Week 2                                                                                                                  Week 4

Threads for Week 3

 

 

 

(Messages #672-#825)

 

Visit our Delicious for all the links mentioned during Week Three.

 

 

Week Three Welcome Messages from the Blogging Team Questions and Answers What is a Voki Managing blog about the correct place to upload photos About Blog URL Comment interaction in blogs Tagging  Statcounter How to add polls to blog   Assignments in a blog. using HTML in comments define pbwiki   how to copy your blog url on an email Managing comments on Edublogs formatting a webpage  About blog comments  following comment threads pop ups  Statcounter again find my blog on technorati Week 3 task help Adding pictures to posts A question about technorati.com Pageflakes  What a blog! Tips of the Week 3 Your Signature How to add Feevy pop ups Merriam-Webster on one page Tag it! b4echallenge The exciting World of Aggregation! More Blogs Mira Luciana Andreea Pele Gladys anamaria menezes Yvonne C Jane Sheila andreea pele

 

Week Three Welcome Messages from the Blogging Team

 

	# 678 Dear all, First, let me tell you how thrilled we are with so much interaction, enthusiasm, and hard work you've had this past week! Just amazing. The Blogging Team is smiling proud of your achievements. Challenges we'll always have, and when it seems that we learned enough there's always some new trick, new application, new paradigms on the way. An adventurous educator's life is never boring! Until this point you've been dealing mostly with the mechanics of blogging, the technical part of it, though you've really taken your time to reflect upon the crucial points of blogging like how to foster interaction, how to engage students, how to comment, what to post, how to post...From now on, we're getting even deeper in one of the essences of blogging. Week 3 is a delicate week. It's that little bit you can't miss, for it's this bit that connects blogs together, that makes them manageable from the point of view of the educator and the learners. This bit is the one that aggregatescontent, that transforms blogging in powerful spheres of conversations.* RSS* and  *Tags*are the bits that connect. So, join us at http://blogging4educators.pbwiki.com/Week3 Vance Stevens from whom we've learned a lot about this topic will be here with us to show you the power of RSS and tags for the  blogging classroom. Please, take your time to watch the video, read, watch tutorials to fully grasp these concepts that might be new for many of you and are essential elements in blogging. Cris Costa will be around for you today, Monday. Check her office hours: http://blogging4educators.pbwiki.com/Week3#OfficeHours We'll also set up a WiziQ live session to answer questions about RSS and Tags more at the end of the week when you'll have a better understanding of them. We can't wait to see the connections even stronger and the interactions deeper! Warm regards from very Windy Key West late at night, Carla Arena On behalf of the Blogging Team
	# 694 Hello, everyone. I posted an introductory message early in the seminar, but then became overly busy with other things that were stealing my time and energy. Beginning today, however, I want to become more personally involved in what has already developed into a quite active, engaging, dynamic teaching/learning experience, for which my congratulations to all of you--moderators, co-moderators, and participants alike! I'm committed to interactive, collaborative blogging, particularly when it is also international in scope. I've had some very good experiences in doing that myself, but those experiences happened when I was teaching. I'd really like to become an active partner, collaborator, and/or active participant in further international blogging projects, however, and I see B4E as a good way to let both old and new online colleagues and friends know of this interest. Keep up the good work that's already being done here! More messages and responses will be coming in from me, beginning today! Sincerely, Dennis in Phoenix
	# 696 Dear all, We've started a new week together and we are glad to see there's so much interaction going on in our group! We'd like to draw your attention to some important considerations when posting and replying to messages on our Yahoo group. By following some basic guidelines, we will make sure it is easier for everybody to follow and make the most of our discussions! :) -Click on the "REPLY" button at the end of the message when you want to reply to a previous message on our YG. By doing this it is easier to trace back a discussion since all messages related to a particular topic appear on the same "thread". (and it's also easier for Nina to prepare the weekly threads for us ;) - Click on "POST" a new message, if you want to start a new topic. And some reminders from previous weeks… (message #261) - Be specific on the subject line and change it accordingly when you're replying to someone. If you're replying to a specific person, it's advisable to start your subject line with "To X - " - If you are responding to messages directly from the YG or from individual messages, remember to *delete the unnecessary messages and info that follow your message. Those receiving daily digests, please check how to post and reply to messages here: <http://blogging4educators.pbwiki.com/Surviving> We look forward to more compelling discussions and discoveries during this week! Best regards, Carla Raguseo The Blogging Team
	#709   Re: Posting and replying to messages on our YG   Hi, Vance here, Sorry I missed Bee last night, but it was after midnight for me. However, I would like to let you know that I am here and listening, as we begin this week on tagging and Technorati, and how we used these tools with the Writingmatrix project. I am ready to take your questions as they come up. I would like to add to what Carla has said here, that when deleting superfluous material from the bottom of your reply, please DON'T eliminate what you are replying to. A message that says "how true" or "that was a really great idea" will be lost on most of us if the message being replied to is not included. I would also like to throw in here something that I don't know where it goes, so I'll put it here. Carla Arena asked me to create some screen casts for Google Reader. I've done that and informed her by email but have rec'd no reply, so in case anyone else knows where these should go, I'll put the links here, and let you update the wiki. Adding Feeds in Google Reader (3.5 mb) Managing Feeds in Google Reader (3.5 mb) Let me know if these work for you. If not, I have swf renditions at 7 meg, and also mov and avi versions which are more megs than my Moodle will accept. Best, Vance

 

 Back to the top

 

Questions and Answers

 

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What is a Voki

# 674

Here is something that might respond to your question. Hope it can help.

'Voki is a fun tool that allows you to create your own personal avatar and give it a voice. You can choose from a wide selection of characters, as well as animals, anime looking characters, and more, and you can personalize them with different hair styles, clothing options, accessories, and more. You can also choose the backdrop behind them and the stage for that backdrop. Once you've created your character, you can bring them to life by giving them a voice.' For further information go to this URL: http://www.killerstartups.com/tag/voki/

Once you create a Voki, you can embed it to your blog.

Regarding my Voki, if you click on the 'play' button, you will hear a welcome message for my students.http://beyondtheenglishclassroomwalls.blogspot.com/

Warm regards from Caracas,

Evelyn

Kim wrote:

 

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Managing blog

# 677 

 Hi Evelyn,

this is not a silly question, but rather a very pertinent one.

I would say that you follow your heart on this one. I try to answer my blog comments in the comment section, so other readers can also keep up with the conversation and learn from it. Commenting is also another way of sharing. I answer to the comments to which I think something else needs an answer or simply to establish my presence there.

But like I said, I don't have a rule. I just follow my instinct and what seems right at the time.

Cris

 

Evelyn Izquierdo wrote:

 

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#684  Re: delightfully and thoroughly awed

... cool interface at: http://jalthokkaido.net

The blog...: http://jalthokkaido.net/blog/ ...looks like a Wordpress do.  If not, please correct me; and, even if not, would you mind sharing your rationales for choosing the blog engine that you use up north?

Paul

 

#687

 

#779, #780

... I appreciate your comments about the JALT Hokkaido site. The main site is done in HTML and the blog is powered by WordPress.

Why WordPress? Hmmm. I have used Blogger in the past but read so many good things about WordPress that I decided to give it a try. Also, I wanted something I could install on my own server, and while Blogger does have an option for this, WordPress just seems more elegant and there are hundreds or thousands of free downloadable templates which in turn can be customized rather easily. Everyone seems happy with it so far :-)

The "Invalid username" message stems from the difference in our hosting accounts despite using the same underlying blogging platform. Your WordPress is installed on an edublogs.org server while mine runs on a private account with a commercial web host. That's why your username isn't recognized on my blog, and vice versa.

 

Please give it another shot. Since then, I've removed the "must be registered and logged in" requirement on the advice of Gladys from this group. And, please remind me of your blog address so I can have a proper look!

 

BTW, WordPress.com offers free blog hosting on a similar arrangement as edublogs. Does anyone know whether usernames and passwords from these two services are interchangeable?

Bob

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about the correct place to upload photos

# 688 Re: To Vicky, Jane and all the artists in this wonderful Group

 

... about the correct place to upload photos and other graphics. If you want photos that you upload to remain within your control (ownership), you should avoid uploading them into a Yahoo! folder (directory) that anyone else has created;  create your own.

Cheers, Paul

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About Blog URL

#679, 691  Re: My URL - to Jacqueline

Dear Jacqueline,

I've found your blog by adding blogspot.com to the name you gave us before.

This is the right URL for your blog: http://jacqueline-bloggingforeducators.blogspot.com/ the URL or web site address for Blogger blogs always contain .blogspot.com at the end after the name you provide. You can go on working on your brand new blog then!!!

Carla Raguseo

Jacqueline wrote:
 I don't know if I am posting this in the right place. I posted a  blog on Blogger. My URL jacqueline-blogg

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# 698, # 699   Re: URL - to Jaqueline

Hello Jaqueline

When you create an account in Blogger, you need a username and password. You just have to go back to Blogger, sing in and it will take you to the dashboard , which is the control panel of your blog. There you should clcik on View Blog. The blog you have created ywill appear in a new page. Then the url on the top of your page is your blog address. It should be something like  http://name_of_your_blog.blogspot.com

 

If you still can't find it, try to skype any of the moderators when you see them available on skype.

... follow my instructions to go back to the blog control panel and edit it.

My skype id is erikacruvinel

Erika

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Comment interaction in blogs

# 700  to carla arena-help

 

#705  Re: Comment interaction in blogs - To Vicky

 

I've just visted your blog and it's amazing to see how much progress you've made in such a short time. You've created a colorful spot to

share the things we love and I really appreciate the links you've added to art galleries and other blogs on the same topic. I spent a lot of

time there enjoying a virtual art tour!!

Of course you are not doing anything wrong, it's just that each blog is unique and has it's own pace! There are chatting blogs, busy blogs, slow blogs... Your's is a visual blog! ;) In fact, I found your last post very interesting to share with the group since you compare your creative process with teaching and I'm sure many teachers will feel identified with your description.

I understand how you feel since we all give our best in each post and want to know how others react to it! However, comments are not the only indicators that show somebody has read and enjoyed your blog. I read lots of amazing blogs and not always leave comments there. Sometimes we bookmark the links or add them to our own blogs because we want to read them on a regular basis! There are lots of ways to connect in the blogosphere!

Anyway, I hope you like my comment.  ;)

Carla Raguseo

The Blogging Team

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# 739 To Vicky, About Comments in a blog

Dear Vicky, Vance's advice is really wise ones. First, you need to persevere. Blogging is a process that takes time and practice. It's just like your own creative process, you have creativity together with practice, lots of it to get to a point that you like the result. Also, take a look back to your post. Some questions you might ask yourself: does it lead to interaction? Are you inspiring your readers to say something or is it just informative? What is your strategy to develop readership to your posts? Just some food for thought as in blogging options abound and are very personal according to your own style and tone. You might want to check this wonderful post by Vicky Davis (who'll join us for a chat next week) "10 habits of bloggers that win". Lots of interesting input for bloggers. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habits-of-bloggers-that-win.html I'd love to hear what your opinion is about it. It's a common inquiry on the part of bloggers.

Tagging

#737  Re: to carla arena-help

Remember that blogs appeal to NICHE interest.  Persevere.  Blog from the heart.

There are things you can do to increase traffic.

The topic for this week is tagging. http://blogging4educators.pbwiki.com/Week3

Be sure you TAG TAG TAG.  People use searches like Technorati and Google Blog Search and others (Google 'blogsearch') to find postings on topics that interest them.  Tags are key to their finding your blog.

Twitter is emerging as a tool for getting you on the map.  This is a good article on how Twitter can help drive traffic to your blog:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/01/23/9-benefits-of-twitter-for-bloggers/

I've tagged more perspectives here: http://del.icio.us/vancestevens/twitter

Hope this helps.

Vance

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#746 Re: Vicky -help

... don't forget to use tags on your posts, they really help people when they are doing their search on the internet.

It's true, sometimes a blog may take a while to really take off and get people to post a comment, but that does not mean that they haven't been reading it. I added StatCounter (it's free) to give me some statistics on the blog and I found out that a lot of people have been accessing it and reading the posts (you can see how many pages they've visited), and a lot of people do come back and sometimes even become regular visitors. There's usually much more going on 'behind the scenes' than we imagine and having this type of counter made me see that. With the information I gather, I can learn which pages are accessed more often (then I link them to previous posts that would have otherwise been forgotten), what kind of search engine they used, key words, favourite topics, etc.

Um abraчo,

Monica

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 Statcounter

# 791  Statcounter - To Monica

Thank you, Monica, for the tip about Statcounter. I've added it to my blog to track traffic there. I've already added my blog URL to my signature, and my boss told me that she has noticed it and paid my blog a visit.

I'm trying to catch up with what was taking place in Week 3 after my class trip and Internet problems in Egypt. Wait for some cries for help soon, all loggers here.

Lilian

Egypt

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#751  Re: to carla arena-help

Hi Vicky!

I've been meaning to visit your blog, but I can't find its URL. One way I've been visiting blogs is by clicking on the URL as I scan the groupo digests.

Could you include your blog URL under your name when you post about it?

A humble suggestion from,

Gladys

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How to add polls to blog

 

#701 How to add polls to my blog   

 

#703  Re: Christian: How to add polls to my blog

Hi Christian,

I've used Activeboard, which allows you to create web polls and forums online. It's quite simple to set up and you can embed your polls into your blog by copying the generated html code.

http://www.activeboard.com/

Monica

 

#708  Re: How to add polls to my blog

... to add a poll to your blog in blogger, choose "settings" in your dashboard and the n choose "template"

In the page elements are click on the link "add a page element". a pop-up window will be displayed and you can choose from the several elements you can add to your blog. The poll is one of them.

Hope it helps!

Cris

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Assignments in a blog.

#702 

 

#706  Re: Assignments in a blog.

Hi, Christian

Blogs can be used to implement any class activities, including giving students assognmenmts and checking on their work. This is how I used it: When I have a power point presentation I want my students to watch, I also add a couple of slides with tasks (have a look at my PPP on Dracula http://dvmunca.blogspot.com/2007/11/myth-of-dracula.html - it was on Halloween) I embed my PPP on the blog and allow students time to read through the slides and then answer the questions posted in the last slides using the blog: this is how I can check on their comprehensive and writing skills. I also add a slide with vocabulary: a list of words they have to look up in one of the dictiionaris I post on the tool bar (usually Merriam-Webster or AskOxford online). This way, they don't need to navigate the internet by themselves: they have the task and the tools to complete the assignment as well as a place to post their answers on the blog.

Daniela

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#719  Re: Assignments in a blog.

Hi all,

I thought a good model for how assignments might be made in a blog could be found at the blog for this session.

That certainly gave me some ideas about how you might ask a question in a blog and then get students to respond in comments.

 

This week I'll be talking about another project involving student bloggers, the Writingmatrix project, which you can read about here  At that link, there are links to many recorded presentations and publications already made about this project.  You can find this document in our materials for Week 3, and you can also see a brief video about the project, here

 

There's a LOT you could read there so I'll briefly explain that teachers in different countries had students blog and tag their blogs with a unique key word, 'writingmatrix'.  The students in these countries then used http://technorati.com to find other blog posts (with ANY authority) tagged 'writingmatrix'.  They browsed the available blogs with intent to find some that interested them and then they left comments in each other's blogs, or tagged them in http://del.icio.us, and/or linked to them from their own blogs (causing the link from their post to appear in the blog they linked to) and writers developed audiences in this way and met online in other ways as well.  The beauty of the project was that it was totally spontaneous, no pre-arrangement, and in fact anyone here can do a search on  writingmatrix' and see what comes up and/OR tag a blog post 'writingmatrix' and find it in the list later.  We could do the same with the tag 'blogging4educators' and if you want to double your fun you can tag your posts both ways, plus add any other tag that occurs to you.

 

I have made some screen casts about Google Reader showing how you can search on blogging4educators in Technorati (and follow the feed on that SEARCH in Google Reader).  I'll be posting the links to those in the wiki shortly.

Meanwhile, if you have comments or questions, you can address them in this list, and I'll try to respond.

 

We could also arrange a time to meet live later this week to discuss this further, and I'll get with the coordinators in case that's wanted.

best,

Vance

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 Back to the top

 

 

#729  Re: Assignments in a blog.

Christian,

You can see some of the assignments I posted for my students in an  advanced English class (we also went to the theatre, so the last post includes instructions).  Using the blog allowed me to add articles, podcasts and videos that I wanted students to reflect on in relation to the articles we were reading (we were using "Maclean's," a Canadian weekly for the reading material). Students had their own subscriptions to the magazine, but just in case they misplaced it, I tried to include links to the particular article as well. Here's the link for the assignments: http://www.englishcefblog.blogspot.com/ (there are links to some student blogs in the lower right sidebar)

 

I also included the PowerPoint slides that I had used in class for a lesson on Faulty Logic to prepare them for debates.

fblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/avoiding-faulty-logic.html

Hope that gives you some ideas,

Jane

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using HTML in comments

#714  Re: My blog

 

Yvonne asks in her latest blog post if she can use HTML in comments.

 

I see that people are trying to answer her in comments in your blog but are having trouble writing the code IN the comments that will explain how you can put HTML in comments.  The explanations are being converted into HTML.

 

Here's how, you siimple write in your comment the HTML code that will do what you want it to; e.g. make a hyperlink.

For example if I want to say Please visit my blog, I can make a hyperlink to it like this:

 

<a href="http://adVancEducation.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Please visit my blog.</a>

 

This will hyperlink Please visit my blog and when the link is clicked on, send you to my blog. The target="_blank" makes that link open in a new tab or browser window.

 

You can just write that in your comment and it should work.  You change the URL and the link text as you like, but be sure and keep all quote marks and equal signs in place.

Vance

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#716, 717  Re: using HTML in comments

Here's Blogger's answer to the question of what HTML can be used intheir comments: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42064&topic=12504

"Only five html tags are accepted:

 

     <a> (for making links)
     <strong> and <b> (for making text bold)
                         <em> and <i> (for making text italicised)"

Gladys

 

Just to clarify, the <a> tag is the <a href="http://domain.com"> display text here </a>

In case that's not apparent to some,

Vance

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#715    Blogger: finding your blog URL

 

Several people have reported problems to discover their blog URL (http://...)

Here is a Blogger tutorial for that: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=41812&topic=12478

"You can find your blog's URL in the Settings | Publishing tab...."

Hope that helps!

Gladys

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define pbwiki  

#718 

I goggled define pbwiki. i got several websites to choose from. is that right? i did not get a definition on the screen but i did get options for where to go to find one.
   thanks, kim

 

 

 

#720 define pbwiki

Dear Kim,

PBWiki is one of a number of wiki hosts available. Please check our blog discussion for Week 1 , where we discussed the difference between web site, blog and wiki.

When you want to find a definition in Google, you should type define:word (don't forget the colon;)

This is what I got:     http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=define%3Apbwiki&btnG=Google+Search

Best regards,

Carla Raguseo

The Blogging Team

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#725  Re: define pbwiki

HI Kim,

indeed. It is not pop-ups on your screen just like that. But usually the first link is the one that contains a general definitions, which doesn't mean the other links aren't relevant too.

But that is the greatest potential of the web - so I see it - the choice. Which also implies that we need to be selective and develop skills which will enables us to identify the relevant information from the less relevant one. It is like going to a library. You get a lot of books to choose from. However you cant read them all or bring them all home with you. You will have to browse and decide which ones are more relevant to you and your study. it is all about having the option to choose and the freedom to access infinite information... and accept that we will never get to the bottom of it...but that we sure we can try to get the best of it!

Cris

 

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how to copy your blog url on an email

#728

 

Hi Kim,

You just need to copy and paste the URL from your browser:

Click on the URL (address) in your browser to highlight it. THen click on the right button of your mouse over the higlighted area and select "copy". Finally, on the e-mail message right-click again and select "paste".

Have you already created your blog? So now you can share it with us!

Regards,

Carla R.

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Managing comments on Edublogs

#730

Dear Jane,

To change you comments setting, once on the dasboard, go to "Options" and then choose "Discussions". You'll be able to choose your settings

there. Finally, click on "Update Optoions"

Carla Raguseo

# 724 Jane Petring wrote:
Have you figured out how to set up comments so that you don't have to moderate them with Edublogs? It's easy to turn off on
Blogger, but I can't figure out how to do it with Edublogs.

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# 726 recording on wiziq

I am a little behind on assignments. i was going to watch the recording from week 2 but i can not get on, despite it saying see recording.

i registered with wiziq.

how can i get on to see it?

thanks, kim

 

 

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formatting a webpage

#734 

...i am reading the david parry article now. it is long, the font is small, and the lines are not spaced. this is difficult reading for the

read write world, esp for someone who wears glasses....

...i know there must be a way to do this on a webpage for easier reading. i only know how to enlarge the font which really does not make the

reading easier. i need spacing between the lines.

is there a way to edit my viewing of a webpage so i can read it more easily?

thanks, kim

 

# 738 

In IE you can pull down view / text / larger font, or in the new versions it's page / text size I think

If you use Firefox just press control + to enlarge text,

Vance

 

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 About blog comments

# 748  Re: To Kim:

 

 

Interesting your view, for what I really like about the comments area is that you have all this flow of conversations going on (check this inspiring post by Mrs. Durff about conversations http://durffsblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/communication-or-conversation.html). You have to have in mind that in general you won't have those many comments as we have in our blog sessions, only when you become a very popular blogger, and I'm sure it will happen soon!

 

You said that " *also, the way this works makes the converation be like swiss cheese.

a reader can read the most recent comment only and comment on that or he can comment on a post much earlier and then his comment will have nothing to do with the comment right before it*. " In Blogger you cannot change the order of comments. So sometimes it can be kind of awkward. That's why you might have noticed that we try to address the person we're replying so that he knows that part of the comment is specifically for him or her, and using quotes and paraphrasing is also a strategy that is part of good commenting. Now, in Edublogs, you can change the order of comments by changing the "timestamp". You just need to go to "manage posts", go to the comment you want to change the order and change the post time, so you'll have a reply just below the comment you're replying to.

 

Take a look how I did that with an online class I had. For each reply, you'll see my "elearningCTJ" comment.     http://elearningctj.bloxi.jp/a/isabel-allendes-listening-activity/

I hope it helps to give you the big picture on commenting.

Carla Arena

The Blogging Team

 

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# 749 Re: To Kim: posts, blogs, and permalinks

 

For example, the URL for my blog is http://explorations.bloxi.jp/

Now, I can share with people the permalink (just by clicking on the title of the post, you'll go to its permalink and comments area) of specific posts to direct them to the right place like

http://explorations.bloxi.jp/a/reading-treasures-in-the-language-classroom-planning-a-show/, which really helps because if you give the URL of your blog what people will see is the latest posts you have, and in this case, this post was an older one so it doesn't show on the front page of my blog. It's in the archive.

Carla Arena

The Blogging Team

jerusalem8610  wrote:

 

ok. from what i understand a permalink is the url for a particular  post. so, lets say i enter the permalink for the blog entry for week 2. i  can see the archives from before week 2. but let's say i want to see the blog entry's for after week 2. can i  find the most current blog post from this earlier post? when i click the blog site on the side bar, i don't get a more recent blog page. i  only get the blog page from week 2.

 

# 788

I'll add my two cents to Carla's clear reply. If you're given the permalink or a certain blog post, you can go the blog homepage, i.e. the most recent post, by clicking on the blog header (the name of the blog) at the top of the page.

I hope this is what you wanted to know.

Maria Claudia Bellusci 

 

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 following comment threads

# 754  on # #742

 

Hi Kim!

Some blog servers allow for threaded comments (replies are ordered as a conversation, not chronologically).

 

I know you can integrate threaded comments to your Blogger blog with Disqus, but I've never tried it. I have, nevertheless, tried their

service at my micro-blog. Here you can see what a threaded conversation looks like: http://gladysbaya.tumblr.com/post/23988459#disqus_thread

Not sure I've answered your point, but wanted to give it a try!

Gladys

 

PS: you can also subscribe (via email or RSS) to comment threads you think you'd like to hear later from. That helps me a lot!

 

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#771  Re: blog comment question

kim asks some very serious questions. I would like to respond web 2+ style, but since rich-text formatting seems impossible on this mailing

list, please accept instead interlineations within kim's messager

 

jerusalem8610 wrote:

If you read them first on one computer, then login from another (home/work) Yahoo! apparently fails to recognize, or mark, the messages

that you've read already

That depends upon whether you are viewing messages in your email program, or reading message on site <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blogging4educators/>

On site you have the option of sorting messages by date, or by thread. Threads work only if responses match message topics and foci.

In threaded view (on-site), if you scroll down past the message that you have selected, you should see it highlighted in a subordinated list of

messages and replies to the (nominal) original message in the thread that you are perusing. If you wish to respond to a particular message in

that thread, please open that message, and then click on reply. If you do that, and edit the subject heading as necessary, your message should

thread properly and catch the attention of anyone concerned.

Cheers, Paul

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# 755 To Andreea: How to add Feevy (dynamic blogroll) to your Blogger

To answer your question on how to add Feevy to your blog sidebar, I created a screencast tutorial: http://www.screencast.com/t/XJRdz4v0Wdn

I hope it helps you and I'm eager to see your own blogroll (list of favorite blogs) on your blog.

Carla Arena

 the only question i have is how to proceed after i get into feevy. how do  i add (or do i add ) the sidebar like in your brazilian blog?

  Andreea Pele

 

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#776   RE: back key

 

Dear Kim.

If you look down to the bottom of your browser you will see all the pages you are visiting. Just click on the one you want to come back.

I hope it helps,

Horacio.

jerusalem8610 wrote:

hi. when i am on the internet and i want to go back to the prior webpage, i usually use the arrow button or cursor button and move the arrow key up to the top left of the page. i then click the back arrow key.

is there a short cut or key that i can click to go backwards rather than have to do the method i use?

i don't want to change to a different window or tab. it is the same page just going to the prior view of what i was seeing before.

thanks, kim

 

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# 778 Re: Going on a holiday - To Natasa

Sure Natasa!
Everything will be available on our wiki. <http://blogging4educators.pbwiki.com/>   All the material, the weekly threads and the recording of the live sessions.
And we'll be around to answer any questions you may have!  :)  Enjoy your holidays and blog about them!
Carla Raguseo
The blogging Team  <http://carlaraguseo.edublogs.org/>

"natasabozicgrojic" wrote:

> Hello everyone,

> I will be away from 2nd to 9th February. While I am looking forward to the holiday, I am still worried whether I will be able to catch up

> when I come back. I am going to a beautiful mountain, so it will at least give me something to blog about when I come back.

> Natasa

 

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pop ups

#787

A pop-up blocker is useful when navigating certain websites that might show advertisements in pop-up windows. These kind of pop-ups might be distracting and very annoying. Everywhere else, just allow them by clicking on the

bellow bar.

 

If you are using Internet Explorer and want to turn off the pop-up blocker definitely, go to Tools in the menu bar and click on Pop-up blocker. There you’ll find two options: Turn off pop-up blocker (this is what you have to choose) and Pop-up blocker settings. If you choose the latter, you’ll be able to add the websites where you wish to allow pop-ups.

 

Yahoo and Google Bars also bring pop-up blockers. If you’ve installed any of them, make sure to change their settings too.

 

Anyway, I find allowing the pop-ups in the websites I want, the best option.

Maria Claudia Bellusci

... what exactly is a pop up? i have them blocked. is that good or bad?

 

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 Statcounter again

# 793

 I already created a project at statcounter for my blog, but the counter doesn't show anywhere on my blog. Did I miss something?

Lilian

 

# 794 Re: Statcounter again - Monica, I need help

... you might have to add it to your blog template: use the widget box in your dashboard and copy paste the code to one of the boxes.

U can always skype me: Skype ID: navysternchen

Cris

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Back to the top

 

find my blog on technorati

 #796 a question

... the first problem is the following: i'm on blogger and i can't find my blog on technorati. i only see it as a link on one of my friend's blog. i can't find it on google either. :( so clearly i haven't checked something properly. do you happen to know what? and two, what do we do with the tags. do we have to bring them together on google reader? is yes, how?

andreea

 

#805 Re: a question

I was waiting for this question.

First of all, Google reader and Technorati are two different things. Google Reader and Bloglines are feedreaders. If you want to follow a blog (you have one in mind) you can subscribe to its feed. But you already have to know about the blog.

 

Technorati and http://blogsearch.google.com/ search blogs to help you find ones you you are looking for but don't know about yet. I haven't used blogsearch that much and I don't know whether or not it searches for tags in blog postings.There is information here that says it utilizes blog 'structure' http://www.google.com/help/about_blogsearch.html but I found no mention of tags. A search on blogging4educators only turns up 19 results. I turned the safe filter off, and got the same.

 

Notice point 5 at the above URL. It points to information about pinging http://www.google.com/help/blogsearch/about_pinging.html

 

Now, how does Google or Technorati know that a blog exists? It has to at some point ping that blog. A ping is like a sonar packet of data that one server sends another, which the receiving server acknowledges and returns a ping to that effect. So to start the process your blog has to ping Google or Technorati and say, yoo hoo, here I am. Normally the search engines troll blog sites and look for blogs, ping them, and once they've found them, follow them, but in case you have to go proactive, there is information on how to do that here:

http://www.google.com/help/blogsearch/about_pinging.html

 

I know more about this with Technorati. Technorati searches on TAGS in blogs, but you have to be sure your blog is PUBLIC somewhere in your settings you can make it so). This will enable it to communicate with blog search engines (i.e. ping them and answer pings). If it still doesn't show on listings, you might have to manually send a ping to the search engine.

 

David Warlick has some information about how you can do that with Technorati here: http://hitchhikr.com/index.php?mode=faq#2

 

Also, you can register with Technorati. Once you've done that you can 'claim' your blog. If you follow this procedure you'll eventually reach a point where you can ping Technorati. Yoo hoo, I'm here !!

 

When we were experimenting with writingmatrix we had a lot of people, including me, who could not get their blogs to show up in Technorati listings despite numerous attempts using all the tricks mentioned so far. I wrote them to ask what was going on. They wrote back that they would look into it. Eventually they came up with a tweak on their interface whereby you can adjust the level of authority you want your blog results to be invested with. If you are researching latest developments on a vexing physics problem you might want to weed out hits where the poster is not known. If you are dealing with first time bloggers (educators, that's us!) then you want to see posts of blogs of students and colleages with zero 'authority'. So now Technorati have made it possible to search on posts

with ANY authority. This is what you want. You can see how to adjust this in my screencast given in the wiki for Week 3:

 

- Managing Feeds in Google Reader (3.5 mb) http://213.42.148.233/mod/resource/view.php?id=13029 or

http://213.42.148.233/file.php/83/internetsearch/google_reader_manage_feeds.wmv<http://213.42.148.233/file.php>

-

http://213.42.148.233/file.php/83/internetsearch/google_reader_manage_feeds.swf(13.8 megabytes)

 

When I do a search in Technorati on blogging4educators tagged posts with ANY authority

http://technorati.com/search/blogging4educators?authority=n&language=en

 

I get 48 hits. If i change this to 'a little' authority that number reduces to 8 hits.

 

This probably sounds more complicated to some of you than you wish it was, but this is the reality as far as my colleagues and I in writingmatrix were able to work it out over the past several months. On the up side, my posts are now showing up in Technorati listings ;-) So try some of the hints indicated above and let us know if it solves your problem (and if not, that's ok too, because your feedback will help push us to the next level of discovery)

 

And if you already KNOW, been there done that, then we want to hear from YOU.

 

Ever Inquiringly,

Vance

 

#811 Re: a question

Vance, thanks for your help,

It's one of thsoe occasions that makes me realise how close i am to hating technology.

For google blog search, i pinged them by pasting my blog address in the little slot they provided. it still doesn't show up.

And for technorati i figured the easiest way to solve the problem would be to get an account. Right? Wrong! The site jammed, it took forever and it still doesn't show.

I must be doing soemthing wrong, i just can;t figure out what. And it's not because i have never used techology before. i'm not a whizz kid but i usually manage.

Thank you for the patient explanations, though. I'm giving up for today. At my wits end and all that.

Cheers,

Andreea

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Week 3 task help

#807

 

"c. Go to our list of participants' blogs and add them to your aggregator (Google Reader or Pageflakes)."

 

I have a google reader and I tried to add the URL of the pageflakes list of participants blogs...but this wasn't recognised as a feed. Do I ave to add each blog indivually which is marked with a feed symbol?? (BTW- I've read the articles and watched the casts...)What am I doing wrong??

Lindsay

#808 Re: Week 3 task help cristinacost...

find the rss feed of each blog by clicking on the feed symbol and then add it to your aggregator.

hope it helps. :-)

Cris

 

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Adding pictures to posts

#799

One more question: how can I add a picture to my posts on edublogs? I tried uploading a picture in the space provided below the writing space but it didn't appear with my post :-(

Lilian

 

 

 

#802      Re: Adding pictures to posts    

 

When you add a picture, you have to make sure you click "SAVE" just below the message, otherwise it will not update the changes to your post. Also try Youtube: there are lots of tutorials on how to add/edit/improve your blog.

Daniela

 

 

#810

... uploading pics in edublogs can be a little bit tricky at first.

 

Underneath your blog post text box there is an option to add pictures. Click on "browse" to find your pic and add it to the post. the picture will upload to that field. The place the cursor of your mouse where you want the picture to appear in your text and then go back to the picture field (under the post text box) and click on send to editor. It should work.

Cris

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A question about technorati.com

#804

 

I was playing with technorati.com to see if it shows my blog and posts in its search results. When I tried searching for b4echallenge, it didn't yield any results. When I chose the option of 'search any authority in English' it showed our posts for this week. Can anybody explain what's 'authority' here?

Lilian

 

#814 Re: A question about technorati.com

 

*Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has.

This is from http://support.technorati.com/faq/topic/71

At our level of blogging, use ANY authority in your searches.

Vance Stevens

http://adVancEducation.blogspot.com

 

#818 Re: A question about technorati.com

 

Any website or just blogs? And how linking? Is it through the Blogroll, Feevy, links in comments, or other?

Lilian

 

#823 Re: A question about technorati.com

 

Technorati specializes in blogs, though there are also tabs for other tagged content, such as photos and videos. It also picks up slideshare. I think it just works on tags, but you might investigate and see if you can find differently.

Vance

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Pageflakes

 

 

#824

Now, there are two pages for participants' blogs: one page for those on Wordpress http://www.pageflakes.com/Blogging4Educators/19712681

and one page for those on Blogger http://www.pageflakes.com/Blogging4Educators/20611165

MaryH

 

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 Back to the top

 

 

 What a blog!

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#812

 

Dear all,

... may I share with you a great blog by a young-in-spirit-and attitude-blogger? http://amis95.blogspot.com/

Enjoy. It is in Spanish, but hopefully you will be able to get it! Not sure how great the online translation applications are....:-)

Cris

 

# 815 - 816

Wow, Cristina, you're right--what a blog! At 95, Maria Amelia is a real inspiración, and she speaks so clearly in her interview.

I just took another look and I see that her son gave her the blog for her 95th birthday. What a great idea for a gift--to set up a blog so

that the recipient can start recording memories without getting bogged down by the technology.

Jane

 

# 817

...Her grandson gave her the blog for her birthday and apparently he types the posts for her. Isn't it a unique example of collaboration

 

across generations? :) What a lovely story! Thanks for sharing, Cris!

Carla R.

 

# 833

Maybe this an exmple of what you are dreaming to do. Do not wait till you are 95 and your grand-grand-grand kid, she or he, give a blog to you as a gift for your birthday. Start writing right now.

Horacio.

 

# 825

Dear Cris, Amelia's blog is a real inspiration for those parents and grandpas who are still afraid of the technology. It's really touching.

Evelyn

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Tips of the Week 3

 

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Your Signature

# 740  Tip of Week 3 -

 

Now that most of you have new blogs or renewed blogs, it would be great if you added your blog URL just below your signature. It will make it easier for us to match blogs with participants and you could have unexpected visits to your blogs. Don't forget: TAG (categorize/label) your posts *blogging4educators *

 

# 741 RSS...or the Key to Magic Kingdom?

Dear all, worth taking a look and getting inspired for your post of the week!

http://webgina.edublogs.org/2008/01/27/rss-or-the-key-to-the-magic-kingdom/#comment-21

http://squarepeg05.blogspot.com/2008/01/after-lazy-weekend-not-so-coherent-blog.html

http://beyzasfirstblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/rss-feeds.html

http://from-novice-to-expert.blogspot.com/2008/01/wasting-precious-time-on-line-rss.html How do I know about their reflection? RSS on our pageflakes! http://www.pageflakes.com/Blogging4Educators/19712681 Keep sharing!

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# 745 Re: Carla: Tip of Week 3 - Your Signature

 

...  I use StatCounter  www.statcounter.com to give me some blog statistics (who's been accessing, where from,  what pages were visited, etc.) and I was at first surprised to see  how many people actually click on the blog address from my signature.

Monica

http://projectplatypus2.blogspot.com

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# 747  to all OVERWHELMED b4e participants Re: RSS...or the Key to Magic Kingdom?

Carla, thank you for this "eye-catching" post and to all of you who may be overwhelmed and overworked and selectively skimming posts --  my recommendation is NOT to skim this one -- the blog posts by Gina,  Consuela, Andreea and Beyza are wonderfully insightful, clear,  worthwhile. I found myself described in each of their posts -- and  am now DETERMINED to make time to learn and understand RSS a bit  more.

Holly

http://tales-around-the-world.blogspot.com

http://boomerlangs.edublogs.org

 

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# 753  To Holly and to all OVERWHELMED b4e participants

  That's exactly the beauty of RSS! Everyday I check our pageflakes<http://www.pageflakes.com/Blogging4Educators/19712681>just to get inspired in the realm of so many topics. Each educator revealing a bit of himself. It's a journey of self-discovery, of daring to try and to go beyond. Blogging with RSS is what connects, really! It makes us feel we are part of global conversations. We can chime in those conversations whenever we feel like it to and add our own voice to the interactions going on in the blogosphere, or we can just be great listeners and a learn from the others. It's powerful!

 

And you're right the first posts in the group are just inspiring pieces and they make our hard work behind the curtains really worthwhile!

Thanks!

Carla Arena

 

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How to add Feevy

#756 Re: How to add Feevy (dynamic blogroll) to your Edublogs

Dear all,

Here are the steps to add Feevy to your Edublogs blog:

1) Go to "Presentation" in the Dashboard and then click on "Widgets".

2) Drag a TEXT box into your sidebar.

3) Click on the TEXT box(little sqaure on the right) and paste your Feevy code there.

4) Click on the cross to close the box.

5) Click on "Save Changes"...

 

and enjoy your dynamic blogroll!

 

Carla Raguseo

The Blogging Team

http://carlaraguseo.edublogs.org/

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pop ups

# 763  re: pop ups

Kim, a pop-up window is a smaller window that just pops-up on your screen.

To have it block is good, but sometimes you might need to allow them. Usually a yellow bar appear underneath your address bar and you might have to allow the pop up so that things get displayed the way they should.

Cristina Costa

... what exactly is a pop up? i have them blocked. is that good or bad?

 

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Merriam-Webster on one page

 

#765, 767   Ugly Betty, SCI Miami and Merriam-Webster on one page!

Check on my new post - I found a great way to use RSS with my students - I would like to get some feedback from you as well! http://dvmunca.blogspot.com/

About Merriam - Webster ESL Learner section - yes, it is new. The ESL students can register for the word of the day and can also check on the pronunciation of the word they write in the box.  it also has the visual section - you write in the word, and it gives you a graphical and visual representation, which is excellent for ESL students as most of them are visual learners: http://visual.merriam-webster.com/

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/

 Daniela 

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#766  Re: Ugly Betty, SCI Miami and Merriam-Webster on one page!

 Hi Daniela,

I'm glad to see you've already introduced your students to RSS.

I agree with you RSS can help us deal with the Information overload by letting us access the content we are interested in both timely and effectively.

I also use Merrian-Webster Online with my students by adding a widget to the sidebar (we'll see how to do that on Week4), but I had not seen the ESL section. Is it new?

BTW, is Ugly Betty the American version of the Latin American soap opera"Betty la Fea? I had no idea it was an intercultural phenomenon! ;)

Thanks for sharing!  What a great resource for ESL/EFL students! Thanks, Daniela! I’ll add the Merriam-Webster widget to my school wiki.

Carla Raguseo

The Blogging Team

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#781  Must-Have Tools for your class blogs

Blogs are wonderful free tools teachers can design to meet the needs of their particula syllabus, curriculum, students' learning styles and  personal teaching philosophies. My students like our ESL class blog  because it incorporates a variety of tools they are using EVERY day in  and outside class. This is a list of 5 "must-have" tools I put together and recommend to any ESL teacher who wants to use blogs as a tool  rather than as a simply instructional media:

http://dvmunca.blogspot.com/2008/01/5-must-have-tools-on-your-esl-class.html

What are your top 5 Must-have blog tools?

 Daniela

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Tag it! b4echallenge

# 782  Week 3 - Tag it! b4echallenge

Dear all,

Task 4 for this week is to write a post about one of the suggested topics and tag it b4echallenge. <http://blogging4educators.pbwiki.com/Week3#Task4Tagit>

 

After publishing my post about 5 things you don't know about me, I checked the tag at Technorati here  and found Daniela's post about 5 must-have tools in the ESL classroom. Publish, tag, connect and interact. Join us in the b4echallenge!

Who's next?

Carla Raguseo

The blogging Team

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The exciting World of Aggregation!

# 789  Tag it, RSS, b4echallenge -

Dear all,

 

I've been trying to keep up with this wonderful group, and it's hard! However, RSS and tags and aggregators are really lifesavers and everyday I play more and more with these wonderful tools to keep us connected. We from the Blogging Team hope you're taking your time to explore this week's tasks and essential concepts of blogging.

 

Today, when I took a look at our Pageflakes.

http://www.pageflakes.com/Blogging4Educators/19712681

http://www.pageflakes.com/Blogging4Educators/14125251

 

I realized Andreea was into our challenge of the week, as well as some of our moderators and Daniela Munca. I couldn't be out as it's such an interesting activity that can be used in such a meaningful way with your learners. I'm talking about Week 3 Task 4 - Tag it!

 

It was so revealing to read the posts of friends about the "5 things you don't know about me", plus 5 tools, 5 learning experiences... And, for me, it was certainly a trip deep down inside and back in time to reveal things about me that were dormant...What an amazing journey!

 

Then, I played around with the RSS feeds and Tags in Google Reader. We can make them public in our account so that they become available to our network. In the case of tags, for example, I tagged the posts of the challenge as b4echallenge and here you can follow who has already written about it. How neat is that? 

 

You can also check at technorati, as pointed out by Carla R., all the participants who have been part of our b4echallenge and have tagged the post as *b4echallenge*. Here's exactly the concept of the writingmatrix that you've been reading about this week. If there are questions about it, just email to this group, and I'm sure Vance Stevens will be around to tell you more about it.

 

Also, back to the RSS feeds concept, I tagged everybody who posted his understanding and reflections about RSS as RSS. So, you can follow through our public page participants' posts on RSS:

 

We're all dying to see how creatively you could use the concepts of tagging and RSS in your own blogging classrooms just like Daniela Munca shared with us on her  blog

 

Think, post, Tag it* blogging4educators* and *b4echallenge* and connect!

Sorry for the long post, but we are just so excited about the possibilities of connecting the blogosphere through RSS and tagging!

 

Carla Arena

On behalf of The Blogging Team

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More Blogs

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# 676 Link to my blog

Hi all,

Although I've tried blogger in the past and liked it, I have my own  domain for my blog, and I use Wordpress. Editing the theme is not very  user-friendly, so I haven't been able to figure out how to add a link  to a page with the template that I'm using.

As soon as I figure that out, there will be a section on blogging with  students. Here's the link for now:

http://www.mirabaz.com

I also added it to the Links area.

Mira

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# 680  My blog's address

I've forgotten to add my blog's address , so here it  goes:www.englishinteractions.blogspot.com

Luciana

www.englishinteractions.blogspot.com

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# 682  Re: Link to my blog - to MIra

Hello, Mira,

I'm Andreea from Romania. Your blog looks very interesting and I would really be interested in adding your blog to my RSS feeds but unfortunately I can't. Is there a way we can work this out?

Andreea Pele

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# 693 Gladys the blogger

Dear Everyone,

It's a pleasure to see so many blogs born, filling the blogosphere with new voices... and lots of ears too! I've been commenting on a couple of the new blogs announced here (will try to visit them all, but have some problems to read messages for the last few days, and now have to catch up!), and was so gladd to see so much interaction taking place!  [=D>]

I've been wondering how I could share with you all what I do as a blogger, and the best way I found was to create this page:

http://www.pageflakes.com/gladysbaya/20293736

There you can see all my blogging, and if you want to see any in more detail, you only need to click on the right image. By the way, each

image is automatically updated regularly... That's the magic of RSS... which we are all exploring during this third week!

Keep making yourselves heard all over cyberspace!

Warmly,

Gladys

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# 697 An edublogs attempt - Ana Maria´s portfolio

Dear B4Eds,

I had already created lots of blogs in Blogger but now I thought would be a good time to get to know how edublogs worked. I wanted to create a portfolio in order to share projects I have taken part so far and inspired by Carla Raguseo´s blog I´ve just created a new baby.

What I can say is WordPress is much more complicated than Blogger but I guess slowly, bit by bit I´ll be able to find my way around.

Thus, Í´m writing to invite visits, comments and suggestions to my baby blog: http://www.anamariamenezes.edublogs.org

Hope you like it,

anamaria menezes

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# 707 My Blog

I cleaned off all the dust from an old blog I started a while ago in an Evo session and would love for you all to visit it. The url is http://www.yvonnecaples.blogspot.com  I put some questions about commenting, blog length and student involvement that I would love to get some answers to.  Thanks!

Yvonne C

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# 736 Geography Lesson

I'd like to share this amazing video that was discussed on another list: http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=4023 Lilly, who is not yet two years old identifies countries all over the map. A remarkable child, and a tribute to her remarkable parents!

Jane

 

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# 759  Please tell your students about my blog

http://sheilav.edublogs.org/

Here is the URL for my blog please tell your students about it.

Many thanks

Sheila

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 # 761

... sorry to be so dramatic, but for not so objective reasons i had to change my blog address from squarepeg05.blogspot to what you see below

http://squareeducation.blogspot.com/

andreea pele

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