Kidblog Overview Find helpful resources at: bcpsODL.pbworks.com Objective: Participants will explore the ways in which Kidblog can be used by students to express a point of view on a subject and support it with evidence in a safe and supervised online environment.

Why Blogging? Blogs in Plain English: Blogs in Plain English:

Read and Reflect 12 Reasons to Blog with your Students: your-students.html 12 Reasons to Blog with your Students: your-students.html What resonated most with you?

Reading Class Math Class Mrs. Weaver Your Kidblog Account Reading Class Teacher Johnny Megan Kyle Your Class Blog Site Kyle Post 9/23/13 Each Class Member’s Blog Each class blog site can have two teachers (for free) Teachers can have more than one class blog Students can be members of many different class blogs Kidblog’s Structure

CODE Create a fake “student” account for the purposes of this workshop.

Page 1 Your display name should be your “teacher” name. Ex: Mrs. Weaver Use a class name that describes what it is for. Keep it fairly simple to make it easier to type. You can create additional classes later. Ex: Weaver AM Reading, Weaver’s Science World, etc.

General  Change class title and URL if needed  Set your time zone to New York Themes  Choose a graphic theme for the class blog site Widgets  Choose to include only the blog directory widget in the sidebar Posts  Set who can read blog posts o Users (choose the current class or members of other classes) o Admin/Teacher only (good for assessments and private journals; be sure to check “students may read teachers’ posts”)  Require post approval at first, but eventually turn this off  Set teacher notifications (good if you aren’t requiring post approval and aren’t logging on regularly)  Change the appearance of the Activity Feed on the front page to list view  Enable post broadcasting (so you can post the same entry to more than one class at a time) Comments  Set who can leave blog comments o Users (allow class blog members or members of other classes) and/or guests (people who log on with a guest account) o Admin/Teacher only  Require comment approval at first, but you might eventually turn this off  Set teacher notifications (good if you aren’t requiring comment approval and aren’t logging on regularly)  Enable threaded comments and set thread levels (2 or 3 is a good number) Users  Define roles: o Students should not be allowed to change their profiles Essential Settings Page 5

Student View

Adding Users Option 1- One at a Time 1.The student display name should be their first name and the first letter of their last name 2.Their password should be their BCPS external password (found in EASI) Page 8

Adding Users Option 2- Bulk Upload 1.Get students’ BCPS external passwords from your tech liaison. 2.Create one Excel spreadsheet for each class with the students’ names in the first column (first name and first letter of last name) and their BCPS external passwords in the second column 3.Save each spreadsheet as a “CSV (Comma Delimited) (*.csv)” file 4.Follow the directions on Kidblog to upload and bulk-create the users for each class Page 9

Adding Users Option 3- Student Set-up 1.Change the class blog settings to allow users to join using a code (and make note of the code). 2.The students go to kidblog.org and choose “Secret Code?” 3.After entering the code you provide, they are prompted to create their account (and should use their first name, first letter of their last name, and BCPS external password).

Students Accessing Kidblog Students need the URL or a shortcut to their class blog site ( Once at the class blog site, click “Log In” in the upper right of the screen, choose the correct name from a drop-down menu, and enter the password. Students can access drafts and monitor their comments from the control panel. Page 10 Page 2

For Further Reading Available on the bcpsODL workshop wiki: Paper Blog Lesson Two sample parent introduction letters: – Kidblog_Parent_Intro_Letter.doc Kidblog_Parent_Intro_Letter.doc – blogging-letter-to-parents.doc blogging-letter-to-parents.doc How to Write a Quality Comment Comment Starters Blogging Rubric Blog Terms Crossword

Identify one concrete way that you plan to use Kidblog in your instructional practice.

Thank you! Please complete the workshop survey (which will be ed to you) in the next 24 hours so that payment will not be delayed me any time with questions!