October 24

Week 3: Student Blog Challenge

Week 3: Using Images

There is a lot to learn in this challenge so it will be running for a two week (fortnight) period. The next challenge will be posted on 29 October. It is also a chance for classes that have been on Fall break or holidays to do some catching up. These activities also relate to Digital Citizenship week 2017 which runs in USA and Canada over this first week. Ideas from Edmodo as well.

Admin for this challenge

  1. Thanks to all those students, teachers and mentors who have been checking the student list for students mentioned more than once. If you haven’t checked yet, please make sure you are only listed once.
  2. Some students (who already have a mentor) will soon be deleted from the lists if they have not been participating in the challenge activities.
  3. I have visited hundreds of blogs recently. I have left a comment, or flipped the post to our magazine or have mentioned your post in the next blogging challenge post. Have you found one of your posts mentioned yet? Remember you need to leave me a link to one of your posts for me to visit.

Students and teachers please read this before doing the activities

This week’s activities are going to be fun but first there are some things you need to know so please read carefully.

I have been visiting many blogs over the last few weeks. Some students new to blogging have been writing some great posts while others who have been blogging for a bit longer have started adding videos and images to their posts.

Yes, this week we deal with using images, music and sounds in your posts.

But can’t I use any image, music or sound that is on the internet?

No, you must use creative commons or in some cases the fair use rule.

But where can I find these images, music and sounds? Can’t I use anything when I google an image?

No, your blog is public so you must use creative commons images, sounds, music and videos.

Sue Waters over at Edublogs has created a student blogging bootcamp with lots of interesting posts. Check these out (mainly Edublogs but many also relate to other platforms.) Other posts found here for Blogger blogs.

Other places to find information on creative commons

Images

Make sure you check out the links in the Tools to Use symbaloo above the header

Music and sound effects

Jamendo, CCMixter, post with 14 websites for music, post with 20+ websites for music, post with 55+ sites with sound effects

Now for the activities for this fortnight

Activity 1. Do some more research on the topic of attribution and licenses and perhaps create your own class video about using images, music and videos in class.

This video is the reaction of students in Mrs Yollis’ class when she mislabelled their artwork. How would you have felt?

Activity 2. Find an image or piece of music. Add it to your post (with attribution) and write a poem relating to the image or music. Invite your readers to write their own poems. Here is Fernando’s example, Samantha is confused

Activity 3. Similar to activity 2. Find an interesting landscape image (include attribution).  Write the beginning of a story relating to your image. Remember to include a conflict of some sort between your characters. Invite your readers to finish the story. How many different endings can you get? Which ending do you prefer? You might need to visit some other bloggers and invite them to finish your story. Remember to leave the URL of your post for them to click on.

Activity 4. Write a sentence using just images – no words OR find 5 images that create a story – again no words only the attribution for each image.

Activity 5. Create a slideshow, photo gallery or poster about your interests to add to your about me page or as a separate post. Your final slide should include attribution for each image. Noah created a great gallery with captions

Activity 6. Create your own images and add to a post of your choice. In your post add a link to the website or tool you used to create your image.

Other options for creating your own images include:

  1. Comic Generators like MakeBeliefsComix.com,  ToonDoo
  2. Photo Editors like Befunky, fd’s Flickr Tools
  3. Tag Cloud Creators such as Wordle

Mixing up your images using these types of tools can really spice up your posts! Leave a comment on this post, if you or your class can recommend some other image sites to add to this list.

Activity 7.  Zoom out from an image

We first tried this activity in the challenge in September 2010. Choose a picture, and have your readers zoom out, so to speak, by leaving comments.  Check out the example from Huzzah who finished their story. If doing this activity, include the word ‘zoom’ in your title so I can find it easily. Remember to give attribution. Most important here is to read previous comments, so you can add to the story.

Check out these zoom pictures: Becky, Jacqueline, Abbey

Activity 8.  Go back to previous posts

If you have used images in any previous posts you have written, then you are ethically obliged to give the correct attribution or take the image out of the post if it does not have the right creative commons license.

Activity 9.  Create a jigsaw from your image. Mrs Schmidt’s class has done this using Jigsaw Planet . Here is her explanation

Last week (2014) my students made some jigsaw puzzles about famous places in our area.  First each student created one Power Point Slide showing a photo and some facts about a location in our area.  They saved the slide as a JPEG and then uploaded it to Jigsaw Planet.  Once the puzzle was created, they published a link to it on their Kidblog. Click on Niamh’s puzzle link. Maggie created a tough jigsaw. Anishacreated a jigsaw from her avatar.

Activity 10. Make a game using images. This class in Australia based their game on 4pics 1 word app.

Still got time left this fortnight (two weeks):

  1. Visit other student and class blogs – leave some quality comments
  2. Teachers – have you started visiting blogs listed on the class list of blogs? Maybe pair up your students with those on the other class blogs.
  3. Reply to comments on your own blog
  4. Start using tags and categories with each post you write to make it easier for people to find posts on certain topics. Make sure you have the tags and categories widgets in your sidebar.
  5. Have at least five other student blogs linked on your sidebar – students from other classes and schools – not your own. We will need this for a game we play in a couple of weeks.

Try to have a few different headings like

My Blogging Friends

Other Class Blogs

Having lots of  links to student blogs from other countries will help spread the game.

Here are the instructions for adding links to your sidebars.

Edublogs, Blogger, Kidblog – not sure if this widget goes on the class page or each student page

Still got time to read more posts

Mrs Caudill’s class wrote great introductions then wrote about their avatars

Check out all the interesting links, including student blogs, on the sidebar of the Tech Kids blog

Phakamon created a commenting recipe

Make sure you leave a blog link on Summer’s blog when you comment or it might go in the trash

 Most important learning from this fortnight’s challenge is:

Use creative commons images, not just any image on the net. Always include attribution of where you found the image. Compfight plugin does this for you.

PS If you have done the blogging challenge before, you will find these activities are nearly the same each time. If you have ideas for different activities please leave a comment on this post.

Flipboard magazine

I will only be adding posts to the flipboard magazine that:

  • are written in paragraphs
  • have been proofread
  • include an image, sound or video with attribution

So make sure you have taken note of this week’s learning about creative commons.

Miss W visiting your blogs

From this week onwards, I will only be visiting blogs where students or classes have left the URL to the post in a comment with an explanation. If your teacher is moderating your posts, you will need to wait until it has been published before giving me your URL. Check out the difference between a blog URL and a post URL.

Blog URL: http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org

Post URL : http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2015/10/10/raise-your-voice/

 

Great game to play about being internet awesome from Google – found this in a comment on Edmodo

Category: Uncategorized | 8 Comments on Week 3: Student Blog Challenge
October 13

Student Blog Challenge: Week 2

 BY 

About week 2: Commenting skills

This is another important week in the challenge. Blogging is all about having your voice heard and connecting with others who might like to read and comment on what you have written. But, as in many things we humans do, there are some protocols bloggers in schools like to follow.

Check out these videos about leaving quality comments. The first video was created for one of the very first blogging challenges back in 2009 by Mrs Yollis’ grade 3 students and it has been seen by thousands of students who have taken part in the blogging challenges since then. This video is suitable for all ages but specifically primary/elementary school or lower. But those in middle/high school or older might like to check out the second video which is more suited to an older age group.

Teachers: You might want to visit the post about teaching quality commenting on the Teacher Challenge blog. It has an excellent video about the possibilities of blogging through commenting. It also includes the videos below and others you might want to share with your class. You also find out about commenting and blogging guidelines, paper blogging and other ways to use your blogs to connect globally.

Using Edublogs? Check out these posts about comments: Comment overview,  managing comments,

Mrs Yollis and her third grade class

Nicolas Weiss – Leaving high quality blog comments

 

Activity 1: Create a ‘How to comment’ page on your blog

Many themes and blogging platforms have different ways to leave a comment. You might need to click on the title of the post, or click on a number in a circle or click on the words ‘Leave a comment’. Write a page for your blog explaining how to leave a comment. You could write it as a set of steps or perhaps create a video showing what to do. Be creative. Here is an example on  my family history blog. Mrs Yollis created a video showing how to comment on her blogspot blog. You might prefer to add the instructions in a text widget on your sidebar instead of a page. Remember, though, if you change themes you might also need to change these instructions.

Activity 2: Make a set of commenting guidelines – you might be able to combine this with activity 1

Explain what you expect when someone leaves a comment on your blog. .

  • What type of comment is acceptable?
  • Which type of comment will you put in the trash?

Here are some examples:

Huzzah commenting guidelines,  a Glogster poster about commenting, WarriorKat used a variety of tools for her guidelines, notice how Sophie included a link back to Mrs  Yollis’ blog where she got her information from, Emme created a PowToon, Darcey included some interesting points, Kyndal has her guidelines here

Activity 3: Leave a comment on this post – you might be able to combine this with activity 4

Each week the best posts published in the Student Blogging Challenge are featured in our Flipboard magazine.

To check your posts we need you to leave a comment with a link to your post on this blog whenever you finish a weekly activity.

So your activity is to practice leaving a comment below with a link to your post for an activity you’ve completed this week or last week.

But first you need to know the difference between your BLOG link and your POST link

  • Blog link: http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org
  • Post link: http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2017/10/01/week-1-lets-introduce-ourselves/

If your teacher is moderating and approving your posts, you will need to wait until this has been done before leaving me a link in a comment.

Activity 4: Use some HTML in a comment

Did you check out Mrs Yollis’ blog? She includes a page with some HTML (code) you can use when commenting especially on blogspot blogs. If leaving a comment on an Edublogs blog, here is a post explaining the HTML to use.  If you want to leave a link to your blog that looks neat and tidy, check out this post.

Activity 5: Visit other student or class blogs

Visit 4 other blogs on the lists above the header area. Leave a quality comment on one post on each blog. Might be the About Me page or another post you found interesting.  Write a post on your blog mentioning who you visited, which post you left a comment on and why, then include the comment you left. Hint: make sure you copy the comment before you hit the submit button. Here are some examples from other students: Allegra , Izzy, Callie but try to include a link to the actual post you left a comment on

Will visitors to your blog find it easy to search for a post they might be interested in commenting on? Maybe you need to start using Categories and Tags or Labels (blogspot) or Categories (weebly) or Categories (Kidblog) or make sure you have an archive section.

Let’s visit other blogs

Congratulations to the students from Thailand who wrote some great introductions then were first to leave me a comment on last week’s post. Here is their class blog with their names on the side if you also want to visit them.

I also enjoyed reading an A-Z post from Caleb.

Visit some younger classes and read the student posts:

I have started adding posts to our Flipboard magazine for #17stubc – check in the sidebar.

Got more time to fill this week?

Check out the page above my header called Post Ideas. Lots of topics and special days to write about in your blog.

Next week we look at activities relating to digital citizenship week 2017 particularly images and media.

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October 2

Student Blog Challenge 2017 Week 1

 BY 

Week 1: Let’s introduce ourselves

Miss W or tasteach

Whenever you see either of these avatars or images on the world wide web, you will know it is me. I am a retired teacher who began blogging with students in 2008. I still blog with teachers and students in Tasmania, Australia. I also blog about my family history and whenever I travel overseas, Davo the Tasmanian devil keeps a blog about his adventures with me. I also blog about my travels around Australia.

But the event I enjoy most is running the Student Blogging Challenge twice a year, with the help of the staff at Edublogs.

When you meet a new person or join a group, there are three things you will most likely do.

  1. Look at the outside view of the person – do they look like the type of person you would enjoy being with?
  2. Then you would go deeper by asking some basic questions about the person and their interests.
  3. Finally, you would connect through shared interests.

We are going to cover those three things this week by creating an avatar to represent our outside view, create our about me page to show your visitors the type of person you are and your interests then you are going searching for other students your age who also have similar interests.

Teachers – Remember you can adapt the activities to suit what is happening in your class at that time or you can cut and paste parts of it on to your class blog. Just remember to give credit where you found the ideas by linking back to the challenge post somewhere on your post.

Students – Most weeks there will be lots of activities to choose from. You don’t have to complete them all. But by early November, your mentor or I must see your ‘About Me’ page or post as well as two other posts relating to the challenge. If they can not be found, your name will be taken off the list of students participating, especially if you have been given a mentor. Mentors are there to give you some clues about blogging, reminding you of the challenge as well as carrying on conversations in your posts. Remember to read and reply to their comments politely and in a timely fashion.

This challenge we have many new students and classes taking part so let’s get some admin out of the way before we start our activities for this week. Anything written in bold and blue is a link you can click on to take you to another blog or website.

Admin for week 1

  1. Check that your name appears only once on the list of participating students. Leave a comment on that page if I need to remove your name from the list – give me your name, URL and age so I can find you easily.
  2. If all the students in your class have blogs and your teacher has a section called ‘My class’, you should have a widget called ‘Class blogs’. Make sure this is on your sidebar.
  3. Add the challenge badge to your sidebar.
  4. Can visitors leave comments on your blog posts? If your country is in bright pink, then you might need to change your privacy settings. Check this post for how to do thisusing Edublogs, Blogger and Kidblog.
  5. Once you have done your activity for this week, remember to come back here and leave a comment on this post. Include a link to your blog post so I can try and visit in the next week. Great posts will be added to our Flipboard magazine on the sidebar.
  6. Teachers: if you are moderating comments, please do this regularly (at least once a week if not once a day) as it is in the comments where the best connections happen between students and classes. I have just visited some blogs where comments I left two years ago are still awaiting moderation.

With so many new students and teachers taking part, you might like to start with this video created by the team at Edublogs. Here is a PDF activity about blogging terms that you might want to use after watching the video.

Time now for the two topics for this week

Looking at avatars

Activity 1: Create an avatar to use on your blog.  There are many different avatar creation sites on the web. I have been to many of them and created lots of different avatars. Some you just save and download to your computer to then upload into your blog. Others you need to use the snipping tool to save a square image of your avatar. It is always best to save as a jpg format.

Here is a symbaloo of websites to use for avatar making. Feel free to add this to your blog. Along the bottom are pages where teachers have listed lots of sites as well as shown examples. The easiest to do are on the right hand side and look like my avatar.

 

To add your avatar to your blog, if using Edublogs, check here. If using blogspot, check here.  Teacher might need to change some settings in Kidblog to allow students to add own avatars.

This was my very first Animoto created back in 2009. Look at the tools page above the header for other slideshow creators.

Did you find a great avatar site not mentioned here? Leave me a comment mentioning the site so I can add it to the Symbaloo.

Activity 2: Write a post about your avatar and how it represents you. Include a link to the website where you created the avatar. Remember to include your avatar as an image in your post. If writing a post about your avatar, choose an interesting title not just avatar as this will cause an error on your blog.

Activity 3: Create a series of avatars to represent your family members. Use different avatar websites depending upon the person’s interests. Write a post about your family and include the avatar for each person.

Remember – be internet safe, no personal information.

Activity 4: For classes – As a class create a slideshow of your user avatars or add them toyour header area. Above is an old example using animoto. Or check out how to customize your header – here is a post by Mrs Smith about creating avatars – using shapes,

About me page

 

Activity 5: Write or update your About Me page.

Whenever I visit a blog for the first time, I always check to see who the person is that is writing the blog posts. Do they have similar interests to me?

If you already have an About Me page, you might want to create an About my State or Province page as well. Be creative:

What is the difference between a page and a post?  Check out the information here.

If using Edublogs, below are instructions for creating your page. If using blogspot, check here. If using weebly, check here. If using Kidblog, you will need to write a post.

  1. Login to your blog, go to Settings> Discussion and make sure the default setting is ticked for allow people to leave comments> save the changes at the bottom
  2. Now go to the dashboard>pages>add new
  3. Change the title to About Me or something similar.
  4. If you only have one row of icons above the box, click on the last icon called the kitchen sink or toggle. This opens a second row which allows you to change font colours.
  5. In the box, write a bit about yourself remembering to be internet safe. Make sure you have checked out the pages from other students mentioned – many of them have been blogging for a while.
  6. In the top navigation area is Screen options – open the drop down arrow and make sure comments is ticked.
  7. In the area under the page writing box, you should see a Discussion box – open this and make sure you have ticked Allow comments.
  8. When you have finished click the big  button on the right side of your screen – probably says update or send for review.
  9. Once you have saved your about me page, go back and delete the sample page.
  10. If your theme doesn’t show pages in the header area, then you will need to go to dashboard> appearance> widgets and drag across the Pages one to your sidebar.

Activity 6:  What are some apps or websites you could use to create something interesting to add to your About me page? Tell me about them, costs, age to use etc Perhaps a word cloud or glogster – brainstorm as a class.

Finished the work for week 1?

Visiting other blogs

One important aspect of blogging is commenting on other blogs. Classes and student participants are grouped according to similar ages. Visit some other blogs, read posts, get ideas from them, leave a comment. Make sure you include your blog URL so they can come to visit your blog.  Are there any students with interests the same as you? Do you have a mentor yet? Have they left you any comments?

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October 1

New Beginnings

Today I start another journey in my career as a teacher. For thirteen years I have spent August like all teachers do, setting up a classroom, organizing supplies, and reading up on all of my new students. This August, I am embarking on a new journey as an Instructional Technology Coach at Elanco School District. Teaching and technology have always been a passion of mine. I am excited to start this new role. I am working with the most amazing and talented group of K-6 teachers at three different elementary schools. 

I have come to learn that when something is a passion it doesn’t matter what role you take that passion doesn’t wane. For my former students if you are nervous about starting this year in a new grade or a new school Mr. Geiman is nervous right with you. Many of your teachers will be feeling the same way as well. With our common understanding, we will all get through this year with patience and perseverance. Just keep reminding yourself that the journey is a marathon, not a sprint.

I can’t wait for this year to start and look forward to working with all of you. 

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August 1

Adeline Jane Geiman

Dear Students and Families,

Mrs. Geiman and I are excited to share the news that our sweet little girl, Adeline, was born on June 17th, 2017, at 3:26 p.m. She weighed 9 pounds, 2 ounces, and was 22 inches long! Our beautiful family is healthy and happy. Thank you so much for all of your support throughout our pregnancy and for welcoming sweet Adeline into the world with such love and kindness.  We hope you are enjoying your summer!

Sincerely,Baby G

Mr. and Mrs. Geiman

 

Category: Uncategorized | 17 Comments on Adeline Jane Geiman
May 19

Unbounded Classroom: WEBINAR!!!!! Sign Up Today!!!!!

     

Unbounded Classroom 

May 30, 2017 | 3:30 – 4:30 PM ET
Audience: Teachers/Educators, Instructional Technology Support Specialists, Media Specialists

This webinar is co-sponsored by The Pennsylvania Council for International Education (PACIE).

Join this webinar to learn how 4th grade teachers in Eastern Lancaster Elementary School District in rural Pennsylvania are taking their students around the world virtually using Google Expeditions and the Global Connections Framework to instill empathy, understanding, and deeper learning outcomes.

Unbounded Classroom explores the potential of using cutting edge technology to remove the boundaries of the classroom without ever leaving the school building. Students interact and experience a variety of diverse cultures and geographic locations within their own classrooms and globally, via virtual reality. These experiences engage students with their peers, with the curriculum, and with the global community. This webinar will introduce the global connections framework and how to implement virtual reality in K-12 classrooms. Presenters are Mr. Adam Geiman and Mr. Drew Arena, 4th Grade Teachers, Blue Ball Elementary.

Register by May 28, 2017 to guarantee your spot!

Category: Uncategorized | 7 Comments on Unbounded Classroom: WEBINAR!!!!! Sign Up Today!!!!!
May 3

VR Adventure to the Lost City: Machu Picchu

The-Passenger_Claudia-Scanu_Peru_0104 Claudia Scanu via Compfight

This week we read about the ancient lost city of Machu Picchu! We took a Google Expedition to Machu Picchu using our VR goggles and explored the ruins of Peru. What an amazing, beautiful, site the ancient Inca culture left us with. 

We took the time to venture in CultureGrams to learn more about the Peruvian culture and how it compares and contrast with our American culture we all know so well. One of the highlights of our trip was filling out our See, Think, Wonder reflections. Please take the time to visit our infographics or our reflections and leave a comment for my students to reply to. 

 

We hope you enjoy visiting our blogs. We have many more fun and innovative posts to share with you before our year ends in June. Thank you for coming to visit our page and commenting.  

Category: Uncategorized | 27 Comments on VR Adventure to the Lost City: Machu Picchu
April 11

Unbounded Classroom Goes to Washington D.C.!!!!!

It’s official Mr. Arena and Mr. Geiman are going to Washington DC to present Unbounded Classroom! After presenting at KINBERCON2017 we were invited to present at the Internet2 Global Summit. When we first wrote our VR grant our goal was to take our students and their work beyond the classroom. We wanted our students to understand that they are part of a globally connected world with different cultures, people, and topography. 

 global blogging; blogging; vr; classroom;

Since the start of Unbounded Classroom, our classes have connected with 21+ different countries from around the globe through our student blogs. Now Unbounded Classroom has surpassed our expectations. Not only has VR and blogging taken us beyond our classroom walls it has taken us to Pittsburgh and Washington DC where we have had the opportunity to present how we are using virtual reality in our classrooms to level the playing field for our students.   

students blogging

Presenting Unbounded Classroom at KINBERCON2017

We are honored and grateful for the opportunity to present at Internet2 Global Summit! We hope to continue to share our work with the world. 

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March 29

Israel and Palestine

The wailing Wall and the Temple Mount - Jerusalem Neil Howard via Compfight

This week Mrs. Lenahan our gifted support teacher shared a presentation to our class about her recent trip to Israel. She created a presentation of her trip to Israel/Palestine focusing on the culture, topography, and people of this middle eastern country.  After presenting to students, students viewed/read interviews of people on CultureGrams and then wrote a comparison piece on the lives of people in these cultures – also making connections to their own lives.  Student writing will then be shared on their student blogs.

 

Blogging globally in the classroomBlogging globally in the classroomBlogging globally in the classroomBlogging globally in the classroomBlogging globally in the classroom

 

 

 

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March 21

!!!!WeEk 3: StUdEnT bLoG cHaLlEnGe!!!!!

BY

Week 3: Photos And Videos

There is a lot to learn in this challenge so it will be running for a two week (fortnight) period. The next challenge will be posted on 2 April. It is also a chance for classes that have been on Spring break or holidays to do some catching up.

Admin for this challenge

  1. Thanks to all those students, teachers and mentors who have been checking the student list for students mentioned more than once. If you haven’t checked yet, please make sure you are only listed once.
  2. Also we still have some mentors not able to leave comments especially on those blogs from blogger or blogspot. Make sure you have Name/URL as an option when leaving comments.
  3. Some students (who already have a mentor) will soon be deleted from the lists if they have not been participating in the challenge activities.
  4. I have visited hundreds of blogs recently. I have left a comment, or flipped the post to our magazine or have mentioned your post in the next blogging challenge post. Have you found one of your posts mentioned yet?
  5. We now have a few more students who have been asked to be mentors. They will be leaving comments and giving hints just like the adult mentors.

Teachers: Here is a lot of information regarding images, creative commons and copyright which you can use with your students or to refresh yourself about what is acceptable or not on public blogs.  The Edublogger also has a post on free image sources. Above the challenge blog header is a tools page containing a symbaloo with many tools to use on your blog – many relate to images.

Students and teachers please read this before doing the activities

This week’s activities are going to be fun but first there are some things you need to know so please read carefully.

I have been visiting many blogs over the last few weeks. Some students new to blogging have been writing some great posts while others who have been blogging for a bit longer have started adding videos and images to their posts.

Yes, this week we deal with using images, music and sounds in your posts.

But can’t I use any image, music or sound that is on the internet?

No, you must use creative commons or in some cases the fair use rule.

But where can I find these images, music and sounds? Can’t I use anything when I google an image?

No, your blog is public so you must use creative commons images, sounds, music and videos.

Sue Waters over at the teacher challenge has written a fantastic post about images, copyright and creative commons. I would suggest you all head over there to read the post. She explains about creative commons and the licences, attribution, how to find images for your blog and how to upload images to your blog. Most of this would be appropriate whether you are using Edublogs, blogger or any other blogging platform. This might be very wordy for some students, but Sue uses lots of images and how to do sections in her posts.

Other places to find information on creative commons

Images and music for my powerpoint or slideshow:

Do you have compfight plugin for your blogging platform? Follow the instructions from Sue Waters’ post.

You will need to work out how to get the attribution to put on your posts. Check Sue Waters’  post to get more help and more places for images. This post from Edublogs explains how to add media in all its forms to your blog posts or pages. If using blogger, check out the posts from this blog.

Images

Make sure you check out the links under creative commons in the sidebar of the challenge blog.

Music and sound effects

Jamendo, CCMixter, post with 14 websites for music, post with 20+ websites for music, post with 55+ sites with sound effects

Now for the activities for this fortnight

Activity 1. Do some more research on the topic of attribution and licenses and perhaps create your own class video about using images, music and videos in class.

This video is the reaction of students in Mrs Yollis’ class when she mislabelled their artwork. How would you have felt?

Activity 2. Find an image or piece of music. Add it to your post (with attribution) and write a poem relating to the image or music. Invite your readers to write their own poems. Here is Fernando’s example, Samantha is confused

Activity 3. Similar to activity 2. Find an interesting landscape image (include attribution).  Write the beginning of a story relating to your image. Remember to include a conflict of some sort between your characters. Invite your readers to finish the story. How many different endings can you get? Which ending do you prefer? You might need to visit some other bloggers and invite them to finish your story. Remember to leave the URL of your post for them to click on.

Activity 4. Write a sentence using just images – no words OR find 5 images that create a story – again no words only the attribution for each image.

Activity 5. Create a slideshow, photo gallery or poster about your interests to add to your about me page or as a separate post. Your final slide should include attribution for each image.

Activity 6. Create your own images and add to a post of your choice. In your post add a link to the website or tool you used to create your image.

Other options for creating your own images include:

  1. Comic Generators like MakeBeliefsComix.com,  ToonDoo
  2. Photo Editors like Befunky, fd’s Flickr Tools
  3. Tag Cloud Creators such as Wordle

Mixing up your images using these types of tools can really spice up your posts! Leave a comment on this post, if you or your class can recommend some other image sites to add to this list.

Activity 7.  Zoom out from an image

We first tried this activity in the challenge in September 2010. Choose a picture, and have your readers zoom out, so to speak, by leaving comments.  Check out the example from Huzzah who finished their story. If doing this activity, include the word ‘zoom’ in your title so I can find it easily. Remember to give attribution. Most important here is to read previous comments, so you can add to the story.

Check out these zoom pictures: Becky, Jacqueline, Abbey

Activity 8.  Go back to previous posts

If you have used images in any previous posts you have written, then you are ethically obliged to give the correct attribution or take the image out of the post if it does not have the right creative commons license.  Samudra  wrote a great post about using wikipedia commons.

Activity 9.  Create a jigsaw from your image. Mrs Schmidt’s class has done this using Jigsaw Planet . Here is her explanation

Last week (2014) my students made some jigsaw puzzles about famous places in our area.  First each student created one Power Point Slide showing a photo and some facts about a location in our area.  They saved the slide as a JPEG and then uploaded it to Jigsaw Planet.  Once the puzzle was created, they published a link to it on their Kidblog. Click on Niamh’s puzzle link.

Activity 10. Write a post about different websites to find creative commons images. Are there any widgets you can add to your blog to make this easier?

Still got time left this fortnight (two weeks):

  1. Visit other student and class blogs – leave some quality comments
  2. Teachers – have you started visiting blogs listed on the class list of blogs? Maybe pair up your students with those on the other class blogs.
  3. Reply to comments on your own blog
  4. Start using tags and categories with each post you write to make it easier for people to find posts on certain topics. Make sure you have the tags and categories widgets in your sidebar.
  5. Have at least five other student blogs linked on your sidebar – students from other classes and schools – not your own. We will need this for a game we play in a couple of weeks.

Try to have a few different headings like

My Blogging Friends

Other Class Blogs

Having lots of  links to student blogs from other countries will help spread the game.

Here are the instructions for adding links to your sidebars.

Edublogs, Blogger, Kidblog – not sure if this widget goes on the class page or each student page

Still got time to visit more posts that couldn’t be flipped to the magazine

Chloe (Australia), Madison (Australia), Katelyn (Australia), Skye (USA), Lily (Australia), Jessica (Australia), Jennifer (USA), Mikayla (USA), Mia (USA), Jose (USA), Trinitty (USA), Noor (USA), Anneliese (Australia), Beck (USA), Andrew (USA), Jared (USA), , Dom (USA), Dulce (USA), Nelly (USA), Deondray (USA), Sarah (USA), Iqra (USA), Kennedy (USA), Autumn (USA), Lisbeth (USA), Bryanna (USA), Emily (USA), Sabrina (USA), Madison (USA), Keith (USA), Gavin (USA), Georgia (Australia), Madison (USA), Cicely (USA), Haley (USA), Kim (USA), Abby (USA), Lily (Australia), Justin (USA), Casey (USA), Brooklynn (USA), Marina (USA), Mohamed (USA), Lexie (USA), Ralphy (USA), Mahmoud (USA), Kenaysha (USA), Yahshua (USA), Makaela (USA), Sarah (USA), another Sarah (USA), Raya (USA), Mari (USA), Charlotte (Australia), Taelor (USA), Leah (USA), AJ (USA), Erandi (USA), Kira (USA), Marshall (USA), Fern (USA), Angela (USA), Chris (USA), Ava (USA),

These students have been leaving comments on blogs: Jena, Chloe,

Tawnie, Giselle,  created a great post about commenting

Angela has used images to help show how to comment on her blog

FluffyWhiskers , Emily, created a powtoon about commenting

Raynen, Mikaylah, Charlize, created a video

George (Excellent post on comments recommended by a teacher)

Riley asked me to publicise this story about alpacas, Brady writes posts about superheroes, would you prefer this or that by Tayne, Austin tells us about a setter, Jessica loves glittery, Everett loves writing about household items,

Have you checked out the continent song by Mrs Amri’s class?

Mrs Smith’s class have an alphabet soup with lots of links to student posts.

Mrs Lehane’s class tell you about themselves and Melbourne

Did any of Mrs Wong’s students visit your class blog and leave a comment?

 

 Most important learning from this fortnight’s challenge is:

Use creative commons images, not just any image on the net. Always include attribution of where you found the image. Compfight plugin does this for you.

PS If you have done the blogging challenge before, you will find these activities are nearly the same each time. If you have ideas for different activities please leave a comment on this post.

Flipboard magazine

I will only be adding posts to the flipboard magazine that:

  • are written in paragraphs
  • have been proofread
  • include an image, sound or video with attribution

So make sure you have taken note of this week’s learning about creative commons.

Miss W visiting your blogs

From this week onwards, I will only be visiting blogs where students or classes have left the URL to the post in a comment with an explanation. If your teacher is moderating your posts, you will need to wait until it has been published before giving me your URL. Check out the difference between a blog URL and a post URL.

Blog URL: http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org

Post URL : http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2015/10/10/raise-your-voice/

UPDATE  UPDATE   UPDATE

The next challenge will be about global issues and on March 25 there is an easy activity you could take part in called Earth Hour. Visit their website and add their badge to your sidebar if you are going to write a post relating to their theme or activity. I suggest using the 160×600 if adding to sidebar. If adding as a logo or banner in a post use the 728×90 version.

Earth Hour began in Australia ten years ago so we are having a special celebration. Check it out here. They also have special posters you can use on your blog.

Teachers: Earth Hour curriculum kit based on Aussie curriculum but could be adapted for other countries.

Students: Activities for kids to do at home and school relating to Earth Hour.

 

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