How to embed a You Tube Video from Explain Everything onto a Blog

If you were wondering why I have a video about Kereru on this blog it is because I was making a tutorial about how to add video to a blog but not use the laptop at all.

Here is the link to the blog post about how to put it all together. Watch the second video for another way of doing it.

Here is the original tutorial video.

Blogging Progress

We have given up on the iPads for blogging using Blogger. We gave it a good shot but it wasn't the right tool for what we were trying to do.

I was prompted to write this blog post on using the right tool for the job.

http://allanahk.edublogs.org/2014/06/20/the-right-tool-for-the-job/

Maybe if I had my own full time class with control over the condition and apps on the iPads that we can use I could make it work but the kids bring me a variety of iPads to use, some of which are completely flat, some are first generation iPads, some with the Blogger app and some without.

If the iPads were being used in a 1-1 envirnonment where they were not being shared things would be easier.

Blogging can be done with the iPads but I found a disproportionate of time in each lesson was spent sorting the hardware and 'how to make it work' issues that time was being wasted.

So this term we are working with laptops- whatever the the boys can bring- Chromebooks, Mac Book Pros, Netbooks, Surface Tablets or whatever. It is sort of a BYOD thing.

Through it we are learning the limits of the devices. I learnt this week.....

• Windows 8 is a whole different ball game from previous versions- a bit like hiding the dock you hover over invisible parts of the screen and menus appear that you didn't realise were there.
• When blogging you really need the passwords and internet to work. This week neither did properly.
• The school is moving over to longer passwords and some had changed and some had not- makes logging in REALLY difficult.

I will persist and hopefully things will be more smooth next week.

Blogging

And so it begins!

I spent a couple of hours over the weekend logging in to each boy's blog to make sure they they could and to get the URL of their blog. That all worked apart well from one boy for whom I was given the wrong log in details. Some of the boys had not written on the blogs at all, or didn't have one so I quickly made one. I need to become aware of the school policy on commenting on the blogs- many of them could only be commented on by logged in Google users which IMHO opinion is a bad thing as it puts a barrier in front of parent or child commenting. I am a little old school though and like comment moderation on. For me, if this feature isn't applied then I need to get notification of comments in an email so I am aware of the traffic on the blogs and can quickly sort it if there is a problem.

I then listed them on the main class blog so the boys could access them easily. Fortunately really some of the boys in each group were absent cos they were at swimming so I only had a small group. Everyone got a short sentence or two on their blog and a photo so that was all good.

To get to the blogs we used the Safarai web interface on the iPads and that seemed to work OK. One later in the day used the Blogger app which I actually prefer but hadn't asked specifically to have them on the iPads so didn't realise was there.

When I got home I went through each of the boy's blogs to make sure that each one had an encouraging comment.

I am looking forward to more of the boys getting into it and exploring the depth and richness of collaboration that blogging can allow.

I wonder if we can get a hold of some of the Chromebooks and use those as well to allow a choice of devices.

I wonder also if I should bring along my own multi-box and extension cord for all the dead flat iPads that come to me on a Monday morning!