Blogging A-Z: Step Three

Always be aware of your digital footprint. "In the 21st century our digital footprint conveys an important image and people should know what that is." (Nielsen, 2011,para.1)

Break down the walls of your classroom - "connect with people across the world, including experts"(Kist, 2010, p.81)

Collaborate with others. Create opportunities to engage other voices.

Draw readers by using widgets: RSS, Twitter, and Diigo feeds.

Enhance with video, digital images, and embedded graphics.

Find your voice."I'm still looking!"

Grow as a writer by learning, reflecting, and sharing.


Help students engage in preparing for  "an ever expanding information society." (Richardson, 2009, p. 28)


Interact with those who follow your blog. Communicate using comments on posts and expect comments on your posts.

Journal-blogs can be used to record, review, evaluate, and reflect on learning "and plan for additional research, as well as help when they begin to write."(Duncan, 2012, p.68)


Keep on blogging. Don't disappoint followers.


Link to other sites and interesting web pages.


Make use of email or external blog links (Diigo) to post to your blog.


"New technologies... and new possibilities...suggest that education itself is part of the revolution."(OSLA, 2010, p.38)


"Organize, manage and evaluate the information"(Trexler, 2011, p.95) used in your blog.


Post, post, post!


Question yourself and your readers in order to engage and create followers.


Read blogs by teachers, teacher-librarians, and technology educators.


Subscribe to other bloggers using Google Reader or another aggregator.


Tag (label) your posts to allow searching and finding.


Use blogs to "share successes and challenges with other professionals through Professional Learning Communities and Professional Learning Networks." (OSLA, 2010, p.12)


Voices need to be real, authentic and I am beginning to think-not too academic.


Write for your readers. "The Web is evolving to become more of an area for social and idea networking." (Crane, 2009, p15)


Your posts need to always be professional.


Zuckerberg introduced Facebook which can be considered a social blogging platform.

Five Blogging Fundamentals: Step Two

What have I learned about blogging?

My experience creating and posting to Steps to Web 2.0 has given me some insight into blogs and blogging.

1. Create a site with an interesting design:

    -preview as you play with the layout to see how things look

    -don't hesitate to change the design if it isn't working (most recently-November 13, 2011)

Blogger Design Page

2. Use interesting titles and tags:

    -play with words but be clear about the content of your blog and posts
    -tag each post to clarify content
    -be flexible and creative

3. Add images, screencasts or videos to create interest:

     -enhance using public domain, creative commons or original digital images

4. Include hyperlinks to internet sources:

     -include links to items you talk about and sources of further information. Reading on the Web includes hyperlinks which make your blog interactive and enhance content 

5. Share your passion

    -create a blog for your personal digital videos, photos, your interests, travels, or personal news or opinions

    -read, follow and comment on other blogs that interest you

   -if you want to introduce blogs to your students you need to blog yourself. Richardson (2009) states,"if we want our students to learn from blogs, we have to experience that learning first hand."(p.43)

Thinglink in your Future: Step Four

This new tool, Thinglink has created interest in education and technology blogs alike. We read about Valenza's experience "...annotating and enriching (a poster) with presentations, documents, and media from school library programs all over the country."  
Van Grove (2011) presents Thinglink on the Mashable site. "Thinglink changes how people interact with photos by transforming them into a navigational surface for search, commerce, and social connection."  It's tagging allows users to create new experiences for viewers of their image by simple addition of links to a variety of media.

Thinglink is easily added to blogs and web pages. It links sound, video, social networks, and web pages to digital images. The possibilities for professional use and for uses in the classroom are limitless. Baumbach lists 21 + Interesting uses for Thinglink in a Google doc presentation and illustrates some uses on auntytechideas . |I can't wait to introduce Thinglink to my colleagues and my students. 

The only concern I can see is the use of Thinglink in school boards where internet filters block personal websites and blog hosting sites as the tool must be embedded on a web page or blog.

Thinglink: Second of 6 Web 2.0 tools

To enhance my use of digital images I will investigate the use of an image interaction tool. Thinglink is a tagging tool that adds links to photos on blogs and websites. Reading that flickr permits users to annotate photos by adding text I was interested to come across a new web tool that allows the creator to embed not just text but video, audio files, and images in tags placed in images on websites and blogs. This tool would allow students to create a variety of interactive products and would allow teachers to design creative assignments. Baumbach (2011) lists more than twenty-one interesting ideas for using Thinglink in classrooms. The tool appears to be uncomplicated and intuitive and I am encouraged even as a novice to attempt its use possibly to add tags to a painting, a photo of my “studio” or the library at school.
Below is a sample image from Thinglink.com