Audio? / January

So is anyone else going to try an audio post?

In January we shall have lots to do.

Working

I have been working pretty much constantly on getting my blog in to shape. I've had a few distractions along the way, but it is getting there.

Wordpress is really working well, and because I couldn't figure what template I wanted I made it so the reader can choose. I want to try and figure out a way to get this for blogger templates, which I want to start making soon. If I finish one, I will post it here first.

This was just a check in, so check out my blog and tell me how it looks now.

Audio Greetings

This is an example of an audioblog. Lou has used them in his blog during the hurricanes. I have experimented with them before. It costs a flat rate from Victoria. I think is was five dollars for the two posts. if you want to stop in and say hi.

I will audioblog to Firemind also.

Our Photoblog Listed

I checked Globe Of Blogs and Our Photoblog is now showing up in the directory. It is on this page and this page.

Because of the way I had to list the blogs nationality Lou, Gale, and Christine have become honourary Canadians. I guess we will have to teach you to say "Eh!".

Messages and Timeline

Gale - Whale Tales looks great. Two links on your Table of Contents still lead to Gale test but that is easy to change. Your first listing with blogtools is done. Look at Globe Of Blogs and Globe.

Everyone - Timeline

Things are getting busy for me so I will be out of contact periodically until after Christmas. When needed please assist other members with problems. People requesting help should keep in mind that we are all busy. I for one am going to stop puttering with my different blogs structures until the New Year. What little computer time I have available will be to write and read blogs.

Late December/New Years - A holiday theme at Our Photoblog.

January - our misplaced blogwarming party and hopefully tutorials.

Coming Soon - Geek 2 Geek

Blogging in School 2

Hunterdon Central Regional High School - uses blogs in many ways. Click on the links to see some of them. Will Richardson the 'Supervisor of Instructional Technology and Communications' at this school has an interesting blog.

The Power of Science - is another example of a blog used in schools.

Normally I would add information like the above to Linknut. Since it fits with the last post I wanted to post it here.

Lou - I realize you are busy right now and will be changing classes soon. However, mention this post and the previous to some of your teachers. They may find the information interesting.

Blogging In School

The Demo Blog is a learning blog. We teach each other about blogging and I hope to use our blog in workshops early next year. We then are concerned with education.

Yesterday Lou wrote a post called Blogging at School that I found interesting. It reminded me of a post about education blogs I had written. One of the links was to the profile of Ms. Fitterman. She and her students are using Blogger. I mentioned the teacher to Lou and we thought that it would be interesting and beneficial to contact her. I left a comment in one of the blogs directed to the teacher.

One of the reasons I decided to contact the teacher was to share ideas about teaching blogging. In our group we have used tutorials, and direct teaching using instant messaging. We are interacting and building community. We have two very active blogs and a series of test blogs. We came together because people needed help and others wanted to help.

Another reason I want contact with other learning groups is our diversity. When I tell people about our group they are often amazed. We range in age from 14 to 61 and cover 3 countries and 2 continents. We have a variety of skills and experience. I hope we can serve as an example of something that works and that people are interested in what we have to say.

Finally I want to promote blogging as a useful tool for education. Lou's comment about 'no blogging' makes me think somebody is missing the point. I read somewhere that 'you don't have to be a good writer to blog, but if you keep writing you will become one.' I have seen blogs that started out full of slang and typos become better written and more grammatical. My friend Laura – Jane's blog is a good example. (See this example and this one.)

Blogging is a combination of writing and cybersocial interaction. We write for ourselves and hopefully please our readers. When we comment in other blogs we begin to interact with people all over the world. Our peer group expands dramatically. Blogging is a way for us to interact and keep challenging ourselves. Why shouldn't it be a part of the curriculum?

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Notes:

1. Our comments are set to members only. Guests may use the guestbook in the sidebar.


2. My Truefresco Referrer picked up one of the student blogs after someone popped into Firemind. I followed the link back to Ms. Fitters profile.

Reply to James and Gale

James - I wrote a short tutorial specific to adding links to your blog. It is in your test blog.

Gale - 1. More work in your test blog and whale blog. We are getting there.

2. back up - I write my major posts and save them on my computer before I post. If I do write a post in blogger first I copy the whole post including the date stamp and title to my wordprocessor and save. I am not sure about other back up methods unless you do like my friend and get a tape back up machine. Whether it would work for webstuff I am not sure.

Learn Blogger

Learning to blog just got easier. (via Cafenut). I knew I was on the right track.

Google Groups : demoblog

Google Groups : demoblog:

	Subscribe to the demo blog
	Email:
	Browse Archives at groups-beta.google.com

I created a google group for the demo blog. Maybe it will come in handy, maybe it won't. It's probably just another way to confuse us!

Lou - Moving Blogger Archives

Because you used blogger in both places - ie the old and new hosts - did you have to copy and post to the past or were you able to export your blog?

Wordpress Experiment

Hey guys, I am experimenting with Wordpress right now, just to get a feel for some other blogging places. It is pretty easy to install, but you need to have your own hosting and stuff. You can see on my post there what i am trying to do right now. I suppose I will keep you updated.
Wordpress blog

Fun With Buttons

Made with Buttonmaker via Order Confirmed. The second, third, and last buttons were made by Lou.

I had to edit the html a bit as there were too many spaces and other little problems. But I like the buttons and will try them on my blogs.

Ready

Just letting you know that the address for my blog is no longer onthegergo.blogspot.com but infact tamposi.net/lou/blog. It is ready for visitors but /lou and the main page itself are NOT ready. But the blog is up and running.

Making Faces

Have fun with your blog. I made a self portrait using Ultimate Flash Face.

Promoting 2

The buttonmaker is fun to experiment with Lou.

1. Should we stick to consistent buttons for The Demo Blog and Our Photoblog? I made one for this blog that looks like the RSS fed one. Your 'Our Photoblog' one is nice.

2. If we use them may we upload them to our storage sites - it would save you the bandwidth.

Hotlinking

When you hotlink to a picture, mp3, or any other file you are stealing from the site owner. Quite often hotlinking hurts other bloggers more than it hurts the big companies "who can afford it. Lovedonnaz has written an interesting post dealing with hotlinking and ways to deal with it.

Hotlinking to pictures is when someone does this:

I like this idea:



And will have to check it out.

If you are not hosting either at a free site or your own website it is better to link like this. Using this method means that your readers can see the picture and yet you are not stealing the bandwith required to link the pic to your site. Some sites still will block a user who has too many visitors but this is a slightly different problem.

I found this discussion about hotlinking at Ask Metafilter.

Promoting the Blog

If you are a big fan of those 80x15 buttons, I made one for the group:

In real life, it doesn't have that border. ;)