1. TEaCH By Design Michelle, Stephanie, Lindsey, Grant, Anastasia

2. Description of Teaching Problem Our task was to find a way to improve student engagement in writing. Our solution needed to be something that was easily accessible and could be used by students from a wide range of skills and abilities. If our solution was technologically driven it had to be compatible for both mobile devices, such as iPads, as well as personal computers. Our goal was to find an efficient form of technology/technologies that would allow students to engage in multiple forms of writing that would allow both for formative and summative classroom implementation. We came up with a two part solution that if used successfully teachers could use the technologies in a transformative manner and it’s implementation is something that could be used across a wide range of subjects and for a prolonged period of time.

3. Solutions: Edublogs Piktochart

4. Two-Part Solution Edublogs is the solution to the writing problem that provides a sense of longevity. We hope that edublogs will be used across different units, as students build their writing skills. Piktochart is a less text-heavy way of integrating writing into student’s lives. The piktocharts will be uploaded onto the student edublogs, giving students the opportunity to comment on each other’s work and share collaboratively.

5. Edublogs......but why?

6. Still don’t know what blogging is? Check this out

7. Getting Started With Edublogs

8. Edublogs - Sign Up for Your Blog Your first step if you don’t currently have your own blog, or you would like to use a new blog for this challenge, is to sign up for a blog. Your username is what you use to sign into your blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments you write. While you can’t change your username, Edublogs allows you to change how your name is displayed on posts and comments. Most teachers don’t allow students to use first and last name online and it is common for them to model this by using display names like Miss W or Mrs. Waters.name is displayed

9. Edublogs - Sign Up 1. Go to Edublogs.org homepage.Edublogs.org homepage 2. Enter your username, password and click Sign up for free 3. On the next page select which best describes you.

10. Edublogs - Sign Up (cont’d) 4. Add your email address (optional for student), the human verification word, select ‘I agree to terms of service’ and click Continue to create a blog. 5. Add your blog title, choose your language and click Register and create a blog. - Change the blog domain if you want the blog URL to be different from your username. - Refer to the next slides for tips on choosing blog domain and blog title. blog domainblog title

11. Edublogs - Blog URL (Domain) During the creation of your blog you have to select a URL for it. When you want others to visit your blog you give them the URL link of your blog. Think carefully about your blog URL. Once your blog has an established audience you’re less likely to want to change your blog URL. Ideally you want to keep your blog URL short, easy to remember and we recommend you use a URL that you can reuse for several years. For example, blog URLs that include your class room number or the year mean that you’re less likely to use the same blog URL again next year. Most educators re-use their class blog each year because: It saves time and is easier. As well, it provides a record of previous years’ work to share with students and/or a resource the teacher can refer to.

12. Edublogs Sign-Up (cont’d 3) 6. Once your blog is created you will be redirected to the login page where you enter your username and password to access the dashboard of your blog.

13. Edublogs - Blog Title, Blog Privacy Your blog title is one of the first things a reader sees when visiting your blog. Choose a name that reflects the purpose of your class blog and your students can relate to. But don’t stress too much! You can always change your blog title any time via Settings > General in your dashboard. Blog privacy on the class blog is set in Settings > Reading. Below are the three most common privacy options used: 1.Allow search engines to index this site - Allows anyone to read the content of your blog and for your blog to be indexed by search engines such as Google. 2.Discourage search engines from indexing this site - Allows anyone who knows your blog URL to read your blog content while blocking web crawlers so that your blog is not indexed by search engines such as Google. You use this option if you want to keep your blog public so your content can easily be read but want to limit it to only people who know your blog URL. 3.Anyone that visits must first provide this password- Used if you want to restrict who can read your blog content to only people who know the password. This is the best privacy option to use on a private blog if you want parents, students and other teachers to easily be able to view your blog without having to log into an account.

14. Edublogs - Update Profile Your Profile page is where you can control the global settings for your username including where you set up your display. Your Profile is most commonly used to update display name, password and email address so we’ll focus on this. Here’s how to update your Profile: 1. Log into your blog dashboard.Log into your blog dashboard 2. Go to Users > Your Profile in your blog dashboard.

15. Edublogs - Update Profile (cont’d) 3. Scroll to near the bottom of the page to Nickname in the Name area. 4. Change the Nickname to the name you want displayed on posts and comments.

16. Edublogs - Update Profile (cont’d 3) 5. Click on the drop down arrow and select your preferred publicly displayed name. 6. Now just click on Update Profile to apply the changes. Remember to always click on Update Profile whenever you make any changes on Your Profile page!

17. Edublogs - Creating a Class Creating a Class Using “My Class:” - http://help.edublogs.org/how-do-i-create-a- class-using-my-class-tool/ http://help.edublogs.org/how-do-i-create-a- class-using-my-class-tool/ This page outlines: Creating a Class Class settings Allowing students to post on the class blog Moderation on the student blogs Privacy Teachers

18. Additional Features of Edublogs There are over 250+ customizable themes. Add adaptable plugins like: Social media News scroll Easy Tables Podcasts Forums Google Maps Print Friendly and PDF And more The is also Private and Public Sharing. *All features and the availability are controlled by the teacher*

19. Edublogs Troubleshooting If you are stuck Edublogs has a YouTube channel devoted to tutorial instructions (Click Here). As well you, can visit the Edublogs help forum that has user guides, professional development, safety & digital citizenship, tips for blogging with students, and a few more useful categories.(Click Here)help forum

20. Getting Started With Piktochart

21. Piktochart

22. Piktochart not only helps students with engagement in writing, but it also allows students to create visually appealing pages to help explain their topics.

24. Piktochart - Sign up for an account We found that there was only a few significant limitations to the free account - the big difference is that there’s limited templates, however the ones that are available are useful and with enough experience you can create your own Piktochart. If using a free account keep in mind that whatever you post is public.

25. Step 1: Select format

26. Step 2: Select Infographic Template (or create your own)

27. Step 3: Give your Piktochart a Name!

28. Step 5: Document View and Toolbar

29. Step 6: Insert Text

30. Step 7: Insert Graphics You can insert graphics that Piktochart has available or save and insert your own from online.

31. Step 8: Save and Publish!

32. Our Piktochart TEaCH By Design

33. Joining Edublogs and Piktochart Resource: http://help.edublogs.org/media-add-new/http://help.edublogs.org/media-add-new/ This webpage gives the step-by-step on how to upload your Piktochart to your Edublogs. Treat your Piktochart as any other.jpeg file.

34. Piktochart - How To Video Piktochart Video has lots of YouTube resources to help you along in your creation process!