The statistics around school closures due to COVID-19/Coronavirus are nothing short of staggering.

In mid-February, China was the only country in the world with school closures. Today, there are 188 countries experiencing nationwide school closures and almost 90% of the world’s students are affected.

Millions of teachers have been thrown into teaching remotely from home. This is drastically different from working in a classroom. It’s different physically, socially, and psychologically. And this change has come with almost no warning or preparation.

In this post, we are sharing our top tips for working remotely from home.

This is a collaborative post from Sue Waters and Kathleen Morris.

Sue is a former lecturer who has been working remotely since 2008. In recent years she has provided palliative care full-time for her mother while also overseeing the care of her disabled sister. All while managing full-time work from home and running a household.

Kathleen is a primary school teacher who has transitioned to working from home over the last few years. Kathleen’s 6-year-old daughter was diagnosed with leukemia 10 months ago so she has plenty of tips about juggling responsibilities — work, medical treatment, homeschooling, and parenting young children.

Onto the tips! We’ll go through:

• Work Environment
• Tools for Working
  • Communication
  • Collaboration
• Working With Young Children at Home
• Daily And Weekly Structure
• Staying Active
• Dealing With Stress

Work Environment

In the classroom, you’re probably sitting, standing, walking, bending down, and generally engaging in a whole range of natural movements.

Teaching remotely means you’re more likely to sit longer working at a computer so there’s a greater risk of injury. It’s important to make sure your work area is set up properly so you can maintain good posture.

Some teachers are starting to get into the habit of working from the couch or a poorly set up kitchen table. Not only is it better psychologically to have a dedicate work area, you really need to look after your posture.

If you can, consider investing in a supportive chair.

Here are some tips to ensure you’re sitting correctly at your computer:

Sue has had bursitis in her shoulder from bad posture and knows other remote workers that have had similar issues. Don’t let yourself get injured due to a poor work environment! You have enough going on already.

Any prolonged time spent in one position can cause problems. Ideally, every hour you should get up from the computer and walk around for 5 minutes; every 3 hours have a break for 15 minutes minimum.

Switching to a standing desk won’t necessarily help. Extended periods in similar postures can lead to fatigue or injuries. Moving and changing positions throughout the day is key.

Here are some key tips for staying healthy when working on a computer. You might like to share these with students as well.

Download a PDF version of the tips.

Tools For Working

Working remotely is different from working within a school or office environment, and finding tools that help improve work efficiency in a remote environment makes a big difference.

The key is to focus on what you’re wanting to achieve and then work out the best tool(s) to achieve your outcomes most efficiently.

Here are just some of the tools we use to improve work efficiency in our team that might help you too.

Communication Tools

As a teacher working remotely, you’ll need to stay in regular communication with your team. You no doubt have year level or subject area teams, perhaps special project groups, as well as your whole staff team.

We find it very helpful to use tools that reduce email exchanges where possible. Emails can quickly get out of hand!

When our team was smaller we used Google Chat with our Gmail accounts (now called Google Hangouts/Meet) and nowadays we use Slack.

Very few emails are sent internally within our team because we’re now able to more efficiently manage it using Slack. Decreased emails mean less time spent replying to emails or losing track of conversations in email threads.

The key features and benefits of Slack include:

• Free for small teams (no advertising or time limits)
• Useful search function to look for previous conversations, keywords, or files (the free plan just allows you to search the last 10,000 messages as opposed to an unlimited search)
• Real-time OR asynchronous messaging (if a colleague is offline, they can get back to you later)
• Different channels can be set up for different groups (for example, you could be in a whole staff channel, year six teachers channel, and team leader channel)
• Communication via text or voice/video call
• Channels can be public (any staff member can join) or private (invitation only)
• Direct messages allow you to communicate privately with one or more colleagues

Slack is ideal for our team as we have over 100 staff at Edublogs, CampusPress, and WPMU-DEV.

Nowadays, our meetings are held using a Slack call or Google Hangouts. Some teachers find Google Hangouts is a good way to stay in touch as well. It has the added benefit of being linked to your Gmail account so you can easily search for conversations.

Collaboration Tools

Look for tools that allow you to easily collaborate with others.

We use Google Docs and Google Sheets because these enable us to work collaboratively and add comments for feedback.

We try to encourage all clients to use shared Google Docs and Google Sheets rather than attached documents and spreadsheets to email because it is too easy to lose track of the latest version. If you’re not already making the most of Google Docs and Sheets in your school teams, give them a try!

You’ll find it’s more time-efficient to edit Google Docs and Google Sheets online than constantly download attachments as they’re updated.

Any files we want to share are uploaded to Google Drive. Many teachers and schools are embracing Google Drive which is a place to store your files securely and open/edit them from any device.

Here’s a quick Getting Started with Google Drive video to get you on your way

For managing tasks and projects we use Asana. It allows you to map out each step of tasks you’re working towards, and assign tasks to others. The free version is available for teams of up to 15 people so it might be worth looking at if you want to manage projects in small school teams.

Some students also use Asana themselves to keep track of school work and deadlines.

Working With Young Children At Home

You may find yourself now trying to teach while simultaneously looking after your children. It’s a new and challenging dilemma!

Kathleen has two young children and works from home a lot. Here are some tips that might work for you:

• Create a Flexible Schedule: Set a plan so the children know what’s on for the day. While you might not like the idea of a rigid schedule, having a basic routine can be a good idea because, during times of uncertainty, patterns bring comfort. I have included my sample schedule in my post with 10 Tips For Homeschooling Children.
• Avoid Multitasking: Set time in the day when you will be doing activities with your own children, and time when you will be working. Trying to do both at the same time will leave you all frazzled!
• Use Focussed Screen Time: Save screen time for when you really need it (for example, if you’re doing a video conference with your class). No matter what your beliefs on how much screen time you want your children to have, using leisure screen time sparingly makes it a more powerful and effective tool.
• Set Aside Fun Activities: Help your children decide what they are going to do independently while you’re working. You might have things you only get out during these times — for example, a certain toy box, play dough, craft supplies, etc.
• Tag Team If Possible: If you have a partner who is also working from home, consider making a schedule so you can tag the team. For example, one of you could get up early and work until lunchtime then switch. Or, you can negotiate times when you really need an uninterrupted block (for example, during video conferences, phone calls, or your “office hours” when you need to be on call).
• Be Creative With Your Work Hours: Make the most of the early hours of the day or the hours after your children go to bed at night. You might not want to work during both of these blocks so you don’t burn out, however, working a bit earlier or later in the day can really free up hours during the middle of the day when your children need you most.
• Set Boundaries and Expectations: Explain to your children that you must work and have them help come up with the family rules. For example, you might want to close your door when you can’t be interrupted. Then you can train your children to stay away if your office door is closed (I actually have a sign on my door that I made together with my children). If they interrupt you (and it’s not an emergency), calmly remind them of the rules. Running through emergency/important scenarios is always a good idea, e.g. someone is hurt, something is broken, there’s a knock at the door etc.
• Prioritize and Use Your Time Wisely: I quickly learned that when I have dedicated work time, I must put my head down and work! A quick check of emails or social media can waste precious time. When your time is limited, write down what you want to achieve and make yourself stick to that list. Prioritize your most important goals for the day.

Working from home with children can be messy. Give yourself some time to figure out what works for you and your family. It won’t always be perfect but with some creative scheduling and routines, it can work!

Daily And Weekly Structure

While it’s easier said than done at times, work-life balance is very important.

Sue and Kathleen work as part of a global team supporting a global community and work hours are very flexible. We could work 24 hours a day and there would always be more to do.

Teaching has always been a never-ending job as well; there is always something to do even when you don’t have students in front of you. Now that you’re working from home, you might be feeling the pressure to work long hours even more.

Time tracking can be a powerful tool. If you aren’t required to track hours then we suggest you keep a simple spreadsheet to record start and finish times of blocks of work. You can include a simple record of what you’ve done to help identify how long tasks take. This helps identify ways you can improve work efficiency while also helping to keep focus on work-life balance.

Sue tries to make her weekends different from her weekdays as it’s too easy with her work, and personality, to end up working 7 days a week.

Obviously, this is harder if you are now in lockdown, however, setting goals of things you want to achieve in your personal life and working on these on the weekend helps. Why not try making a list of non-work activities you’d like to conquer? It could be anything from cleaning out your closet to starting a new art project.

Staying Active

Do you have a Fitbit or other step counter? Kathleen has noticed a big difference in the number of steps you can rack up during a day in the classroom compared to a day working from home.

We all know being sedentary isn’t healthy and it’s important to think of ways to stay active while you’re at home.

Sue is an avid walker and Kathleen enjoys jogging, however, there are times when you can’t get out of the house.

Kathleen has some favourite online workouts which you might like to check out:

• Les Mills On Demand: These are popular gym classes that you can stream at home. There are all sorts of workouts — aerobics, weights, yoga, spin etc. It’s like a Netflix of workouts. This is a paid service but they currently have a 30 day free trial. Might as well make the most of that while you’re home. Just don’t forget to cancel your trial.
• POPSUGAR Fitness: This YouTube channel has been running for years and offers very professional workouts for free! There is so much variety! There are long and short workouts and everything from dance, HIIT, barre, weights and more.
• Heather Robertson: These free YouTube videos are around 30-40 minutes long and offer you a really solid workout with fairly simple routines. Kathleen likes the way you can see what move is coming up and next and there are no audio cues, so she often listens to a podcast or her own music while following along.
• MadFit: This free YouTube channel is simple and effective. There are lots of workouts around 20 minutes long as well as quick videos where the routine is choreographed to a popular song. A fun work break!

There are lots of apps available as well. For example, many people like the free workouts on Nike Training Club. The “7 minute workouts” are very popular as well as they provide you with bang for your buck in a short amount of time. You could try one like this at the end of every hour of work.

If digital workouts aren’t your thing, think of other things you can schedule into your day to ensure you’re getting regular physical activity. A few hours of gardening is a good workout, as is giving your house a deep clean.

We’d love to hear about your favourite at-home workouts in a comment.

Dealing With Stress

Sue has been dealing with high stress since 2017 when she became responsible for the full-time care of her mother who had life-limiting motor neurone disease (ALS). Sue also oversees the care of her disabled older sister. Kathleen’s been on a stressful rollercoaster since her daughter was diagnosed with leukemia in 2019 at 5 years old.

Maybe you felt a little blindsided by the pandemic? Suddenly your entire life’s turned upside down. What was normal no longer exists; and you’re having to adapt to a rapidly evolving new normal on a daily, or if you are lucky, weekly basis.

Maybe, like us, you’re dealing with not only the pandemic but serious personal issues as well? Not to mention work, homeschooling, isolation, and all the other challenges of this crazy new world.

We’ve both learned how important it is to know our own symptoms of stress and what strategies help us reduce the impact stress has on us.

Did you know there are many signs and symptoms of stress?

We all react to stress differently. Learning strategies to deal with stress helps reduce its mental, physical and emotional impact.

Like our reactions, our coping strategies are personal. What works for some people might be boring or stressful for others but here’s what helps us:

1. Focus on the NOW

When you’re dealing with a life-limiting disease or cancer, you can’t afford to focus on the past or spend time trying to predict the future — you need to focus on the present. Grieving the loss of the normal you had in the past or worrying about what the future holds means you miss out on the magic happening in the present.

COVID-19 is proving to be a rapidly evolving situation and you can’t tell what will happen from one day to the next.

The best approach is to focus on each day; try not to look too far ahead and just think about what you need to do for the current day or week.

2. Accept what you can CHANGE

Don’t waste time worrying about things that are out of your control that you can’t change, or planning for the worst. Identify what you can change and what’s worth fighting for; let go of the things that you can’t change.

Here’s a great graphic from The Counseling Teacher:

3. Look for JOY

After Sue’s mum died she organized her house as part of her way of dealing with the trauma, part of which included some of Marie Kondo’s methods. The most important lesson she learnt from Marie Kondo was joy.

Whatever you do in life, whatever your situation, keep looking each day for what gives you joy.

Sue’s house mightn’t be spotless, and her husband might continually try to sabotage her lovely KonMari folding of clothes (she’s still working on letting go of how her hubby folds), but she ends each day reflecting on the things that gave her joy during that day and the positive things that were achieved.

4. Do something relaxing

The best way to reduce stress is to do things that you find relaxing. However, it’s very challenging when your favourite forms of relaxation may no longer be options (catching up with friends, cafes, movies, gym classes, concerts and so on).

Sue spent 17 months caring full-time for her mum. Her mum was connected 24/7 to a machine that assisted her breathing which meant someone needed to be in the house at all times. Sue could only leave the house if someone was available which meant there were only a few hours a week where she was able to go out. Kathleen’s situation has been similarly intense and she’s had many months of isolation due to her daughter’s compromised immune system.

The key is, if you can’t do what you normally do for relaxation, look for alternatives.

Sue finds setting goals she wants to achieve helped her. She created a list of 100+ Crime and Mystery novels of all time and has been working through the list. Currently, she’s back to her goal of walking for at least 45 minutes daily and has set up a daily eating plan with an emphasis on healthier eating.

There are lots of ways to relax, even in isolation. Here are some more ideas from The Counseling Teacher (ignore the spa example for now! ).

5. Have a Routine

Sue and Kathleen both find having routines helpful. We both have a rough outline of our daily routine for our weekdays and our weekends while ensuring it’s flexible to adapt to our changing circumstances.

Our routines include time for exercise, work, family commitments and relaxation. We both have “to do lists” of things we want to achieve.

Keeping ourselves organized helps us manage our time in the most efficient way. It’s far from perfect but we find it works much better than having a “let’s see what happens” approach!

6. Say No

Sue and Kathleen have both been called workaholics and can be quick to take on more than they can handle. We’ve both learnt it’s okay to say no.

If you don’t want to do it, or it’s taking away from what you really want to be doing, don’t feel guilty saying no.

Saying yes when you don’t want to do something is saying no to yourself. Put yourself first. Especially during times of high stress.

7. Laugh!

Laughter really is the best medicine. It helps keep you relaxed and happy while relieving tension.

A small silver lining emerging from the trauma of COVID-19 is the humour. The jokes and memes that are being thrown around social media on a daily basis show that humour is a coping strategy for so many of us around the globe!

What Tips Can You Add?

Although it probably feels like you have more work to do than ever before, there’s never been a better time to focus on your own health, wellbeing, and routines.

Teaching remotely is a brave new world and you need to look after yourself. You’re an essential worker and the world needs you!

We’d love to hear how you’re approaching working from home. Please scroll down to find the comment box.

Other Posts You Might Enjoy

Resources For Teaching Online Due To School Closures

Facebook Groups For Educators

The Ultimate Guide To Twitter

Looking for examples of class blogs? We’ve just completed the latest update of our list which we’ve maintained since 2008.

Our class blog list is updated twice a year and always proves to be a popular resource.

Perhaps you’re looking for insights into how other educators use blogs? Maybe you’re seeking lesson inspiration? Or perhaps you’re wanting to make global connections? Our class blog list is a useful starting point.

In our latest update, we’ve removed blogs that have been deleted, moved, or haven’t been updated in the last 6 months.

Note: This is far from an exhaustive list of class blogs around the world. Scroll down to find out how to add your class for our next update.

The Class Blog List

The complete Edublogger’s class blog list is embedded below.

The list is separated into:

• Grade or year level, then
• Subject areas such as Maths, Science, English, History, etc, or
• Type of blog such as library or school news

The columns on the spreadsheet help you identify:

• Class Blog Title
• Country
• Blogging Since — This is the year that the teacher began blogging with students (perhaps not with the same blog they’re currently using)
• Blogging Platform
• Student Blogs — Class blogs with individual student blogs are listed as “Yes” under this column. Most student blogs can be found on the sidebar of the class blog under the class blog widget or student list. The platform that student blogs are hosted on is indicated in brackets on the spreadsheet (EB = Edublogs, CP = CampusPress, KB = Kidblog, and SS = Seesaw)
• Class Twitter account where applicable
• Teacher(s) Name if we have that information

Click on the blog title to visit the class blog!

Click here to open the list in a new tab for easier viewing.

Add/Amend Your Details

Is your class blog on this list but you’ve spotted inaccuracies or missing information? Please leave a comment on this post and let us know what details we need to update. Scroll down to find the comment box.

Would you like to add your class blog to our next update of our list? Complete this Google Form. Your class blog must be public to be added to the list. It should also be active and established (i.e. not brand new).

Important Notes:

• We update the list twice a year so your blog might not be added to the list until our next update which will be published on The Edublogger around May 2020.
• This list is for class blogs. It’s not for teacher blogs or promotional sites.
• You don’t have to use Edublogs to be on the list!

We’d love to hear from you if you’ve found this list of class blogs helpful. Scroll down to find the comment box.

Related Reading

You might also be interested in:

10 Elements Of A Quality Blog Post: Tips For Teaching Students

8 Reasons Why WordPress Is The Best Choice For Student Blogging

My Class: Student Blogs Made Easy

Different Approaches To Using Student Blogs And Digital Portfolios

So you’ve been busy working on a blog post and you’re finally ready to hit the publish button. Fantastic!

One problem: just because you publish a post, doesn’t mean anyone will know about it or read it.

You need to make sure you share your work with people who want to read it or might be interested in discovering your writing. 

There are two great ways to do this. The first is by having an email list. Not long ago, we wrote about how to set up an automatic RSS or manual email newsletter for your blog.

Along with using email, we recommend you share your blog posts on social media. 

There are many places you can do this. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn are popular platforms and no doubt you have your favorites. 

This post zooms in on how to share your blog posts on Twitter which remains to be a popular platform for educators worldwide. 

Once upon a time, you could create a tweet by simply copying and pasting the link to your blog post. This is still the go-to approach for some, but is it the best strategy to make your tweet stand out?

Does this example make you excited to click through to the post?

We’re here to help you power up your tweets and invite a whole new community of readers to your blog or website. 

If you’re using a different social media platform, some of these tips will certainly still apply. Just modify them to suit the platform. 

Before we dive into the eight tips, let’s start with the basics of sharing a link…

Get Your Link Right

While there are much better approaches than simply copying and pasting the link to your latest blog post, the link is still going to be the most important part of your tweet.

You need to get it right!

Tip One: Share the link to the actual blog post. Not the blog itself

For example, https://www.theedublogger.com is this link or URL of this blog.

https://www.theedublogger.com/tweet-tips is the link to this blog post.

If you send readers to your blog and not a specific post, they won’t know what they’re supposed to be reading. They’ll have to click around to find the post they want to read… or leave!

The best way to get the link to your blog post correct is to open it up in your browser and copy/paste it.

Keyboard shortcuts make this easy! For example, if you’re using Windows:

• Place your cursor in your address bar. It should highlight automatically or press Control A (select all)
• Control C is the shortcut for copy
• Control V is the shortcut for paste

Tip Two: Shorten your permalink

Did you know you can edit the permalink or URL of your post before you publish it?

This can make your URL neater and easier to share. And it uses up fewer characters if you’re sharing on Twitter.

This graphic we shared with students during the Student Blogging Challenge explains:

You edit your permalink before you publish a post. Don’t edit the permalink after you’ve published a post, otherwise, the original permalink that you might have shared will be invalid.

This quick video explains how to edit your permalink if you’re using Edublogs or CampusPress.

Bonus Tip: Teach students these tips about links

The tips above can also be very handy to share with student bloggers.

Using the wrong link is a common issue participants of our Student Blogging Challenge face when wanting to share a blog post. They tend to share a link to their blog, dashboard, or even a preview post when they’re starting out.

We made this graphic to help Student Blogging Challenge participants understand how to find and share the link to their specific blog post.

This video demonstrates to students how to find and copy their blog post URL.

8 Tips For Better Tweets

So you know one thing you want to include in your tweet — the link to the post — but what else will you write to use up your 280 characters?

And should you use all 280 characters? Not always. Good communicators know not to use redundant words, repeat themselves, or generally write in a “wordy” way. 

Here are eight tips to consider the next time you share your latest blog post on Twitter. We’d love to hear your own ideas or suggestions in a comment!

1) Break Down Your Blog Post

Just because you write a blog post, doesn’t mean anyone will see it. And just because you tweet out your blog post, doesn’t mean others will see it either. You’ll probably need to tweet multiple times.

In 2018, Twitter cracked down on tweeting duplicate content. That means you can’t repeat the same tweet over and over. But why would you want to? That probably wouldn’t provide value to your professional learning network (PLN).

Consider repurposing the content from your blog post into bite-sized content for your followers.

What might this look like?

• Choose some quotes from your blog post to share in the tweet. Or, better yet, turn quotes into images using a tool like Canva.
• Tweet any other images you have in your post separately. Especially if you’ve created charts, diagrams, infographics or anything educational, inspiring, or entertaining.
• Break down the main tips from the post into separate tweets. For example, we could do a separate tweet about each of the eight tips in this blog post.
• Create a short video about your blog post. A great tool to do this “automagically” is Lumen5.
• If you’re game, you could tweet a short video of yourself talking about your blog post. That would create a lot of interest.

Here’s a video from Monica Burns where she talks about an upcoming blog post before she has published it. That’s a fun way to build excitement on Twitter too!

A quick Saturday update!

— Monica Burns, Ed.D. (@ClassTechTips) January 4, 2020

2) Build Interest

Many people now like consuming content on the social media platform itself, without clicking away down a rabbit hole of content.

However, you do want to entice people to actually get off Twitter and go to your blog.

To do this, try to build interest and intrigue; give your followers a reason to click and read your blog post.

This obviously doesn’t mean clickbait; you don’t want to over promise and under deliver.

Building interest might look like:

• Addressing common concerns
• Hinting at the conclusion or advice your post offers
• Explaining why you wrote a post

No doubt the tweet would spark interest and encourage readers to click through to his post.

This #EduGIF may make you say “Whoa. Too complicated. Too time consuming.” but students could whip 1 of these up in a few minutes, then it over to show content in a way that is much more *sticky* than traditional activities. #GoogleEI #GoogleDrive https://t.co/S8xErbA6Cr pic.twitter.com/6fk2mIhwdg

— Jake Miller (@JakeMillerTech) January 4, 2020

In this example, Chris Young explains why he wrote his blog post. No doubt, his followers’ interest would be piqued at the emotive tweet. 

This was what my 6 year old daughter asked Santa for Christmas. The fact that #STEAM is advertised on the same canvas as the amount of likes a girl (6 years and up) receives infuriates me. It’s 2020, right?!? I wrote a blog post to get my feelings out. https://t.co/7km7Z7veRb pic.twitter.com/0ALsfbrNuz

— Chris Young (@ChrisYoungEDU) January 2, 2020

3) Create A Custom Image

Want your tweet to catch your followers’ eyes? An effective image will help!

Whenever we write a blog post on The Edublogger, we create a custom image. Canva is a great place to do this as is Google Drawings (we have guides to Canva and Google Drawings that will help you get started).

Here is an example:

You might not want to put this exact image in every tweet about your blog post. As we mentioned in tip one, it’s also a good idea to share any other images from your blog posts in separate tweets.

Silvia Tolisano is excellent at creating graphics to accompany her tweets. Sometimes they just describe her blog posts, sometimes they’re quotes, sketchnotes, or tease the post in a different way.

4) Try Emojis And White Space

You want your tweets to stand out in a busy stream and two effective strategies to try are emojis and white space. 

The white space part should be obvious: hit your Enter key and break up your text. It may just make the tweet easier to read and more impactful. 

The role emojis play in writing has evolved over recent years. They’ve gone from being a bit of fun to add expression to really changing the way we communicate. 

Using emojis as bullet points is a particularly effective strategy.

Tony Vincent is masterful at this approach. Yes, it takes a couple of minutes to select the most appropriate emojis but it will definitely make your tweet stand out!

6⃣ Thinking scaffolds for deeper understanding from @MindShiftKQED

Prompt to include context
Ask open-ended questions
Help transfer knowledge and experience
Leave room for ownership
Invite and manage risk
Encourage reflection
https://t.co/PYwVa580dE

— Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) January 3, 2020

5) Use Hashtags … But Don’t Overdo It

Hashtags are an important part of Twitter. They help to categorize tweets and make it easier for people to find tweets they’re interested in.

There are a lot of opinions out there about using hashtags in your tweets. While they are a good idea, we believe you want to use them sparingly. 

Even Twitter itself concurs:

Although it may be tempting to fill your Tweet with trending hashtags, studies show that less actually is more. Internal Twitter research shows that Tweets with 1-2 hashtags gain 100% more engagement — so try to limit your usage.

Want to learn more about hashtags? Check out our top ten hashtag tips from our Ultimate Guide to Twitter. 

6) Tag Others Wisely

It’s a great idea to tag other people in your blog posts. They might be able to share your work with their own PLN. Or they might simply read and enjoy your work which will strengthen your connection.

However, you want to tag wisely.

Don’t just tag any individuals in your field simply because they have a large following or are well-known. 

Tag individuals who you mention in your blog post. Perhaps you’ve linked to their resources or built on their ideas. Or maybe you’d like to ask their opinion of your post. If so, ask them. 

If you have the characters, it can be a good idea to make it clear why you’re tagging someone in your tweet. 

Here is an example:

Blogging prompts can be a great way to get ideas for your next post!

This post shares some blog post prompts for teachers and students including some very creative prompts from @spencerideas!

Take a look https://t.co/JTyH08HH6O#EdChat #ELAChat pic.twitter.com/GEhWNXDvgH

— edublogs (@edublogs) January 2, 2020

Some bloggers who are active on Twitter have a reciprocal relationship with other bloggers — even if it’s informal. You might have some members of your PLN whose work you share out to your network regularly and you know they will do the same. This approach can be effective.

7) Replicate What Works

Everyone has their own unique community on Twitter. Over time you should start to notice what sort of tweets get the most engagement.

Take a few moments every now and then to think about this. You can even analyze your tweets through your activity dashboard. 

Perhaps your tweets where you use images or emojis are better received? Or maybe there is a certain time of day where your tweets receive more engagement?

Basically, you want to figure out what is working and keep doing that!

Also, don’t forget to tweet about your popular blog posts more than once but mix it up with different text and images. 

8) Be Part Of Your Community

Give and take is the key to success in all relationships whether online or offline.

It’s certainly a mistake to only promote your own work on Twitter. Invest in your PLN and share some of the great things that others are doing. Retweet their tweets and add your thoughts and encouragement. 

Joy Kirr is great at supporting her community on Twitter. Here is an example retweet from Joy:

Yikes and Wowsers!
Got some time on your hands?
Want to learn something new?@jmattmiller has the past #DitchSummit videos all in one place!#edtech #edchat #tlap https://t.co/4alZDtYAPa

— Joy Kirr (@JoyKirr) January 1, 2020

Not sure what a PLN is all about? We’ve got a free self-paced course to help you learn more. Check it out here.

Conclusion

Twitter is a great place to promote your blog posts. With a few easy tweaks you might be able to make your tweets much more effective!

Let’s recap the eight tips:

1. Break down your blog post (create bite-sized content from quotes, tips, images etc.).
2. Build interest (give your followers a reason to click and read your blog post).
3. Create a custom image to catch your followers’ eyes. 
4. Try emojis (perhaps as bullet points) and white space to make your tweets stand out. 
5. Use hashtags in your tweets but don’t overdo it. One or two is plenty. 
6. Tag others wisely especially if you mentioned them in your blog post. 
7. Replicate what works and make the most of the provided analytics. 
8. Be part of your community — give and take is the key to success.

If you want to learn more about Twitter, be sure to check out our Ultimate Guide. It’s useful for beginner to intermediate users. 

Thoughts? Questions?

How do you share your blog posts on Twitter? What can you teach your students about sharing their work with a network online?

Leave a comment below and we’ll get back to you. 

Learn More

These useful posts were mentioned in this article:

The Ultimate Guide To Twitter

Set Up An Email Newsletter To Share Your Blog Posts Using Mailchimp

Share Your Blog Posts With Automated Mailchimp Emails (RSS)

A Guide To Google Drawings For Teachers, Students, And Bloggers

Canva In The Classroom: Getting Started, Example Designs, And Tips!

Dear blogger,

You have such wonderful ideas to share!

Your content is excellent; it’s just that I find myself skimming your posts, because, to be frank, your posts are … kind of hard to read.

It’s not that your writing isn’t “correct”, it’s just that things have changed since you learned to write.

In fact, it might be time to forget a lot of what you learned about writing at school.

Can we chat about making your blog posts easier to read?

With thanks,
A hopeful reader

Getting a blog post together isn’t easy, is it? You have to put all the distractions on your computer aside and focus on one task: tapping away at the keyboard and organizing all your thoughts until your post takes shape.

So, of course, you want people to actually read your post. Whether your audience is students, parents, or educators, you have an important message to share.

There are many personal benefits to simply writing too. Many bloggers describe how writing helps them organize and develop their thinking. However, if this is the only reason you’re writing, you probably wouldn’t be publishing on a public blog, would you?

So how do you encourage your visitors to not only start reading your blog post but also stick around to the end?

Maybe the solution isn’t changing your words. Maybe it’s simply changing your styling and post layout.

Here are ten tips for making your blog posts easier to read. I hope you’ll share your ideas in a comment too.

1) Paragraphs and Sentences

Is there anything more off-putting than clicking on a blog post and seeing a great big block of text?

You want to read it but there is nothing for your eyes to grab on to. Try as you might, you find yourself skimming and not fully comprehending the content.

The truth is, a digital paragraph is different from an analog paragraph. The way we consume media online is different to the way we consume media offline.

There was a popular post on The Slate a few years back called “You Won’t Finish This Article“. It shares data demonstrating that most people don’t even scroll down after they arrive on your post; they leave your blog almost immediately. The data published in The Slate estimates that most visitors read about 50% of your content. 50% might even be optimistic when looking at similar statistics from other sources.

Short paragraphs make your posts more readable.

Instead of starting a new paragraph when the topic changes, consider keeping your paragraphs only a few sentences long and play around with length and rhythm. Sometimes you’ll have slightly longer paragraphs, and sometimes you might have a paragraph that’s only one sentence long for impact (that’s not what your teacher taught you at school, is it?).

When it comes to writing online, paragraph structure is more of an art than a formulaic science.

The same rhythmic variation works well for sentence structure and length as well.

Gary Provost demonstrates,

2) Fonts

There is a lot of debate and research out there about typography or font choice. Personally, I find a common issue is bloggers using a font that’s too small.

Professional bloggers generally opt to use larger sized fonts now as it enhances the readability of online text. Some bloggers haven’t caught onto this. Combining a small font with long paragraphs is a sure fire way to have readers skim a post and close their tab, no matter how good the content is.

If you’re using Edublogs, there is a handy plugin called Supreme Google Webfonts. It allows you to change the type and size of the fonts in your post. Have fun playing around but obviously look for a font that will be easy to read. Another useful tip is to stay consistent with your font choice.

3) Headings

Sub-headings are an excellent way to break up the text while enhancing the readability and comprehension of your post. This sounds like something we covered at school now, doesn’t it? Or maybe not?

I admit, it wasn’t until last year (after many years of blogging) that I discovered I was using headings all wrong. I thought the idea was to pick a heading based on size and appearance.

It turns out, there is another layer to heading choice on blog posts.

Heading tags not only enhance your blog post visually but help organize the content of your blog. This helps search engines like Google scan and categorize your information.

If you want to follow blogging best practice, you technically aren’t supposed to skip a heading level.

Heading 1 will already be used for your blog post title. When you’re writing posts (or pages) you should use Heading 2 for post sub-headings. Then if you nest other sub-headings under that, you’d use Heading 3 and so on. You probably wouldn’t have a need for Heading 5 onwards.

Structuring your post with this hierarchy can also assist blind readers who rely on screen readers to access your content (find out more about accessibility issues in point ten).

4) Lists and Bullet Points

Most writers know the value of bullet points. Listicles, or posts with numbered lists, are hugely popular too (hey, this whole blog post is a listicle!).

Here are five reasons why numbered lists or bullet points are great:

• They make your content easier to digest
• They break up information and offer more white space on the page
• They offer your eyes something to grab onto
• They keep you moving through the content, rather than skipping over a paragraph
• Readers can easily chunk or categorize information

Need I say more?

5) Links

Hyperlinks are one way that digital writing is very different from traditional writing. In fact, this is a topic that we could really invest a lot of time in exploring with our students. If you’re interested in learning more about hyperlinked writing, check out some of the posts by Silvia Tolisano (Langwitches).

From a visual point of view, hyperlinks or bold words are another good way to make key pieces of information in your post stand out. It draws you in when you’re skimming or scanning the page.

Of course there are other reasons why hyperlinks enhance your post:

• It’s polite and ethically correct to acknowledge your sources
• It can add depth to your topic if readers can go elsewhere to learn more
• Linking to credible sources can back up what you’re saying
• Your readers will hang around your blog longer if you link to other relevant posts you’ve written

Here are two things to remember about using hyperlinks:

• Try to make your links descriptive and weave them into your sentence, rather than saying “…click here, here, and here“. (Yep, I used to be guilty of the latter once upon a time).
• Don’t go overboard with links. Stay relevant and focus on quality over quantity.

6) Images

When you’re scanning posts, no doubt your eyes are naturally drawn to images. Breaking up your text with some visuals can definitely make your blog posts easier to read.

But not all images are created equal.

Firstly, make sure you’re not using copyright images. I’m sure you know, you can’t just use anything you find on Google Images. We have a post all about copyright, Creative Commons, and fair use if you’d like to learn more.

Also, make sure your images are enhancing your post and helping your readers to gain an understanding of what the post is about. Too many decorative or abstract images might be confusing.

Finally, remember that you can use more than simple pictures. You can embed all sorts of media in your blog posts such as comics, quizzes, polls, videos, social media, and more. We have a help guide about embedding media if you need more information about this.

7) Color

Color in blog posts is a contentious topic. Certainly on professional blogs, you’ll generally just see bloggers sticking to the traditional black fonts.

But what school teacher doesn’t like color? I used to use color a lot on my own class blogs.

Some teachers of very young students use different colors to type their students’ responses in a blog post. Then they could tell the student to show their parents the “blue comment” when they get home, for example.

Sometimes color is used for tasks on student blogs. For example, Zehra responded to a news video by using color coding for summary, facts, understandings and questions.

If you do use color, remember:

• Be consistent: For example, I used to always use red for my closing questions on a class blog post. It helped students know what to look out for when responding to the post.
• Choose colors wisely: Clearly darker/contrasting colors are going to be best. Yellow or aqua on a white background is not going to enhance the readability of your post.

8) Alignment

I’ve shared with you a few of my “mistakes” from my early years of blogging. Here is another one: I used to center align all of my text. Oh dear.

When I look at blog posts with center aligned text now I find them very hard to read. The starting point of each line constantly changes, so it’s hard work to keep track of where you’re up to.

Left aligned text is best as demonstrated below.

9) Widgets

In my experience, students love widgets! Many teachers do too.

Some widgets add a lot of value to your blog. They help visitors find relevant content and related blogs. They can offer families the chance to subscribe to the blog or stay up to date via a class calendar.

There are also a plethora of fun widgets out there: jokes of the day, virtual pets, music widgets, weather widgets, random facts … the list goes on.

If you want visitors to be reading your blog posts, you probably don’t want them distracted by too many widgets on your sidebars. Furthermore, excess widgets can slow down the loading time of your blog.

Like many aspects of blogging, it’s worth considering how you can strike a balance. Maybe less is more.

10) Alternative Text And Accessibility

You want to make your blog posts readable for everyone, including visitors who are vision impaired. This is an issue that is overlooked by many bloggers.

You might not realize that vision impaired visitors to your site may be using assistive technology like screen readers or other software which reads the page out loud.

This software will read the alternative text (alt text) instead of the image.

You can see how it would be difficult for a vision impaired visitor to take in your content if it is full of images that they can’t access.

Adding the alt text is easy. When you upload an image, there is a box where you can write your description before pressing ‘Insert Into Post’.

You can describe what you image looks like. Or write a brief description of the content if it’s a graph, chart, or other visual.

Alt text is just one way you can make your blog more accessible. The American Foundation for the Blind offers more tips for making print more readable, including selecting appropriate fonts and colors.

There are also more barriers to consider apart from vision impairment, including language and other physical restraints.

You can read more about making school websites accessible in this CampusPress post by Rachel McCollin.

When it comes to styling, a lot of ideas come down to personal preference. However, it’s always great to be open to trying new things and you might find yourself with a larger or more engaged audience as a result.

Maybe there are a few tips here that you or your students could try on your next blog post?

What can you add to this list? What sorts of things encourage you to read through a whole blog post? What do you find off-putting?

We haven’t talked about language. Do you prefer a conversational tone, or posts that are written in a more formal style? Share your thoughts. 

In an era of remote teaching and learning due to the global pandemic, teachers and students are relying on video more than ever before.

Video in education can mean a lot of things:

• Teachers finding and sharing videos someone else has made
• Educators create their own videos, often as a screencast or piece to camera
• Teachers hosting video conferences
• Students create their own videos — tutorials, reflections, stop motion, animation or more

Video is an everyday part of most students’ lives and can be a crucial tool in a remote learning curriculum.

But what tools and equipment should you use to create videos, screencasts, or live conferences? Where can you find high-quality videos that others have made? And what’s the best way to share videos you’ve made with others?

This guide will help.

Contents

This post walks you through all aspects of using videos in education. 

Click on the links below to navigate this resource.

Note: This post includes honest reviews of a variety of tools. We have no affiliations with any of the brands mentioned in this post. 

Creating Videos For Students

When you can’t teach your students face to face, personalized video can be the next best option.

Even during regular school times, many teachers see the advantages of flipping their classrooms. That means students can learn some content outside of class time (often via video, podcasts, or reading). That frees up time on campus for deeper work, discussions, and projects.

So how exactly do you create videos for your students? And should you be pre-recording videos or just running live video conferences?

This is a question we weighed up a little in our guide to teaching online due to school closures. Let’s recap.

Synchronous or Asynchronous Videos

There are two main options for sharing videos with your learners: synchronous or asynchronous.

Let’s weigh up both options.

Synchronous Videos (Live streaming/Conferences)

This means real-time streaming. It could be a live stream (like on YouTube) or an interactive video conference (like on Zoom).

Pros:

• Some synchronous videos can be recorded so they can be viewed again at a later date. This is useful if students can’t attend the live stream, they have technology issues or need to revise the content.
• Some schools find synchronous videos to be a powerful way to keep the class connected.
• Students can gain feedback, seek clarification, and get answers to their questions quickly.
• Synchronous video conferences can be used in a range of ways: class meetings, office hours (drop in to ask a question), live recess (just for fun), or focussed study groups.

Cons:

• There can be privacy issues if students are shown in synchronous videos and they’re recorded.
• There is also the issue of internet access if students are required to attend regular long live conferences. This can really chew up families’ home internet and can be a major barrier in rural/disadvantaged areas.
• Passively sitting in on lecture-style video conferences can eat into time that could be used on more productive learning and projects.

Asynchronous Videos (Recorded Videos/Screencasts)

This means you record videos that can be viewed (and reviewed) when it suits the student. Your videos could be a simple “piece to camera” or a screencast.

Screencasting is where you narrate a video recording of your computer screen. Sometimes it’s just audio and sometimes you can see your face in the video as well.

Pros:

• For some students, asynchronous learning can be more convenient and allow them to learn at a time and place that works.
• Students can work at their own pace and revise information as needed.

Cons:

• It can be hard for teachers to know whether students watched the videos or were engaging with the work.
• It can be time-consuming to request clarification if some concepts are not fully understood.

You might find it useful to use both synchronous and asynchronous videos at different times.

Here’s a brief summary of what synchronous and asynchronous remote learning looks like:

Now you know more about the options, we’ll take a look at some popular tools for recording both synchronous and asynchronous videos.

Popular Tools for Synchronous (Live) Video Conferences

There are many tools out there that allow you to connect with students via video. This can really help to unite the class.

Four of the most popular video-conferencing options for teachers and schools include:

• Zoom — Robust software designed exclusively for video conferencing.
• Google Hangouts Meet — The evolved version of classic Hangouts that’s part of G Suite.
• Microsoft Teams– a communication and collaboration platform that is part of Office 365.
• Webex — Cisco tool for video conferencing, online meetings, screen sharing, and webinars.

These tools all allow video conferences with screen-sharing capabilities.

• The teacher can start the conference and share the access link with the students.
• Students can access the conference at the specified time using any device (e.g. laptop or tablet).
• Some people like to use external microphones, headphones, or webcams, however, the camera and microphone attached to your device are probably fine for getting started.

Here is a quick comparison of the free plans for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts Meet, and Webex Meetings:

Notes on Live Video Tools:

• Safety comes first! Your school or district probably has advice about which video conferencing tool you should use and which settings should be employed. As an example, Zoom has released some best practices in this PDF. 
• Zoom, Meet, and Webex temporarily upgraded their free plans for educators but these offers have now ended for Meet and Webex. If your school Zoom account hasn’t already been upgraded, you can apply here to remove the 40-minute time limit.
• Some teachers are also experimenting with live streaming on YouTube. For teenagers, it’s a platform they’re often already familiar with and they can comment in real time.

Popular Tools for Recording Screencasts

There are a number of tools available to record screencasts (asynchronous videos). Like many online tools, there are free plans and paid plans.

Let’s compare four of the most popular screencasting tools teachers are using for recording lessons.

• Loom
• Screencastify
• Screencast-o-matic
• Zoom

This chart compares the features of the free or free education plans (paid plans have more features).

Notes On Screencasting Tools

• I’ve written a blog post specifically about Loom if you want to learn more. There are no age restrictions so students can use Loom if you want them to make screencasts. The pro Education version is free to teachers and students forever.
• You’ll remember that Zoom is a popular tool for video conferencing. The 40 minute time limit on free accounts has been temporarily removed for educators. To record a screencast using Zoom, you start a meeting with yourself as the only participant and record the conference. You can’t record if you’re using the Zoom iOS app.

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Free Online Tools For Making Educational Videos

Making your own videos is easier than ever! Apart from the screencasting tools mentioned above, there are online video creation tools that are:

• free/paid
• simple/complex
• for editing/creating
• for all ages/restricted to over 13 or 18

Here are six free options for creating different sorts of videos using online tools. Feel free to share your own ideas too!

• Lumen5
• Animation (Powtoon and Biteable)
• EdPuzzle
• Animoto
• Flipgrid

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Lumen5

Lumen5 is a free drag-and-drop video creator. You can turn images, short clips, GIFs, and music into engaging and educational videos.

It can even “automagically” make your blog post into a video (for best results you’ll need to edit it slightly).

Here’s a one-minute explanation:

Lumen5 contains a library of Creative Commons Zero images and music so you don’t need to search for content either (although you can use your own pictures and video).

The free plan is becoming increasingly restrictive. As of November 2020, it allows you to make 3 videos a month with the Lumen5 watermark.

The only downside (apart from it being a 13+ tool) is you can’t embed your video directly onto your blog. So you have to put it on social media or YouTube first and then get the embed code from there. Or you could download the video and upload it directly into your post/page if it’s a small file.

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Animation (PowToon or Biteable)

There are a number of ways you can create simple animations online. Two free tools you might be interested in exploring or using with your students include PowToon and Biteable.

Both of these tools have free plans and can be used by students under 13, however, they do require students to sign up via email.

Powtoon’s free plan allows you to make 3-minute videos with the Powtoon branding visible. Biteable’s free plan allows you to create as many videos as you like (with a watermark) and share 10 of them.

One benefit of PowToon over Biteable is that you can download your finished product as a PowerPoint or PDF file. You can only download your Biteable creation with a paid plan; you have to share your Biteable video by embedding it or sharing a link with the free plan.

You can embed both PowToon and Biteable videos into your blog posts or pages.

PowToon

PowToon is a quick video that gives you a glimpse of the drop and drag editor.

Biteable

Here’s a quick video tutorial that shows you how to use Biteable from Kyle Niemis.

EdPuzzle

EdPuzzle is a popular tool to turn any educational video into a lesson. The videos can come from YouTube, National Geographic, Khan Academy, or other sources, including your own videos.

EdPuzzle’s tools allow you to check if students are watching your videos and understanding the content through inbuilt questions and narrations.

EdPuzzle has free plans where you can store 20 videos.

This one minute video explains what EdPuzzle is all about.

You can embed EdPuzzles into your blog. These instructions show how to find the embed code.

Animoto

Animoto allows you to create videos from photos, video clips, and music either on the web or on an app on your mobile device.

It’s an intuitive tool that allows you to create a professional-looking video in minutes.

Educators can sign up for a free account which allows you to create student accounts as well.

Animoto has been around since the early days of “Web 2.0” and continues to improve.

You can embed Animoto videos on your blog. This help guide shows you where to find the embed code.

Here’s an example template for a vocabulary lesson.

Flipgrid

Flipgrid is a video discussion platform from Microsoft. It’s 100% free (even pre-pandemic).

Using Flipgrid, you add topics to a grid. A topic can include text, links, videos, images, or more. Students respond to your topics with their own videos — you can set the video maximum video length from 15 seconds up to 10 minutes. Students can record themselves or their screens.

Flipgrid allows you to facilitate engaging asynchronous video discussions. You can include your whole class in the grid and even families and students from other schools.

This Getting Started video for educators explains how to get going with Flipgrid.

You can embed Flipgrid videos on your blog (or LMS). This will allow students to watch and/or record videos without having to leave your class blog. Here are the instructions to find the embed code.

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Video Creation Techniques

Online tools are great but you can make videos in the traditional way too, as can your students. You don’t need any fancy equipment either — a phone, tablet, or webcam can work just fine!

Let’s go through three popular techniques for creating videos:

• Piece to camera
• Teach in front of a whiteboard
• Green screen videos

Piece To Camera

I know, I know… who likes getting in front of a camera? Most teachers would avoid it at all costs! But it is really a great way to connect with students and families.

There are lots of reasons you could create a piece to camera:

• Welcoming students and families at the start of the school week if you’re learning remotely, or at the start of the school year during normal times.
• Thanking your class and families at the end of the school week/year/term and reflecting on what went well.
• Explaining learning tasks or giving feedback.

You might encourage students to create these sorts of videos too. As always, check your school guidelines if student videos are going to be shared digitally.

Here is an example Linda Yollis made to welcome her new students to the classroom last year. She cleverly used a “B roll” to show some footage while talking but you can keep it simple.

10 Tips For Filming A Piece To Camera

Filming a piece to the camera on your phone or tablet? While it doesn’t have to be perfect, there are a few easy things you can do to enhance the quality of your video.

• Lighting: This is really important! Sit near a window if you can or add lamps. Aim for even natural light. Don’t have a window or other light source behind you? Walk around your house with your device while looking at your screen to find the best lighting.
• Audio: Your mobile device will record video just fine (in good lighting) but the audio quality won’t be great. Add an external microphone if possible. Personally, I use the Boya Lavalier lapel microphone. It’s under $30 and works great (no affiliations here!). If you use an iPhone/iPad, you’ll need the headphone jack adapter to plug in your mic.
• Tripod: If you’re using a phone, it needs to be steady. Many discount stores now sell basic phone tripods (for example, I got this $8 one from Kmart Australia). You can elevate these on furniture or books as needed.
• Location: Keep your background simple but it doesn’t have to be totally bare. Remember, if you’re using a phone, the background won’t blur like it does with a professional camera — just be aware if you have personal belongings in the shot. Aim to film in a quiet location.
• Clean your lens: Especially if you’re filming on your phone, wipe that dirty lens before you start. It’s a simple tip that’s often overlooked (you should also do that before you take photos).
• Horizontal: If you’re using a phone, turn it on its side. That way, it will fill the whole frame when people are watching the video on their computer/device/tv. If you want to know more about why your video should be horizontal, you might enjoy this funny video.
• Raise your device: You want your device to be around eye level. If it’s too high or low, your face proportions won’t look right. You might need to prop up your device on books.
• Front facing camera: If you’re alone, switch the camera so you can see where you are in the frame (consider positioning yourself slightly off center in the frame). If you have someone else to film you, the quality will be better filming the regular way.
• Look at the lens: Find the tiny hole and try to make eye contact with it. You don’t have to stare at it. You can look away occasionally but don’t look at yourself on screen if you’re using the front-facing camera. Smile!
• Record: Whether or not you want to actually script what you want to say is up to you. A more natural approach may be to create a few notes or an outline, rather than scripting or reading. Pace yourself and enjoy!

Remember, your video doesn’t have to be long. A short video is often a good video!

Want to share these tips with colleagues or students? Download the PDF.

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Teach In Front Of A Whiteboard

One of the simplest ways to create a video is to do what you know best — film yourself teaching.

Eddie Woo is a Sydney maths teacher who has been filming himself teaching maths for years. He has a huge following not just from his own students but from students across the world.

Eddie has a YouTube channel and houses his videos on his blog too.

Here is an example…

These sorts of teaching videos come into their own during periods of remote learning but are useful at any time of the year.

Another teacher who is producing maths videos is Joel Speranza.

Joel is publishing his videos to YouTube and housing them on his website.

What is different about Joel’s videos, is he is using a variety of techniques, including a homemade “Lightboard”.

This short video demonstrates Joel’s video techniques.

Of course, students can “be the teacher” too and record tutorials for other students.

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Green Screen Videos

You’ve probably heard of green-screen videos? This is where you replace the real background of a video with a digital background. To do this, you need to film against a green screen. This could be either a screen bought specifically for video creation or something more ad-hoc — a piece of green cloth, green paper, a green shower curtain, or a wall painted green.

A green screen can even be a shirt!

Love experimenting with the green screen app by @doinks and thinking of different ways of using it in #physed…will be showcasing this tomorrow with my Ss #physed #pegeeks #pechat #ukpechat pic.twitter.com/6Zfovmb8JP

— Adam Llevo (@MrAdamPE) October 4, 2018

Here’s an example of a remote learning video that uses a green screen video from a kindergarten teacher from Texas.

I may have a slight addiction to @DoInkTweets and @PicPlayPost! #eLearning #ObsessedWithGreenScreens pic.twitter.com/3pQ1tpV4VS

— Rachel Doran (@rachel_doran_) April 15, 2020

Want to learn more about green screens?

• Green Screen by DoInk is a popular app you can use on an iPhone or iPad.
• Tony Vincent has compiled some different green screen setups.
• LitFilmFest has shared 7 tips for using a green screen in the classroom.
• Green Screens projects can be “mini” sized too as explained by Anita Goodwin.

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Video Editing Software And Apps

Most people know how to record a video. It can be as simple as opening the camera function on your phone and hitting the record.

But then what do you do with your raw video?

It’s not always essential, but you’ll generally want to do some basic editing. This can include things like:

• Adding text titles or captions
• Adding music
• Chopping out certain parts of the video
• Mixing together video and images

Let’s go through some options for editing videos on the cloud, on a computer, or on a mobile device.

Editing Software (Computer)

WeVideo (Cloud editing software)

WeVideo is a cloud-based video editing tool that allows students and teachers to get creative.

Educators can make videos for their classes, while students could have fun responding to some of their learning tasks as a video. They can also collaborate with peers on projects.

WeVideo also recently introduced screencasting.

While WeVideo For Schools was free for schools affected by COVID-19 in early/mid 2020, this offer has now expired. Therefore the main barrier to using WeVideo is cost. There is a free WeVideo plan but you can only create 5 minutes of footage per month, it includes WeVideo branding, and most features are missing. You can read more about WeVideo pricing here.

iMovie  iOS app | macOS

If you use a Mac computer, the go-to program is generally iMovie. You can also use the iMovie app on your iPhone or iPad if you have one.

iMovie is a free and robust tool that allows you to create anything from a short video clip to a full-length movie. There’s only a small learning curve involved in getting the hang of iMovie, and it comes with templates for layout and music.

If you have a recommendation for a free Windows editing software, please let us know in the comment section below. Windows Movie Maker used to be a popular choice for simple editing but it has been discontinued now.

Editing Apps (Phones/Tablets)

There are a lot of video editing apps out there. They’re not all created equal and most have “in-app purchases”.

For quick video editing on my phone, I love a free app from GoPro called Quik and another one called Splice. They don’t have in-app purchases.

• Quik puts everything together for you with music, transitions, and other cool effects.
• Splice is handy if you want to make more manual edits and don’t necessarily want too many effects.

Let us know your choice of video editor in a comment.

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How To Share Your Videos With Others

Videos can be quick and easy to make but sharing them can be more difficult due to large file sizes.

You’ve probably already figured out that most video files are too big to email.

So what do you do if you need to share a video with students, teachers, or families?

Firstly, consider whether the videos you’re making are too long. Educational videos should be as long as they need to be in order to meet the learning objective but no longer. Studies show that after 6 minutes, engagement drops off.

If you’re an educator asking your students to create videos for assignments, you might want to be specific about length so you don’t run into problems receiving and viewing their work.

When it comes to sharing your videos, there are a few options:

• Add your video to an online hosting site (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, TeacherTube)
• Add your video to Google Drive
• Upload to another Cloud service like DropBox or OneDrive
• Add your video to social media (many services have limits on video length e.g. Instagram 60 seconds, Twitter 2 minutes 20 seconds, LinkedIn 10 minutes, Facebook 120 minutes)

Once you’ve uploaded to one of these services, you can embed the video on your blog, website, or LMS, or share a link. Many videos are too large to upload directly to your blog or site. If you’re embedding a video, you can use the instructions we covered earlier in the post.

If you’re uploading your educational videos to a platform like YouTube or social media, check your school/district guidelines for advice and choose your privacy settings carefully.

If your students are making videos and have a Google account, there is an option for students to upload their video file in a Google Form. You can find out more about that here.
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Using Videos That Others Have Made

We’re fortunate to live in a time when there is a massive library of video content available to us.

The problem is, that it’s often a case of searching for a needle in a haystack to find the right video. Because it’s so easy to make videos, there is a lot of low-quality or inappropriate content out there.

Choosing Videos For Your Students

When considering sharing a video with students, you need to ask yourself:

• Is the video age-appropriate?
• Is the video accurate? Remember, you can’t believe everything you see online.
• Does it meet the learning needs of your students?
• Is it designed to educate about a topic or is there another purpose? (e.g. to entertain or to teach English)
• Is the video made by an educator or someone with appropriate credentials?
• Is the video the right length for your students? i.e. just long enough to cover all the content but not so long that students will tune out.

Remember: Watch the whole video before sharing it with students. It’s tempting to just watch a short snippet but it’s best to screen the whole thing. Of course, if you work with a team of educators, you could share this responsibility.

Tip: Increasing the playback speed a little may help if you need to get through reviewing a YouTube video in a shorter amount of time! Click on the gear icon and then “Playback Speed”. You can then increase the speed to 1.25 or 1.5, for example.

Free Online Video Libraries

So where can you start looking for video content that will meet the needs of your students?

YouTube is the obvious choice but there are some issues to think about with YouTube, and more importantly, there are other useful video libraries:

• TED-ed (free videos and lessons)
• BrainPOP and BrainPOP Junior (teachers and families can request free access due to school closures)
• CommonCraft (classic explanation videos mainly about tech and society with lots of free options)
• GoNoodle (engaging movement and mindfulness-based videos for students. Great for brain breaks)
• Storyline Online (actors reading storybooks)

There are also sites that curate and organize useful educational videos from a variety of websites. One example is WhatKnowLearn which brings together 50,000 videos that are screened and categorized by educators.

Many Australian teachers are enjoying ClickView and ABC Education. Some American teachers have recommended PBS LearningMedia and PBS Kids. Perhaps there are local video libraries in your area too?

Some teachers have also pointed out they like using the short videos shared on Instagram. For example, to introduce students to authors or share art or coding skills. While there may be a plethora of options, Instagram would obviously need to be screened carefully.

Do you have a favorite site to find educational videos? Let us know in a comment.

How to Embed A Video On Your Blog

Many teachers and students like to embed videos they find online on their own blogs. That means you can play it within the post without having to open new tabs or leave the blog.

If you use a learning management system, you should be able to embed videos too.

Let’s take a look at how to embed a video in a blog that’s hosted by Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress.

An embedded video looks like this.

Tip: When embedding a video, it’s a good idea to also put a link to the video near the embed, like this:

Check out the video, What Is A Blog?

Educators or students might embed videos from sites like:

• YouTube
• Vimeo
• TeacherTube
• Google Drive
• TEDEd

Methods For Embedding Videos

Videos from video-sharing websites can be embedded into posts or pages by using:

1. The video URL: Paste the URL on a line by itself in your post/page editor where you want the video to appear. This method only works with certain services, like YouTube.
2. The embed code: Find the embed code on the site you’re using (e.g. YouTube) and copy it. Then in your post put your cursor where you want the video. Click on Add Media and then Insert Embed Code. Paste the code and press Insert into the post. Note: embedding isn’t available on free blogs to prevent misuse from spammers.

You can find the full instructions on how to embed videos in this Help Guide or check out the PDF below for detailed instructions for YouTube.

Download a copy of the PDF

Copyright And Videos

You may be wondering about copyright because we know we can’t just take an image from another site and use it on our blog. So can you embed a video from YouTube (or similar sites) on your blog?

In short, yes.

If a video creator leaves the embed functionality enabled on YouTube or a similar site, that means they agree for it to be shared.

That being said, you can’t necessarily download or make changes to the video (for example, cutting it up, remixing, adding audio, and so on.). So steer clear of that!

YouTube And Safety Concerns

Access to sites like YouTube is a contentious topic in schools. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any experiences with that issue.

The YouTube Terms of Service are very clear in that YouTube should not be used by children under 13 – even with parental permission.

In some countries, this age can be even older, and you should check youtube.com/t/terms for the latest and the requirements where you live.

The biggest concern involves the ads that will play before most YouTube videos, as the ad that shows with a teacher previews a video may not be the ad that shows when a student goes to watch it.

Another concern is the comments that may be shown below a YouTube video.

If you still choose to use YouTube, here are a few tips we recommend to minimize potential problems:

• Set up a class or teacher account if you plan to upload videos or create playlists. This helps separate your work videos from your personal videos. The University of Massachusetts has a guide to creating YouTube playlists which you can access here.
• Look for videos that have comments disabled.
• Embed the video in your blog or LMS when possible which will usually have fewer ads and distractions.

An alternative to embedding videos, especially for younger students, is to give a “safe” link such as the ones described below.

Use Safe.link

If you really have to link to a YouTube video, then video.link may help.

You simply visit the video.link website, paste in your YouTube link, and generate a new ‘safe link’ that you share with your students.

One of the main benefits is no registration is required. The ‘safe link’ will do its best to block any ads and not show any comments.

In this video, Richard Byrne from Free Tech for Teachers explains how to use four distraction-free YouTube sites — SafeShare.tv, Quietube, Watchkin, and Google Slides.

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Conclusion

In this post, you learned:

• Pros and cons of synchronous and asynchronous videos
• Popular tools for live video conferences and screencasts
• Free online tools for making educational videos
• How to film a piece to camera and other educational video techniques
• Popular tools for editing videos
• How to share videos you’ve made with others
• How to find and use videos that others have made
• How to embed videos on your blog
• Copyright and safety concerns when using videos from sites like YouTube

We’ve covered a lot and hopefully, we’ve inspired you to have a go at using some of the tools or techniques mentioned in the post. If you do, we’d love to see what you create or hear about it in a comment!

Scroll down to find the comment box.

We’d also love to hear your own suggestions for finding or creating videos.

Lights, camera, action … and over to you!

About Us

At CampusPress, we’re experts in bringing innovative web solutions to schools, school districts, colleges, and universities through WordPress and our wide range of out-of-the-box and custom plugins and products.

In fact, our services in accessibility, security, hosting, and support, along with an extensive suite of other tools, power millions of education websites, blog networks, and portfolios. Learn more about our school website services or request info today!

The aim of this post is to provide an overview of categories and tags; there is so much more that could be covered.

Tags vs Categories

The whole reason why tags, categories, and search widgets are used on blogs is to serve one purpose — help your readers locate the information they want on your blog. Readers want quick and easy solutions; too hard and they look elsewhere.

While the aim of using tags and categories is the same — to help readers locate information — they are used differently.

Categories are like book chapters; they provide a general overview of the topics you blog about. Whereas tags are more like the index at the back of the book and explode the topic into a million bits.

Categories and tags are displayed in your blog sidebar using the categories widget and Tag cloud widget.

Categories Are Used For Categorizing

Let me show you. I’m currently using 17 categories on my Mobile Technology in TAFE blog. Unfortunately, I blog on a wide subject area, so I’ve so many categories. Ideally, I believe it would be better for me to use fewer categories and for the category’s names to be descriptive enough without using two lines.

Categories can have unique names and be wordy; you want them sufficiently descriptive so your reader understands the type of subject matter they will find when they click on the link. For example, my Cool Web 2.0 & Desktop Tools category contains all posts that review, road test, or tell my readers how to use Web 2.0 or desktop tools more effectively.

Posts can be allocated to more than one category; I assign Twitter posts using the categories Cool Web 2.0 & Desktop Tools and Microblogging Tips similarly those on Flickr are distributed using the categories Cool Web 2.0 & Desktop Tools and Photosharing and Editing Tips. Remember I’m doing this to make it easier for my readers to locate the information they need quickly.

Tags and Tag Clouds

Tags are displayed on your blog as a tag cloud; clicking on a tag name will take your readers to all posts tagged with that term. Tags are normally short, one or two words, and are generally keywords (i.e. terms readers would be likely to use if they searched your site); terms that your readers will understand.

The number of categories you allocate to a post is normally limited whereas you will use as many tags on a post as you like.

Tags or Categories: Which One To Use?

If you checked out problogger sites — you will see each has their own preference as to which they use, or if they use both.

However, if you are planning on using categories like I have, you really need to sit down, think carefully about what content you will blog, and allocate categories that reflect this. You may want to use the categories I use on my Mobile Technology in TAFE blog as a guide.

If you’re going to use categories you need to do it properly; your readers expect that when they click on a category they will get ALL posts on the topic. If you add new categories this means you will need to go back through old posts and allocate them to these new categories.

Creating categories can be time-consuming — if you want to promise a “good enough” system, then use tags, where no thoroughness is implied. You will still need to be consistent with tagging e.g. use widget, Widget or widgets not all three. It’s worth checking out popular tags for ideas of what to use — check out Edublogs tag cloud.

Changing my Mobile Technology in the TAFE blog from the old system of just categories to now using categories and tags did take time — I had to sort through 223 posts. If you’ve got lots of old posts it may be better to stick with how you’ve been doing it and add a search widget to the top of your blog.

FINAL THOUGHT

I’m definitely not an expert with categories and tags; thanks to all the people who helped me out in coming to terms with using them.

Recommend you also check out the difference between pages and posts plus how you can use categories to separate different subjects or classes on a blog.

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Web Browsers

Your web browser, originally called Internet Browser, is your window to the web and impacts on how effectively you interact with content, your social networks and websites on the Internet.

A common misconception is you can only run one web browser. Wrong! Web browsers are just programs; just as you can install/use several graphics or word processing programs on your computer so can you have several web browser without causing any problems.

Just because a web browser is incorporated in the operating system of your computer doesn’t mean you have to stick to using that one web browser. There are quite a few free open source web browser that can enhancing your browser experience.

Whilst Internet Explorer dominates, contributing 74.88 % of market share in February 2008, FireFox is increasing in popularity. Check out this article for a comparison of web browsers.

Statistics used in graph above were taken from Market Share Report prepared by Net Applications. If you compared these statistics to results from Google Analytics, or similar application, for browser usage by visitors to your blog it’s likely that FireFox will feature highly (Note: Statistics for Flock are normally combined with FireFox).

FireFox

Firefox, a free open source web browser which runs on various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, is very popular with e-learning professionals with most preferring it to Internet Explore. It was nominated 2nd top tool in the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 list by 155 learning professionals.

It’s regarded as the best Web browser in terms of add-ons that users can install to modify or add to existing functionality of FireFox. There are hundreds of FireFox add-ons which can be downloaded from here

Everyone who uses FireFox has their own personal favourite add-ons.

My favorite add-ons include:

1. Del.icio.us Bookmarks add-on – great for adding the sites I bookmark to del.icio.us plus excellent for searching my bookmarks in del.icio.us
2. CoComment add-on – automatically activates coComment when you write comments on all major blogging platforms, on services like Digg, Flickr or Youtube and some Forums making it easier to track responses to comments you leave on other people’s sites.

Glen Gatin nominated Zotero add-on in his top 3 tools because it’s easy-to-use and helps you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. Zotero was nominated 72nd top tool in the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 list by 155 learning professionals.

Flock

Flock is another free open source web browser that also runs on various operating systems and is based on open source FireFox’s code. It’s becoming increasing popular because of the social networking features built into it’s interface.

Dean Groom, John Larkin and ozesteph1992 all twittered that Flock is one of their 3 favorite tools. Ozesteph1992 says “I feel like sitting in planes cockpit where I have all ‘controls’ on my fingertips, just a few clicks” when I use Flock.

One cool feature of Flock is once you’re logged in into your favorite sites such as Flickr, Facebook and Twitter the far left side of your flock browser window becomes a mini-people’s feed showing the latest updates from these sites by your friends.

Check out this excellent video by Liz Davis on Figuring Out Flock.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://ca.youtube.com/v/crB8CcYBnBQ" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Liz Davis has created an excellent range of videos on “how to” use a range of web 2.0 tools and she has located them in this post on her blog.   Make sure you take the time to watch her three video on how to use Google Reader if you are still trying to set up a feed reader.

Blogging and Web Browsers

People’s decision to read and/or subscribe to your blog is based on appearance. The various web browsers display your posts differently so every now and then it’s important to check what your blog looks like in various web browsers.

I’ve had my posts display lovely in FireFox only to be upset to discover they looked terrible in Internet Explorer because my image sizes where too large for the web browser making the posts untidy.

FINAL THOUGHT

Other posts from this Best of Web 2.0 series include:

• Are You Making Your Life Easier By Using A Personalized Start Page?
• Setting Up iGoogle For Your Personal Learning
• Blogging Tools To Help You Blog
• Getting More Out Of Blogging And Edublogs
• Using Your Twitter Network For Help & Providing Their Recommendations

What’s your favourite web browser, and why? What’s your favorite add-ons, and why? What tips and tricks do you have for using web browsers?

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And yet to dismiss Twitter is a mistake because it’s an incredibly powerful tool for your personal learning, connecting with others and complements your blogging. Twitters way more than telling people what you’re doing!

The key to “getting twitter” lies in using it effectively. Fortunately besides being a RSS power user I’m also well known as a Twitter-a-holic so let me share my tips on how I get the most out of using Twitter.

Disclaimer: Twitter is personal; it means different things to different people and there’s various ways people use it. Like blogging, my focus for using twitter is the conversations and connections. These are my personal tips and not rules for using Twitter :).

Getting Started With Twitter

Go to Twitter.com and click “Get Started-Join.” Think carefully about your username; I personally recommend use your real name. If I could wind back time I’d use Suewaters, and not dswaters, because branding with one unique and recognizable online identity is better.

Make sure you upload a picture; people connect more when they can visualize the person. Also very important you complete your “Online line bio” and add your “More Info URL” (for a link to your website) because people check these out carefully when deciding if it’s worth following you.

To gain a deeper insight into the value of twitter check out:

• This podcast, or the text from the podcast, I created with Alan Levine, Graham Wegner, Michael Coghlan, Kristin Hokanson and Simon Brown for the Knowledge Tree
• Michele Martin’s podcast with Jeff Nugent, Britt Watwood and Bud Deihl from Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Teaching Excellence where they try and educate Michele on what she’s missing out by not using twitter effectively
• Chris Betcher’s video tutorial on Understanding how Twitter works

Effective management of twitter lies with:

1. Processes i.e. how many people you choose to follow, how you choose who to follow and your purpose for using twitter
2. Technical i.e. the tools you use to manage twitter

Adding Followers

How many people you follow, and who you follow, influences what you get out of twitter and to some extent how you use twitter e.g. how effective you will be at maintaining conversations.

When you follow a person you will receive their tweets. You get their tweets when they follow you; but not necessarily their replies (tweets that start with @) to people they follow but you don’t (unless you have @replies set to “all @replies” in Settings>Notices — this is not something you want to do if following lots of people).

Following too few people with too few following means you’re less likely to see the true power of twitter for connecting and providing assistance. Follow too many people makes it harder to maintain the conversation.

My magic number of people to follow is between 100-200; that was when life was easier. Once you’ve set up your account check out the twitter accounts of some of your favourite bloggers (most have a link on their blog)– go through the people they are following to choose people to add to your account. Remember to follow Edublogs twitter account so you get the last news on what’s happening at Edublogs.

Personally I avoid choosing higher profile people, as they often have too many followers, are less likely to engage in conversations or follow you back — however do check their @ replies.

Using A Twitter Client

The power of twitter is in the instant notification/response to tweets of people you follow.

A twitter client is a MUST; using the web interface isn’t the way to go. They provide instant notification of the latest updates. Which to use is very personal however my favourites, at the moment, are Snitter and Twhirl.

Twhirl is really nice which I equate to a lovely sports car; has a beautiful interface. Definitely a good choice if you aren’t following too many people. Unfortunately I follow too many people and find the way Snitter displays notifications of new tweets is better for maintaining my conversations.

Snagging Link URLs From Twitter

People are always sharing fantastic links in twitter that are worth checking out. I use Twitter Link Monitor to collect these links and feed them by RSS into my Google Reader so I can check them out at my leisure; also handy for grabbing links tweeted when I’m offline. Note — doesn’t display links from people with locked accounts.

Tracking Terms in Twitter

I use TweetScan all the time to effectively manage conversations in Twitter that I want to track e.g. replies to my twitter name dswaters and any other variations people have used e.g. suewaters and tags like Edublogs.

With the number of people I follow I need TweetScan as my eyes and ears. By subscribing to the RSS feed for the tracking term using my feed reader I’m notified through Google Reader whenever anyone, anywhere, tweeters that term. Here are my instructions for setting up TweetScan. Note — doesn’t display terms tweet by people with locked accounts.

Applying A Bit Of Twitter Karma

There’s nothing worse than having a conversation and not realising you’re having it with yourself which is why I use Twitter Karma.  It displays whom I’m following and who’s following me back; I’ll often unfollow if they’re no longer following me.

And Let’s Not Forget The Classroom

The uses of Twitter in the classroom are really only limited by our imagination. Tom Barrett’s been writing some excellent posts on what his Twitter network means to him in terms of his classroom practice and the best ways that twitter can be utilised in your own classroom. Check out Tom’s posts:

• Twitter – A Teaching and Learning Tool
• Plan, Tweet, Teach, Tweet, Learn, Smile

FINAL THOUGHT

I’ve shared my tips for using twitter but everyone has their own secret ingredients —what are your tips for getting more out of twitter? Do you have any favourite applications?

If you’ve tried twitter and it wasn’t working for you — what did you like/not like? If you haven’t tried twitter and you now plan to — please let me know how you go and don’t forget to follow Edublogs on twitter.

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I love teaching people how to create digital stories and videos because it’s a skill that most learners, regardless of age, enjoy learning and experimenting with and are more likely to spend time perfecting their skills in their own time. A great way of engaging even the most reluctant educator to use technology.

However, there are so many videos available online, on so many different topics, that it’s sometimes more effective to use ‘others videos’ than create your own video.

Locating Videos Online

The efficient and fastest platform to locate videos is YouTube

YouTube has made it easier than ever to share and embed videos across the web. Embedding a video from it onto your website allows you to seamlessly integrate multimedia content without the need for complex coding or hosting the video files yourself.

YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is also worth mentioning. It has the ability to suggest videos that are tailored to the viewer’s interests, which keeps users engaged and coming back for more and can be extremely helpful for students to consume similar resourceful video content.

Embedding Videos From YouTube

1. On your blog dashboard, go to Posts > Add New
2. Completely write your post adding all text and images including adding your categories, tags, and post title.
3. Make sure you tell your readers that you have embedded a video below as many feed readers such as Google Reader may remove the video).
4. It’s best to add any code you want to embed as the last step just before you click publish as you’re less likely to have problems.
5. Click on Save Draft and Preview this Post to make any final edits to your post
6. Locate the video you want to embed from YouTube. Click Share to view the embed URL.
   
7. Click Copy to copy the embed URL for the video.
   
8. In your post, you can either insert a YouTube or Embed block on the location where you want the video to appear.
   
9. Now, paste the previously copied embed URL for the video in the YouTube/Embed block, and click Embed.
   

In the provided example, I’ve added the A Guide to Clients & Billing video using the above-mentioned method.

Final Thought

What are your favorite video-sharing websites? How do you use video with your learners?

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Since Edublogs began back in 2005, the definition of blogging has expanded greatly. Nowadays, a blog is simply a blank canvas that can be brought to life in a way that suits you, your students, and your school community.

Edublogs and CampusPress are built from WordPress. This popular content management system was once just for blogs, but is now behind all sorts of websites. In fact, WordPress now powers 30% of sites on the whole web!

Wondering how blogs and other WordPress sites are used in schools?

Here’s a rundown of ten of the most common ways blogs are used by teachers and students, along with some examples.

We’d also love you to share your own examples in a comment.

1.  School or District Website

Many schools and districts host their entire website on WordPress. Often, these are WordPress Multisite networks, where members of the school community can set up blogs for their own department, project, or personal portfolio.

Round Rock School District

The Round Rock Independent School District in Texas, USA, has an impressive collection of school websites, hosted by CampusPress (our WordPress Multisite network).

For ease of use and consistency, Round Rock have a set-up where all their school websites are a similar design, yet are customized to reflect the individuality of each school.

One example of this format from the Round Rock District is Chisholm Trail Middle School. This school website has lots of information to keep students and families up to date.

St. Stephen’s School

St Stephen’s School in Western Australia also hosts their blog network on CampusPress.

This Uniting Church of Australia school has a wide range of blogs from all parts of their school communities.

Just some of the many excellent examples include:

• A performing arts blog to accompany the rehearsals of Grease the musical.
• A resource blog for Hywel Jakeway‘s year 12 English class.
• A blog to document a service tour of South Africa.
• A blog for families about the BYOD program at the school.
• A blog to support a Christmas fundraiser for African children.
• A secondary school blog with regular newsletter style updates.

It’s well worth taking the time to check out some of these fabulous St Stephen’s School blogs!

School Blogs

Sometimes a school website can be set up with more of a community blog feel. There are regular updates showing what the students are up to, as well as important announcements for families.

Craigburn Connections from South Australia is an example of this style. They have their own CampusPress network set up, so their school website also links to class blogs.

Another example is Togher National School in County Cork, Ireland. Their Edublogs site puts students in the spotlight, while also offering essential information for families.

2. Class Website

German Island

German Island is a good example of how a blog is used as a class website.  Roslyn Green and her colleagues have set this site up with a page devoted to each topic or unit. The website houses PDF booklets, essential links, online activities, audio clips etc.

You can read more about the way Roslyn uses blogs in different ways with her high school students in this post. 

Mr. Cartlidge’s Science Blog

Mr. Cartlidge runs this blog for his high school science classes to house resources related to their units of work. There are separate pages and sub pages for different topics and year levels.

The home page says,

“Welcome to all students. I have created this site for you. It is primarily a revision resource for the courses that I teach so virtually everything on here you need to know.”

3.  Class Blog

Class blogs are used in a wide range of different ways. Two of the more popular approaches are administrative and showcase styles.

Administrative: Some teachers use their class blogs to post daily tasks, learning resources, due dates etc. Teachers do this to keep students and parents up-to-date,  provide information for students who are absent, and to provide revision resources.

Showcase: At other times, a class blog is set up more to represent the class community to a local and/or global audience. There might be a whole range of media included to demonstrate what students are up to and a lot of “student voice” in the posts. The commenting sections are generally used more frequently to extend learning and connections through conversation.

Often, class blogs are a hybrid of the two approaches.

Guiles Daily Agenda

This technology class blog by Steven Wesley Guiles is designed as a resource for students. The About Page explains,

“This blog is mainly to set my daily goals for students, so in general this blog will be much more useful to students in my school, and not so much for the world wide web.”

The posts contain a running order of tasks for students, complete with links and resources. This blog is updated for each class which offers the added benefit of support to students who were absent or require revision.

Mrs. Amri’s Second Grade Crew

This is a good example of a class blog that includes student voice and interactions (through comments and tools like Padlet). It also showcases the wonderful work happening in the classroom and has a strong focus on global collaboration.

Mrs. Amri’s Second Grade Crew is based in Oregon, USA and uses a WordPress blog.

4.  Class Blog with Student Blogs

Lots of teachers use class blogs for global collaboration, authentic learning, reflective blogging, collaboration, and discussion.  When used for these purposes, it’s common for the students’ to have their own individual student blogs.

Teachers often find that when students are asked to write for an audience outside of their class, they are more motivated, learn more, and they write better than if they only wrote for their teacher.

Team 2 Eagles

Becky Versteeg in Ontario, Canada has a class blog called Team 2 Eagles. Her 6 and 7 year old students also have their own blogs. They blog on their iPads using the Edublogs website.

The class blog is updated most days with an overview of what has happened in class. There is a lot of “student voice” on the class blog and also on their individual student blogs.

This class blog is part of their district’s CampusPress platform. The student blogs are set up using our My Class feature.

You can read more about the way Becky blogs with her young students in our interview with her. 

Ms. Lawson’s Foundation 1 Class Blog

This blog is for art and media students at a high school in Rochester, New York. The class blog contains tutorials and instructions, and there is a page that links to all the student blogs.

The students use their blogs to document their learning process and showcase their creations.

Jurupa Hills High School Photography blog

Rebecca Cauchon teaches high school photography at a school in California, USA. The main blog is often used to showcase students’ work, while student blogs (which are linked using My Class) are more detailed portfolios.

Student Blogging Resources:

• Find out more about the different ways student blogs and digital portfolios are used in our post from October 2017. 
• Want to learn more about setting up student blogs? Check out 5 steps for creating and managing student blogs.
• For more handy tips and tutorials, also check out our blogging with class and student series.

5.  Specialist Subject Area Blogs

It’s also common for educators who teach specialist subject areas for a range of grades to use one blog for all classes.

Technology @ Cottage uses a blog to post instructions for what the K-5 students have to do during their weekly session at the technology center. Students just need to click on their teacher’s name in the right sidebar to find the instructions for their class.

Many teachers of the arts also set up blogs to showcase student work. All those wonderful creations need an authentic audience!

Just a few examples of visual arts and music blogs include:

• Miss Burridge’s Visual Arts Blog
• Visual Arts @ Taylors Lakes Primary School
• Georgetown Elementary Art Blog
• Arts @ Bell (Visual Arts and Music)
• Rocky Mount Music

6. Personal/Professional Educator Blog

The main reasons why educators have personal/professional blogs include to:

• Share information and tips with other educators.
• Collaborate with a global audience. Increased collaboration with others leads to greater innovation and new perspectives.
• Reflect on their learning or their teaching/work practices.
• Learn how to blog themselves so they can use blogs effectively with their students.

I began my own personal blog Primary Tech in 2008 as a way to share what I was learning about technology integration with others. It has evolved since then, as many blogs do, but the same premise remains.

Larry Ferlazzo 

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the day is a well known example of a personal educator blog.

Larry writes multiple posts a day to keep thousands of educators worldwide up to date with what’s new in edtech, ELL/ESL/EFL, technology, and education in general. His “list” series are a go-to for many educators looking for resources on all sorts of topics.

Cathy Hunt

Cathy Hunt is a practicing art teacher in Queensland, Australia. Her WordPress site is called iPad Art Room.

Cathy presents professional development on iPads in the art classroom and her website complements this role. She writes blog posts to provide detailed how-tos and inspiration for other teachers, as well as using her site to house ebooks and resource collections.

George Couros

George Couros’ popular blog is based on reflection and sharing.

George has stated that three of his main reasons for blogging are:

• to share his thinking
• to reflect on his thinking
• to archive his thinking

George’s blog posts are always shared very widely, demonstrating that documenting your thoughts can not only provide personal benefits but influence others as well.

Check out our personal blogging series to get started with your own blog!

7. Library Blogs

School libraries and resource centers use blogs in a range of ways. Here are two excellent examples from Edublogs users.

The MHMS Daring School Library Blog

Gwyneth Jones, aka The Daring Librarian, has been blogging since 2006. She is well known in the global education community.

Gwyneth describes her mission as,

“to prepare future-ready lifelong readers, learners, makers, and creative thinkers.”

She uses her middle school blog to provide library news for teachers, students, and parents both locally and globally. Gwyneth also shares her lessons and resources on her professional blog which complements the library blog.

Ogle Elementary Library

Amy Kincaid is a Teacher Librarian from Texas who runs the very comprehensive Ogle Elementary Library blog.

Amy is a very innovative and future orientated librarian who also enjoys sharing her knowledge with others.

She regularly posts about the wonderful learning activities her K-5 students are working on. Technology is integrated into her lessons in a very creative way. Take a look!

8. Group Collaboration and Projects

This style of blog can be as simple as students, classes, or teachers collaborating on a group blog. Or, they might involve collaborators from different schools, perhaps working on global projects.

The Student Blogging Challenge

This project runs twice yearly in March and October. It is made up of a series of ten weekly tasks all designed to improve blogging and commenting skills while connecting students with a global audience.

Check out this interview with Student Blogging Challenge founder, Sue Wyatt, for more information about the challenge.

Chickering Reporters

Sometimes schools run a blogging club or group. One example is Chickering Reporters. This is a group of 4th and 5th grade students from Dover, Massachusetts. They work as a group on blogging rather than taking part in instrumental music practice.

The students write blog posts and create podcasts, videos, and multimedia presentations about school activities and events.

ACPS Year 2

Sometimes a whole year level collaborates on one blog. An example of this is Aitken Creek Primary School where there are nine year 2 classes.

They have a joint blog where the various classes post their reflections, reminders, and student work. This blog uses categories to organize the posts. Parents can click on the category on the right hand side to find the posts that are relevant to their child’s class.

9. ePortfolios

We’re seeing increasing numbers of educators use blogs for their own digital portfolio, or for their students’ digital portfolios.

This style of student blog is used to showcase work and share learning throughout a student’s school life. The educator’s personal ePortfolios may be used to document their skills against professional standards.

Connected Learning

Jarrod Lamshed set up his blog as an ePortfolio that documents skills based on the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL).

He is currently using this blog to cross post some of his writing on his school and staff blogs.

New School

The New School is a New York university that has a strong history of using ePortfolios.

Yu-Liang Shih is an arts student who has been using his ePortfolio for a number of years. He uses it for self reflection as well as showcasing the process and product of his work.

YIS

Yokohama International School also weaves ePortfolios into the curriculum at the middle school and high school levels.

The Learning Hub is set up on a CampusPress network to house the ePortfolios for the whole school community. They state that,

“Student blogs are at the heart of the Learning Hub. The blogsites are spaces for reflection, sharing and celebration of students learning and serve as ongoing digital portfolios.”

Take a look at The Learning Hub to see some current examples of students’ posts.

10. Professional Learning

And finally, there are the professional learning blogs. These are the blogs set up to support educators use technology in their school, district, or community, while also modeling how blogs can be used.

Edublogs Teacher Challenges

This blog is an example of a professional learning blog. It’s a place where you can take part in self-paced courses.

Global2 blog

Global2 is the CampusPress network that’s available to all government and Catholic schools in Victoria, Australia.

The Global2 blog is a starting point for creating a blog and also a place to learn about digital technologies.

You can read more about Global2 and find some more great examples in this post. 

Conclusion

Hopefully, these examples have given you some ideas of what blogging could look like in your school community.

This list is far from exhaustive. The purpose and format of your blog is only limited by your imagination.

If you’re inspired to start a blog or website but don’t know where to begin, we have lots of resources to help. Check out Blogging For Complete Beginners: Getting Started With Edublogs. This guide includes a 15 minutes quick start video.

Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions.

We’d also love you to share any other good examples that demonstrate how blogs and WordPress are used in schools.