During the first week of the new semester, you will need to check if you have completed the following things.

Activity 1: Change your email signature.

Log onto your computer. Then from the school intranet page, right click, open email in a new tab. Change your signature by click on options> edit your signature> make it look like this

John Doe – your name

6/7H Mrs Stag – your class and home group teacher’s name

2011

then save and close twice.

Activity 2: Create an ICT folder on your home drive.

Click on start icon on bottom left corner> click on computer> double click on your own network drive> right click then open ‘New’> Folder>name folder as ICT2011

Activity 3: How to open a new document

From inside your ICT2011 folder> right click on new>choose now which type of document you will be using eg Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, Excel

To rename actually open the document, now go to top left Office button>save as whatever you will call your document.

Activity 4: Create an ‘about page’ that will be put in your blog later.

Check out these student about pages. Notice they have been aware of  internet safety – not mentioned surname, school, town they live in, email address

• Teegan from New Zealand age 10
• Katy from USA age 12
• Anna from Australia age 11
• Daniel from Australia age 11
• Alanna from Australia age 11
• Georgia from Australia age 11

Open a Word document, rename as an “About Page” for you to use in your blog when you have one. Remember every three or so minutes to save your work. When you have completely finished your ‘About’ page activity, save your document.

Write your own ‘About’ page or if you already have one, update your ‘About’ page in your blog.

Activity 5: Email your document to your ICT teacher

• Open a new email.
• In To box, put in your ICT teacher’s email address. Students in 6/7A or 6/7B, please add Miss Wyatt’s email address too.
•  In Subject box, put my about page.
• In the body of the email, mention what you are sending your teacher. Also include a sentence asking for a blog to be created or telling your ICT teacher that you already have a blog. eg
  • Hi Miss W, I am sending you my about page. Could you please create me a blog to start using next week? Thank you.
• In icons, find the paperclip and click, choose your file to attach by clicking on browse, (go to folder and find your document), click attach, then close.
• On your email, you should now see an attachment underlined, click send.

Activity 6: Change our ‘Kids in the Mid’ about page

Look at these class blogs ‘About’ pages. What do you think would need to be included in our ‘About’ page for ‘Kids in the Mid’ to represent us in 2011?

• LMS Eagles – grade 6 social studies
• Mr Miller - grade 6 class
• Mr Carson – Canada
• Mr Carmichael - Canada
• Miss T  - New Zealand

Activity 7 :  ‘Students check here’

In the pages linked at the top of the header, click on ‘Students check here’.  Find your class and name; are there any activities Mr C or Miss W  could mark off already? Leave a comment on that page.

Still got time left this week? Check out the links under challenges on the left sidebar.

• Visit the student blogging challenge from March this year and visit some students who took part.
• Leave a comment at the Blogger’s Cafe.
• Visit Mr ‘Davo’ Devil’s blog and create an avatar using paint or something similar. Attach to an email and send to Miss W.
• Visit the blogs of some of your friends in other classes. Leave them a comment on a post you found interesting.

Leave a comment at the end of this post telling us three things we should include in our ‘About’ page for Kids in the Mid. Or leave a comment about what needs to be added at Mr Davo Devil’s blog.

G’day everyone.

I have now got my own blog.

Come and visit to leave a comment.

There is also a competition on there for someone to create my passport photo that I can also use as an avatar.

I might also change themes and will need a custom header – not sure yet what size that will need to be.

As part of your ICT checklist you need to be able to explain how a computer works.

1. Find a creative commons picture showing the insides of a computer.
2. Write a post including the picture and explain how the at least 3 things inside the computer work.
3. Add a link to the website you used to find your information.

Here is a link to a short video explaining the workings of a computer.

Have you ever explored inside a computer and been amazed by the pieces and objects?

Leave a comment about what you saw, or what you think you might see.

In week 1 you:

• created an email signature
• learnt how to create folders and documents on your school computer hard drive
• looked at student about pages and created yours on Word
• attached your Word document to an email asking for a blog to be created for you to use and sent it to your ICT teacher
• looked at class about pages and recommended in a comment what we should include on our ‘Kids in the Mid’ about page

In week 2 you:

• learned to log into your dashboard
• changed your settings
• copy and pasted your about page from word onto your blog
• wrote your first post – 8 random facts about me
• left a comment telling me what you think a good comment will look like
• looked at the page ‘Students check here’ to see what you have already had marked off

In week 3 you:

• created an avatar
• learned how to use printscreen, Paint and Microsoft Office or Snipit
• uploaded a comment user avatar and a blog avatar
• wrote a post describing your avatar
• if blogging for the second year, registered for student blogging challenge
• started visiting other student blogs from around the world

In week 4 you:

• added categories to your blogroll
• added links to blogs and websites to your blogroll
• learnt about using tags
• created post categories

Images certainly make posts more interesting to read especially when the image relates to the information in the post.

Can you use any images that are on the internet? The answer is definitely NO!!

But can’t I just go to Google search and use images from there? The answer is definitely NO!!

Not all images on the internet are free for everyone to use. Some newspapers have paid a lot of money for a photographer to take images for their newspaper articles and if you want to use these images, you might have to pay money to either the newspaper or photographer. These photos are usually called COPYRIGHT.

But there are some photographers who take photos that are free for others to re-use or mix or use for public display. These images have a CREATIVE COMMONS license. Check out this website for information about Creative Commons. Each country has slightly different licenses.

If you get images from Flickr, then here are what the different licenses mean (Thanks Sue Waters from Edublogs for this image)

Notice, whatever license you use, you HAVE to attribute the original author. This means you have to acknowledge the person who created the original image. At the end your blog post, or linked within the post,  you must attribute the image and you must link the photo back to it’s original photo page.

Well, how can I safely find images to use in my posts?

So here are nine (9) activities relating to images. You must do activity 1 as this will help for the other choices.

Activity 1 – Visit these blogs

• Kathleen Morris who expects her Grade 2 students to know about and use creative commons and giving attribution when using images in their blogs. She uses FlickrCC which is not blocked at her school and gives instructions for using with Edublogs blogs. Check out her slideshow in the box.
• Ronnie Burt from the Edublogs team who gives ideas for using images other than FlickrCC.
• Miss Wyatt has also written a post giving lots of other places to find images.
• Sue Waters from The Edublogger who also gives out some easy instructions on inserting images. Notice at the end of her post, she has six more posts you could read about using images in your blogs.
• Allanah King, New Zealand. Lots of hints for students using blogspot.

Activity 2 – Using tags to find images and adding them to posts

Last week we looked at using tags in our blogs, now we are going to use tags to find images.  Below are some great websites to use that have images with creative commons licenses.

Wylio – will need to join for free – (attribution included in the embed code)

Comp fight – See below (attribution)

Flickrcc – edit in house (attribution)

Morguefile, Pics4Learning, using Google search with creative commons,

This next section of the post has been written by Sue Waters from Edublogs as part of the teacher challenge held earlier this year. She has also mentioned about the attribution and where to find it in the site.

1.  Go to Compfight

2.  Change to Creative Commons only, choose whether to search tags or text, add your search term and click Search.

3.  Scan through the search results and click on the Photo you like so that you can view it on its photo page on Flickr.

4.  Scroll down right hand side of photo page to view License.

5.  Hold your Ctrl key and left mouse click on “Some Rights Reserved” to open up the license on a new browser tab to read terms of its license on Creative Commons.

• Only use if license is applicable for your situation.

6.  Now select View All Sizes from the drop down Action list and select the size of the photo you want to use.

7.  Right click on Image and select Copy Image Location or Copy Image URL (depends on what web browser you are using).

8.  Now go to the post you are writing inside your dashboard and click on Add an Image icon

9   In the Add an Image window click on the From URL tab
10.  Add the image URL, image title, select the image alignment, add the URL of its Flickr photo page to the Link Image URL field and then click Insert Into Post

• In this example the URL of its Flickr photo page is http://www.flickr.com/photos/53611153@N00/309709280/
• You link to its Flickr photo page as it is a requirement of Flickr’s conditions of use and so that if any one clicks on the photo they can view the original source of the image.

11.  Add the photo attribution either below the photo or at the end of your blog post.

• It’s a requirement of all Creative Commons Licenses that you attribute the original author.
• This means you can’t just use a creative commons image without acknowledging the person who originally created it.
• The text below this photo is are examples of how you can attribute an image — look closely at what websites the attributions links to!

Example 1:

Photo by Darwin Bell licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

Example 2:

Original image: ‘a piggy in the middle‘

Released under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License

Please note:

• Some School Districts block Flickr
• In these types of  situations you’ll need to download the photo onto your computer and then upload it to your blog post. Even if you have downloaded to your computer, you will still need to give correct attribution.

Activity 3 – Colour a post

Write a post about your favourite colour and include at least three images. Remember to resize them to small or no bigger than about 400 pixels in width. Remember to explain why you chose those particular images and include the attribution correctly.

Activity 4 – Create your own images and add to a post of your choice

Other options for creating your own images include:

1. Image Generators such as ImageGenerator.org
2. Comic Generators like MakeBeliefsComix.com,  kerpoof, ToonDoo
3. Photo Editors like Befunky, fd’s Flickr Tools
4. Tag Cloud Creators such as Wordle
5. Graph Creators including GraphJam and Crappy Graphs

Mixing up your images using these types of tools can really spice up your posts!

Activity 5 – Zoom out from an image

We tried this activity in the lastudent blogging challenge. Choose a picture, and have your readers zoom out, so to speak, by leaving comments. So maybe something simple, like a pillow, and the first commenter describes something bigger around the pillow (like a couch) and the next commenter would write about the room it was in, and the next could zoom out the window and do the house, etc.  If doing this activity, include the word ‘zoom’ in your title so I can find it easily. Remember to give attribution. Most important here is to read previous comments, so you can add to the story.

Check out these zoom pictures: Becky, Jacqueline, Abbey, Teegan,

Huzzah finished their story.

Activity 6 – Pictures tell the story – no words

Here is a post on how to create a gallery in your blog.  Create a visual post using no more than eight images – where the images tell a story. Remember to give attribution for the images you used. No writing in this post other than the title and attribution.

Activity 7 – Tell the story of the picture

From Bill Ferreirae – I sometime find a picture and tell students to use that picture to come up with a story. It can be about the picture, what happened before, what will happen next, etc. So, at the top of this post is the image I have chosen for you to start with. Copy the image to your post, then write the story. Remember to give attribution. If you don’t have your own blog, tell your story in a comment here.

Activity 8 – Create an animated photo show

Think of a theme, try adding images to animoto, slide or other online image animators. Add music, transitions, text etc. Grab the resultant code and add to your blog post.

Activity 9 – Write a sentence using images – no writing

Write a sentence about yourself using just images. For example – I love to read comic books. Remember to give attribution for each image and in the title use the word ’sentence’ to make it easier for me to find.

One way to create a slideshow is to use the program Animoto.

1. Have the images you want to use on your computer in a folder.
2. Go to Animoto.
3. Log in or sign up by using the referral code Miss W. can give you.
4. Upload your images.
5. Add any text frames needed.
6. Add music.
7. Finalize the video.
8. Once you get the email to say your video is done, copy the embed code and put your Animoto in your blog.

Here is an Animoto Miss W. created with art from her class.

Leave a comment mentioning some ideas for using a slideshow. This will count for part of your checklist activities.

In week 1 you:

• created an email signature
• learnt how to create folders and documents on your school computer hard drive
• looked at student about pages and created yours on Word
• attached your Word document to an email asking for a blog to be created for you to use and sent it to your ICT teacher
• looked at class about pages and recommended in a comment what we should include on our ‘Kids in the Mid’ about page

Now let’s head into week 2 of our 15 weeks worth of activities.

Activity 1: Learning to log in to my dashboard

Miss W. created a blog for me. I received an email at school from edublogs which gave me my username and a funny looking password.  So what do I do now?

• As you are at our middle school blog, just right click on your name on the left sidebar and open in a new tab.
• Find the Meta widget and click on ‘Log in’
• If you have a blog from last year and do not have a Meta widget, then after your URL type  /wp-admin
• This will now open to a log in area, where you put in your username and the password that is in your email.  I suggest you copy and paste the password exactly. Untick the remember me box as lots of other students use your school computer.
• If you have forgotten your password from last year, then put in your school email address or your blog username  and ask for a new password. Check your email then go back to step 1.
• If this worked, you will now be in to the dashboard of your blog.

Activity 2: Change some of the settings.

The dashboard is where you do all your blogging work.  But so you can login very easily without having to copy that password each time, you need to do the following things using the left-hand sidebar:

Change password: Click on users> your profile

Put in your first name, nickname ( be sensible and internet safe with choice of nickname), password (something you can remember easily – maybe same as school password), same password a second time, then finally update profile button. When that has updated go back in and choose from drop down link for display name publicly as. Update profile button again.

Change name of your blog: Settings > general

Change your blog title and tagline – again be internet safe in what you choose. Make sure timezone is Tasmania and choose how you want dates and times to show on your blog. Finally save changes button.

Notification of comments: Settings > discussion

Tick the following boxes: all default article settings; other comments – boxes 1, 4 and 5;  before a comment appears – box 1.  If you are going to visit your blog dashboard regularly then you might not need an email sent otherwise click the email me when comment held for moderation.

Further down the page under avatars – show avatars, G rating, then choose what avatar will appear if a reader has not created their own. Finally save changes button.

Changing the theme of your blog: Appearance > themes

Only click on preview if you want to see what it will look like, activate when you have decided definitely on that theme. You can change your theme as often as you like as you are a moderator of your blog. Do you want 1 or 2 sidebars on your blog?

Widgets you must have: Appearance > widgets

You must have the following widgets: Blog avatar, pages, recent comments, recent posts, links, categories, Meta

Activity 3: Editing my ‘About’ page in the blog

Go to your blog dashboard. Click on the arrow next to pages. Click on edit. Hover under ‘About’ and click on edit. Delete what is already in the white body of your page.

Open your word document with your about page in it. Highlight the information in your document, copy it, then paste it in the body area. Click on the kitchen sink icon, to allow more options like changing colour of your fonts.

When you have finished creating the ‘About’ page, click on blue button on the right ‘Update page’

Activity 4: Writing my first post

So that your readers get to know something interesting about you, Mr Clark and I want you to write a post titled’ 8 random facts about me’.  Check out these posts by students in other schools – Amber, Mrs Daugherty’s grade 5 students, another Amber

You might want to leave a great comment on one of those blogs or add a comment to Miss W’s post about random facts.

To write your post, go to your dashboard, click on arrow next to post, add new, type in a title for your post and write the body of your post. Make sure your work is in sentences, paragraphs, if words need capital letters you have used them such as I or a person’s name. When finished click the Publish button.

Activity 5: Leaving a comment

Visit this blog and watch this video created by some grade 3 students with their teacher. What do they expect if you leave a comment on their blog? What are you going to accept as a comment on your blog?

On this post, leave a comment telling me what you think a good comment will look like.

Activity 6: What have I completed

Remember to check the pages in the header ‘Welcome to 2011′ to see if your parent has left a comment yet. Then look at the page ‘Students check here’ to see what Mr Clark and I have already marked off that you have finished.

Extra activities to do

1. Go to the student blogging challenge and register your blog for the challenge. You must have your own blog to register as a student. You can register next week as well once your blog has been created.
2. Leave a comment on our previous post about what you did during your holidays.
3. Think about some topics you can write about for your early posts in your blog. If you are a student in your second year of ICT with Miss W, then what type of passion blog will you create? Check some of them out on the left sidebar of this blog. Remember you can create a passion blog with some friends in other classes as well – check out the cricket blog run by Daniel, Braydon, David and Liam.
4. Go to the list of students taking part in the blogging challenge. Visit some of their blogs and leave some comments.
5. Visit the blogs of some of our students and leave some great comments.

Next lesson will be creating your avatar.

This is the first movie I have created using Xtranormal. I hope it works well. Students at our school have chosen groups to go in to work on projects about being responsible. What happened in the movie, did actually happen – students missed out on activities because they didn’t sign  up on time.

Here are some of the other student movies and cartoons for you to look at.
From Kasey and Daniel
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7853677/

From Marcus and his friends – go to the very bottom of the blog

http://marcushan09.edublogs.org/

A ToonDoo by Jeremy

In Skills 4 Life this fortnight we are looking at empathy and being tolerant.

Part of this topic involves being able to resolve conflicts by using :

• mediation
• compromise
• negotation
• assertiveness

Students in 6/7D have had a chance to create a cartoon using ToonDoo that shows one of the above methods for resolving the conflict.

Check out Miss W’s cartoon below and as students publish them, I will add a link to them here.

Sophie, Brody,  Luke,  Marcus,  David,  Natalia,  Caitlin,  Alanna,  Brodie,  Daniel,  Braydon,

“Oh, no! How will that affect us in IT lessons?” the students ask.

Well, for those students who have chosen to create a passion blog, it means you can share one blog for the same topic. If anyone wants to work with a partner or group eg the girls wanting to do netball or the boys wanting to do nerf guns, you only need one blog now to share your passion.

The student who creates the blog will then have to invite the other students to be administrators by following these instructions especially 1, 2, 4 and 7.

Check out the list on the sidebar under ‘Check these passions’ and see if the owner who has already created the blog wants you to join them in writing the posts to make your blog

THE BEST IN THE WORLD!!

PS: I will take off the ads once there are at least 8 informative posts on the blog. Create a post category or use a tag for each person in the group, so I will know who has written the posts.

Original image: ‘The Perfect Nature‘

by: Jose Roberto V Moraes

September holidays are nearly over (hooray say the parents …..  oh no say the students).

Third term you need to start thinking about individualising your learning in ICT lessons.

• Do you want to be taking risks and having a go at something totally new?
• Do you want to be collaborating with students around the world and organizing Skype sessions with your new friends?
• Do you want to just use the basics of Word, Publisher and Powerpoint?

Remember to look at the grade 6 and grade 10 checklists to see what you can do to cover some of those areas particularly how a computer works etc in the last coloured group of criteria.

Which of these are you going to do?

1. Take part in the student blogging challenge and blogger’s cafe
2. Research a topic negotiated with Miss W – eg Who are my ancestors?
3. The basics – using Word, Publisher and Powerpoint to create three fold brochure or powerpoint on computer functions and devices,  glossary of technology terms in Word, poster about an activity at school eg sports carnival
4. Take risks – use glogster for a poster about your interests, create a dance animation for Christmas, publish your own storybook online, try stop motion, create a blog about your passion, create a video about internet safety for younger students, use Scratch to create a game, negotiate something else with Miss W

Please fill in the form below by the end of this lesson so you can start the activities next week.