Sessions 5 & 6: Blogging Assignments 5 - 8

Assignment 5: Adding Pages and Videos
  • Add 3 pages(minimum) to your site that support your blog's  topic. These pages are in addition to your main (home) page.
  • Two of the pages should be robust with content pertaining to your blog's topic. Make them more interesting by adding a picture or two. Align the pictures to the left or right of the text for a better visual display.
  • How to Add a Page: Pages Option
    1. Select New Pages or,
    2. Select Edit Page to edit an existing page
    3. Type in your text
    4. Update
    5. On the SHOW PAGES AS drop down menu, select Side Links or Top Tabs

  • One page must display a "video" that you created using Animoto.com or one that you found on a web site.The video must pertain to your blog's topic and must be embedded on the page (not a link to the video). Be sure to include a sentence or two that explains to your visitor what the video is about. Invite your visitors to view your video. You can search for videos on  TeacherTube.com, History.com, Dailymotion.com, Nationalgeographic.com, History Channel and a few other video web sites (sorry, still no access to YouTube unless you're a DS teacher.

  • How to Embed a Video

  1. To embed a video in a post or a page, copy the "embed code" that is provided on the video site. Please note that not all videos have this code available for you to use.
  2. Depending on the video site, you may have to click the "share" button to get the embed code. Sometimes the embed code is located below the video or on the right or left side of it. 
  3. Then, on your blog,  paste the code on the blog page's  "Edit HTML" tab.


Assignment 6: More on Design

There's a a lot that you can do to spruce up your blog by using the Blogger Template Designer feature. For example, you can make changes to: font colors and styles, the blog's layout, the blog's background, and your link (and visited link) colors. Spend some time trying out the various options that are available and see what you can do with your blog's design - you may be surprised at how visually appealing your site can become.

To do this, go to:
Design > Template > Customize > on the Blogger Template Designer window select the various options that are available on the navigation menu located on the left). 


Assignment 7 : Addins

 Select 3 of these activities to include in your blog.

1. Live Traffic Feed: For the free version, go to, http://feedjit.com/freeLiveTrafficFeed/
  •  In the FREE CUSTOMIZATION box, select the color and the width of the widget, leave the number of visitors that you show to no more than 15.
  • where it says, Install Fedjit On My.... select, Other Blog or Web Site then, GO
  • In the INSTRUCTIONS FOR INSTALLING ANY BLOG OR WEBSITE box, select the HTML code (copy into clipboard) that you see displayed (at the top of the box area). 
  • Now, back in your Blog, you'll need to add the CONFIGURE HTML/JAVA SCRIPT gadget and then paste the HTML code that you copied in the previous step.
2. Add animations and "stickers" to your pictures using http://fotoflexer.com/ 


3. Create a word cloud using Tagul. The word cloud should be reflective of your blog's topic. You can insert the word cloud on a page that you've already developed or, you can include it on your home page as part of a Picture Gadget.

The sample word cloud on the left is a static image, the sample one below is animated. Try both if you'd like!


To get this type of animation, design your word cloud then: Select: Grab and Share > Place on a Web Page > Copy to Clipboard (Hint: Before you Copy to Clipboard, change the width from 800 to around 350). Then in blogger, click on the HTML tab and find a place (within all that HTML code) to paste the code that you have copied to the Clipboard.


Get Adobe Flash player



Get Adobe Flash player





4. Create and "embed" a comic strip using Bitstrips. You can insert the comic  on a new page.



5. Create and "embed" a talking avatar using Voki. You can insert the avatar on a new page.


6. Create (and insert or embed) a Movie Clapper Board (or
an animated image) at: Fodey.com   The site says that the Newspaper Clipping Generator doesn't work well so you shouldn't spend time working with that option.


7. Create your own YouTube (or similar) video and embed it on a new page or post. You may have to do this at home because, as you know, YouTube is blocked at school for students.   :-(

8. Create a video at GoAnimate
GoAnimate.com: Blogging+is+Fun by alighieril


Assignment 8: Comments
Visit your classmates' blogs and thoughtfully respond (comment) to a post on 3 of your classmates' blogs. Be sure that you are logged into your Google account when you leave a comment; I want to be able to see who is commenting!

Suggestion: I've been in the situation where I've put a lot of time and effort into writing a meaningful comment and then, when I've gone to post it, the screen froze and I lost all my work. I hate when that happens! Now, I always develop my comments in a Word document (SAVE it!!) and then I copy and paste my comment into the blog comment window.

Your comments should be robust and interesting. The teachingiselementary blog has a fabulous post on how to comment effectively. Please visit the site and use the suggestions posted by the author as you comment on your classmates' blogs. This same blog has a great screencast video on how to comment on a post.  Please visit Nathan Bransford's site to get additional ideas on how to craft a meaningful comment.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)