October 24 2016

Week 3: Student blogging Challenge

Using Images and Attribution

(Copied & edited from this weeks Student Edublog Challenge post)

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

Step 7: 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. This might be very wordy for some students, but Sue uses lots of images and how to do sections in her posts.”

Great places for images:

http://www.photosforclass.com/

http://www.pics4learning.com/

https://openclipart.org/

Free music and sound effects:

https://www.jamendo.com/search?language=en

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/websites-download-creative-commons-music/

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/55-great-websites-to-download-free-sound-effects/

If you have read the information above you are ready to have some fun.  This week I have included a few activities for you to choose from. Have fun!

Activity 1

Find an interesting landscape image (include attribution).  Write a sizzling start relating to your image. 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 2

Create a slideshow, photo gallery or poster about your interests. Your final slide should include attribution for each image.

Activity 3

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.

Activity 4

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.

 

October 14 2016

Week 2: Student blogging challenge

4191979465Commenting: This week it’s all about the comments!

(Copied & edited from this weeks Student Edublog Challenge post)

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 do, there are some protocols bloggers in schools like to follow.

Check out this video about leaving quality comments. It was created for one of the very first blogging challenges  by Mrs Yollis’ grade 3 students


Your task this week is to visit 4 other class/student blogs on our blogroll. It might be the About Me page or another post you found interesting. Leave a quality comment on at least one post on each blog. Then to show that you visited them…

Write a SEPARATE 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. You can also do one at a time, “save” your draft, and come back to add another copy/pasted comment as you visit each site. Here are two examples from previous students in the challenge: Allegra and Meghana

Remember also to leave a link to your blog in the comment. I hope you make some great connections this week.

Happy blogging!

October 11 2016

Week 1: Student blogging challenge

Create an avatar AND a post about it

As we have already created an ‘All about me’ post we are going to begin the challenge by creating an avatar to use on our blogs.  There are many different avatar creation sites on the web. I have explored many sites on the symbaloo of websites provided by Miss W on the week 1 challenge. Below are some of the avatars I created and links to the sites I used.

pick-a-facechibi-makercartoonify

 

 

 

 

 

https://pickaface.net/create-avatar.html 

http://chibimaker.org/

https://www.cartoonify.de/

face-your-mangaavacharapokoyize

 

 

 

 

http://www.faceyourmanga.com/editmangatar.php

http://avachara.com/avatar/

http://www.pocoyo.com/en/pocoyizeyourself

reasonably-clever_editedgreat-gatsby_editeddude-factory

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini/

http://apps.warnerbros.com/greatgatsby/avatarcreator/us/

http://www.dudefactory.com/

All of the sites I have included above did not require any registration. I found the easiest way to save it when complete was to do a screen shot or capture by selecting the Print Screen (PrtSc) button on the keyboard, open Paint, paste, crop and save the image as a JPG. From there it was as easy as going to the dashboard, selecting users, your avatar and following the steps from there.

Once you have created your avatar and uploaded it to your blog I’d like you to write a post about it explaining how it represents you. See mine below for ideas. Don’t forget to include a link to the site you used to create it. Have fun!

My Avatar

pick-a-faceI chose this avatar to represent me because of all those I created, this was the one that looked the most mature. (Note I didn’t say the oldest) I gave my avatar reddish brown hair, hazel eyes and a broad nose. I also decided to put glasses on my avatar even though I don’t wear them all the time. I do need them when I am reading and working on the computer which is most of the time when I am in the library. I selected a green dress as it is one of my favourite colours to wear. The background I chose has flowers as apart from reading, gardening is my other passion. What do you think? Did I choose the right one?

I created this avatar using https://pickaface.net/create-avatar.html

 

 

October 9 2016

Global blogging challenge!

cropped-sbcheader_2015-175x25d

I’m excited! Why? Because this term we are joining 135 classes from 16 countries across the globe who have registered in the student blogging challenge.

The challenge will involve weekly tasks all designed to improve blogging and commenting skills while connecting with other classes and students. Click on the badge in the sidebar to see the latest challenge.

Four students, Chloe, Emily, Lavinia and Sarah have also registered to take part in the student blogging challenge. They will join thousands of students from 40+ countries who have registered individually.

Happy blogging!