggers Love Feedback! Thank You Threadless.com!

Sometimes being a blogger is a thankless job. One in which you create and distribute for free, simply because you love it. I love sharing information about my experiences with teaching and technology in the classroom. And I do this for other teachers to learn and experience new ideas for the classroom. Every now and then a small note really make you feel really great!

Two days ago, I featured threadless.com for use in the art classroom and sent an e-mail to the site letting them know about the post. I expected nothing in return, but instead received the kind e-mail below.

Hi Andrew,

Thank you so much for your kind email and for featuring Threadless on your blog! This is an awesome article! Since you talk about bringing Threadless into the classroom in your blog, I wanted to let you know that we have taken the idea to inspire students one step further and have launched a program called Threadless 101, where the regular Threadless design challenge is scaled down for teachers to use in the classroom! I think you'll enjoy reading about it and hopefully blogging about it even more. Please feel free to read up on it in the attached introductory letter and check it out here: http://www.threadless.com/artists. Please feel free to email me anytime with questions!

I hope to hear from you soon!

My best,

Mimi

I really encourage all art and design teachers to go to the link embedded in the e-mail and download the PDF. Threadless also has course materials that you can download in one folder. The course materials are well organized and will help implement threadless.com into your class. Threadless 101 is a great venture and really promotes the idea of creative design by students. I hope to hear from all of the art teachers out there who will be trying this out! Please send me your comments and feedback if you are trying this!

After you read this, find your nearest blogger and hug him or her and then proceed to leave them a little feedback on their page. It really goes a long way!