Marvin as a Tutorial

The Tawa Intermediate School Good Guys used Marvin to create a tutorial explaining why they made a new rubbish enclosure and have invented a rubbish collection solution for the school. After an initial introduction, the students were able to manipulate the programme fairly well with increasing independence. The video can be found at the bottom of the blog.

Video

Hi all. Videos are easily added to a blog by choosing the little film strip icon when adding a new post. I've put an example on of Lizzy explaining the 'doubling and halving' multiplication strategy for maths. It was taken on a normal digital camera and saved on my computer before adding. :-)

Blogger Design

Check out these links. They have up to date guidelines on how to create and amend your blog design and lots of new templates.

http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/
http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2010/03/blogger-template-designer.html

I've been playing with the Marvin tool. It's quite fun. Does anyone know how to get a Marvin video you've made onto a blog?

Promote your Blog

1. Visit other blogs, sign up to follow or leave comments. It is blogging manners to reciprocate visits and comments.

2. Add labels to your blogs. For instance if you label something with John Key there is a good chance it will be read by someone in his office.

3. Put links on your twitter, facebook, myspace etc pages

4. Set up RSS feeds. Details at http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm

5. Sign up to promotion websites. NZ ones are:
http://blogroll.co.nz
http://www.madefromnewzealand.com/blog/room-3-blog-tawa-intermediate-school
http://www.nzs.com/media/blogs/

6. Make links to education websites which will promote your blog:
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/
http://www.nz-interface.co.nz/teacherblogs/
http://nz.loadedweb.com/search/blogs/education/

Hints and tips for Blogging

Things that I have found useful in my blogging journey.

This blog gives updates on the Blogger Template Designer and Blogger Draft, both of which will make it easier to customise your blog.
http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com


For a good visitor list use this website. Be careful how you sign up as the categories you choose will dictate the type of site your vistors will be linked to from your blog.
http://www.geovisite.com/en/directory/news_television.php

For great and easy slide shows use this site.
www.slide.com

Free surveys and quizzes.
http://www.xat.com/web_gear/?quiz=1

To add other gadgets with embed codes follow these instructions:
1. customize
2. add gadget
3. HTML/Java Script (Click on the plus sign)
4. Paste embed code

Our Priorities

Our PLG have decided on our priorities for what we want to achieve this year:
1. Develop an understanding of the relationship between Google Apps, Google Accounts, Blogger and how they work.
2. Develop a set of guidelines for working on blogs / Google Apps
3. Establish blogs within classrooms as a way of giving students authentic audiences for their writing
4. Explore the use of Web 2.0 as tools for developing student tutorials
5. Explore the use of Google Docs as a collaborative tool for learning