As we move from the class of 2009 into our class of 2010, many of us will experience the release of one group of students and the arrival of a room full of new students. Some of these students may have had experience using their own individual blogs, set up using classblogmeister within your school. Many will be wanting to continue and build on this experience.



Individual student blogs set up under classblogmeister have the potential to follow students as they move from one class to another throughout their time within one school. In order for this to happen, current class teachers need to release the student's blog. This porcess is known also as "orphaning" their students from the current class to allow the new class teacher to "adopt" each students' blogs so that they then belong to the current class for their following year. 



Another point to note regards the ownership of the blogs themselves. For those of you who are moving into a new school environment, your previous classblog will remain the property of the school in which they were created. So too do any photos, video, documents, presentations or other materials stored within an online environment etc.



This last point is worthy of noting when you set up any accounts initially. Passwords for any school related or student related materials will at some time need to be handed over to the school as you leave. For some who began this journey early this may compromise the security of further personal access particularly if you have used the same generic password for a multitude of access points, both school related and personal sites.



To avoid compromising your own security it may be well worth considering a change of password. In the case of classblogmeister, this can still be done by altering the password section in the Control Panel. After making the change, you'll need to click on "Submit Description". Clicking this will lock the alteration into place. You will then need to pass on this altered password to the Principal or network administrator within your school.



Please Note the Following:

 

1. Class Panel


2. Click on current class i.e. 2009


3. Class Roster


4. Each child will have an edit button - Click on edit


5. Under 'Class' use down arrow to select Orphaned


6. Click on Make Change

1. Class Panel


2. Click on Current class i.e. 2010.


3. View Orphans


4. Select new teacher from list (assuming that the new teacher already has a classblog set up).
   
   If this is not the case yet, the process will need to be completed when done. 


5. Click on Submit Changes

Thanks Liza for the link. Superb!

Photofunia

Sharing your classblog url can be a tiresome task. It is sooo long that anyone can easily forget it.

Tiny Url allows you to shorten this to a address you will remember. (see the earlier article I posted in April)

Bit.ly is another easy to use site that does this too.

I am enjoying the interaction with Tim Comfort's class in Canada and was delighted to receive another invitation, this time from Brent's classmate Jervin. Unfortunately though when the comment was published, there were no clickable links and I wasn't able to directly access the blog source for Mr Comfort, Jervin or Brent.

Want to know what I am talking about and how to do it?  Here goes...

Before you go into comment on a blog article, open your own blog and before you log in, copy the web address of your page. (To do this, I highlight the web address at the top of the internet web page and then use Ctrl + C)   Then when leaving a comment it is always a good idea to paste your URL into the box provided under your name and email addy area wher eit says to enter the URl of your blog.  i.e. just above the comment area. If you do this your name will then become a hyperlink and people can click on this hyperlink to directly access your own site.

Of course comments still need to be apporved in the usual way before they appear but doing this will make it much easier for people to visit you and return your call.

Fortunately I had Tim's blog in my related links which has allowed me to return the call easily too and I am off to do that right now. You'll hear from me soon Jervin.

I received an invitation today from Brent, a student in Tim Comfort's class

Brent invited me to visit his classblog. Brent wrote that when they go to the lab Mr Comfort brings up my blog. Well, how cool is that and what a compelling invitation. How could I not investigate Brent's blog further!

It seems that Brent is just on the beginning of his blogging journey although I should have asked him if he has blogged at school before. I may be completely mistaken and Brent may be a  seasoned veteran! (I need to make a note to myself not to assume things so readily!)

Anyway, I began to consider what I might write in reply to Brent's kind invitation. I asked Brent what ideas he may have about using his blog? The introduction at the top of the page mentioned that the class is a group of  "Young adults, interested in inquiry, critical thinking, collaborative learning and creative communication"

I love using blogs and think it is a great way to record and share our learning and so I began to ponder... and came up with a suggestion that perhaps others may be interested in...

I wondered how many bloggers from different countries Brent could get to comment on his blog. I also wondered how this could lead to a rich and relelvant learning experience?



If you as a student go to -

http://classblogmeister.com you'll see a link to "List classes by School Level"  Choosing a level similar to you allows you to browse through the blogs available and select one to visit from a new area each week.  I now wonder if a similar age is necessary... Why impose that limit?



Now the research part. In their own classblog page, students could feature an article a week on something that is happening in that country or area. They'd need to find out about that first. Then when they find out something of interest, they might like to post up a question for their blog visitors from that particular area to answer.

Contacting other bloggers from that area by visiting their blogs allows us to leave an invitation as a comment on their page along with our own blog URLs. Just as Brent did to me, this encourages people to visit our own blog pages and encourages them to answer our questions.



Worthwhile? I wonder how many would become involved, share information and understandings. I wonder if there would be lots of replies. Would we find out interesting information?

Rich, real & relevant learning?  I wonder....