Class Blogmeister

Class Blogmeister has been designed by David Warlick to suit school class blogs.  It includes the following features:

• School and Class Structure.  A school applies for a School Pass Code (Free).  Using the code each teacher can Register a Teacher Account and then create student users easily by entering usernames etc without each student having to go through an account registering process.
• Class friendly main Class Blog Screen.  Displays the following:
  • Left hand Panel:  Class Web Links,  Teacher Entries Link List, Student Entries Link List.
  • Central Panel:  Featured Articles (Blogmeister-speak for Posts) and Comments
  • Right Panel: Teacher Classes and Class student usernames.  Clicking on a student username takes you to their individual blog.
• Moderation: Student Articles and comments are not published until they have been okayed by the teacher using an easy to manage interface.

 

 

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Blogmeister Class Blog Examples:

 

 

Strolling in the Orchard  - Check the weblinks which include links to other class blogs ( eg Launching Pad and Voyagers )

Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog - Grades 1 & 2

Third Graders Writing Forum

r.u.M.A.D. - Are You Making a Difference - comments example

Example that has one open class and a password protected class

Kit Test Blogmeister Class - To try it out: Login as a student - click login (top left) type a student name.  The password for that student: their initials. For example Swift Horse (keep the capitals) is the username and sh would be the password.

 

Also check David Warlick's own 'pretend' class which includes hints etc.  You will find it on the Class Blogmeister login page by clicking on Blog to the left of Featured Articles. Or follow this link: David's Blog

Trawling through Blogmeister Teachers there are many 'empty' teacher blogs - suggesting that teachers created these at conferences or workshops but never developed them further. On the other hand, there are many teachers actively using Blogmeister  or other blogging hosts.

 

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Getting Started:

1. Organize a school Pass Code by emailing David Warlick.  You can do this from the on the main Blogmeister home page
2. Register a Teacher Account on the main Blogmeister home page
3. Make sure you keep note of the password as if an incorrect password is entered on login your class page will open but without class setup/editing facility.
4. Login with your teacher name or email address and password.  If your password is correct then your class blog will open in Edit Mode. You won't see the edit facilities if the teacher password is not correct.
5. You can now select from the 7 available Templates.
6. Above the current date is a Class Management Panel with the following Items:

   -Articles  -Control Panel  -Class Panel  -New Approval Tool  -View my blog  -Documentation and  -Logout.

7. Suggest you print the documentation (around 7 pages) which will help you set up your class, create articles etc.
8. Click on the class panel and click on Add a New Class. Type in a class name and create the class. 
9. When you click on a class you have created you can add a classroom password if you want to or leave it blank.  You will also see 5 menu items for the class.  Class Roster is where you add usernames for class members.  Depending on student age and school internet policy you may use nicknames or first names only or first name with only the first letter of the surname.

 

Once you have created some students for the class you can see what the student view is like:

At the Blogmeister main page in the View or Edit Blog section enter a student username and password.  If the password is omitted the student blog is displayed read only.  If the correct password is entered the blog opens in Edit Mode

The student can then:

 

• Select their own template.
• Create or edit articles (posts)
• Edit the Title of their Blog
• Upload or delete a personal image which appears at the top of the blog.
• View their blog.
• Logout
• View the Class Blog by clcking on their teacher's name  (to right above the control panel).

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Online Help:

Help is available in the present discussions and archives of The ClassBlogmeister Support Community

See Also An hour and a quarter podcast and powerpoint presentation on using Blogmeister

 

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 Including images in Blogmeister posts.

Not an easy thing to do - easier if teacher has already uploaded the image to the web.  The following are from blog entries by David, the creator of Blogmeister:

 

http://davidwarlick.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.AddingImages

 

"In order to add an image to your blog, you will have to do two things.

1. Get the picture onto the Internet
2. Do a little bit of HTML coding.

Believe me, number one may be harder to do. If you have a web master at your school who is putting pictures up, then your problem is solved. Have that person upload the picture(s) for you and then give you the URL of the picture.

 

If there is no easy way to get the pictures up, then use a web site called ImageShack (http://imageshack.us). click the browse button and find the image on your hard drive that you want as part of your blog. when you have found and selected the image, click "Host It!".

 

After a moment, a list of URL will appear. You will want to copy the last one, labeled "Direct link to image".

 

Then type the following code into your blog article pasting the image URL where indicated:

<img src=(paste here) align=right>

Do not include the parentheses. Here is the code for a test image I just uploaded:

<img src=http://img95.exs.cx/img95/7082/dave6zk.gif align=right>

The image will be flush to the right with text wrapping around the left. To have a left justified image, then substitue "align=right" with "align=left".

 

 

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