WordPress to Blogger

If you have a WordPress blog, you can transfer it fairly quickly and easily to Blogger.  Do so by using the "export" tool in WordPress, http://wordpress2blogger.appspot.com/ utility web site, and the import feature in Blogger.

WordPress "Export"

http://wordpress2blogger.appspot.com/

Blogger Import Blog tool- Settings > Basic

Web Site Statistics

I am sure that most of you who have Blogger sites have taken a look at the Stats tab in the back-end.  If you have not, take a look-see because it really does give you some valuable information.  Here is an image from my Stats screen:

The statistics are provided by Google Analytics, which can be used on any site that accepts Java script (not just Blogger sites).  Although Google Analytics is used a lot by businesses to review their web-marketing, it can really help teachers and students.  Since 2004 I have been an Educational  Technology Specialist.  For those seven years I have helped a lot of school web masters and teachers set up and maintain web sites.  The two most fundamental questions that they have to answer are:

1. What is the purpose of my site?
2. Who is my target audience?

If there is not a purpose and an intended audience, the web master's will disappears and the sites goes forever "frozen in time".   However, even if you answer the two questions, how do you know you are accomplishing your goals?  Asking for feedback via comments or surveys is one way.  Another is by using a tool like Google Analytics.  It will tell you how many visits your page(s) have gotten, where they were referred from, what search words visitors used to find the site, and what browsers visitors were using.  

So, once you see your stats, how do you improve them?  How do you drive traffic to your site?  I just read a blog post by Liz B. Davis.  Liz is the Director of Academic Technology at Belmont Hill School, an independent, all boys, grades 7-12 school outside of Boston, MA.  One of her former students, Jacob, a teenage boy, has cancer and has created a blog to document his experiences.  Jacob asked Liz how to increase traffic to his site.  I think her advice is excellent.

Visit Jacob's "Teens with Cancer" blog and Liz's blog.

What do you think of Google's "Stats" feature?  What recommendations do you have for increasing traffic to a web site/blog?

There is an app for that (Smart phones)

I just recently purchased my first "smart phone" (an iPhone).  I was very familiar with what the iPhone could do and how it worked because of my experience with iPod Touches and iPads.  However, I was not sure how much use I would get from its "smart" capabilities- would I end up with just an expensive cell phone?  I am on my computer quite a bit during the work day and have always felt about as "connected" as one could be.  To my surprise I have found myself opting for the smart phone in many cases before my computer, especially when I am on the move or want to accomplish something simple and quick (i.e. email).

The advantage the smartphone has over the computer is that it is very mobile while always being connected.  I am writing this post on my phone, for instance, at the Chicago O'Hare Airport using an app called Blog Press.  It cost $2.99 on iTunes.  It makes blogging more spontaneous.  Rather than making mental notes of what I want to blog about when I get to my computer, I can actually write a few lines and post it or save a draft for later (Blog Press allows me to save the drafts online so I can finish on my computer if I want).  I also really like blogging on the smart phone because I can access pictures I have taken with the phone's camera quickly and easily (no having to connect to a computer, download the images, etc.).    

I have also been following all of my favorite blogs, including those of the Technology Challenge participants, using an app called Feeddler.  It is synced with my Google Reader account.  Feeddler is free on iTunes.    

Another of my favorite apps of late is iMapMyRun (there is also an iMapMyRide for bicyclists).  I downloaded this app for my trip to Chicago so I could log the distance and time of my daily runs (also to rescue me if I got lost!).  I have used the Map My Run web site a lot for the last few years.  The web site allows you to click the points of your run on a Google map.  It calculates the distance for you.  The app uses the GPS capapbilities of the phone to automatically record the points of your run on a map, calculating your distance, speed, etc.  You can also choose to see the elevation of your run, calories burned, and other statistics.  In terms of education, I think the app and web site can be integrated in physical education, mathematics, geography, and other courses.  




Smartphone users, what are your favorite apps?

odiogo Text-to-Speech (Multi-Taskers Will Love You)

Notice the "listen now" button above each of the posts on this blog?  It is from a web site called Odiogo and it translates the text in a blog post into speech... Why is that useful?  Well, for starters, followers of your blog can listen to your posts as they do other things.  They can also subscribe to your posts as a podcast- fed into iTunes or another aggregator, or put on an MP3 device so they can listen to your posts while they drive, walk, etc.  OR your students, especially the ones who need a little help reading your posts, can listen to the posts as they read along!  Check it out.  To get it installed on your blog just visit http://www.odiogo.com/, submit your blog address and email address, and verify that you are the owner of the blog.  Simple and powerful.

http://www.odiogo.com/

Writing on the Web

Virginia Shaffer posed an interesting question on her blog- what rules of writing do we follow on the Web?  Do we adhere to the same rules of writing that we follow in traditional mediums when we write on a blog or other online medium?  

It seems obvious that there are less (or maybe no) rules to online grammar. There is no almighty English teacher on the Web going through blog posts and comments and deciding if the writing is properly proper to be seen by the public. However, there is a reason that languages have grammatical rules, right? I would hope so or there are a lot of teachers out there wasting their and their students' time.  I think the reason is that the rules help ensure that the author is understood. If the author and the reader are working within the same guidelines, there is less of a chance for miscommunication, right? 

With that being said, I think the bottom line of writing is to be understood.  When writing on the Web, the writer, I think, needs to ask himself or herself two questions to determine how formal to be- what is my purpose and what does my audience expect.  If you are posting on a web site, like I am here, in a professional setting, you need to write well enough to indicate you deserve a job!  However, if you are posting to a personal blog where your audience does not expect the formality, you can play more loosely with the rules.  

So, how much do you cling to the conventions of grammar when writing on your blog?  Do you think less about grammar when writing on the Web than other mediums?       

Hmmm..um...(blogger's block)

The technology is cool, but blogging is not really about technology. It is about good writing and effective communication. It is about exploring thoughts, experiences, and passions with a unique voice. So, blogging is the same set of skills writers and artists have been trying to master since, well, there have been writers and artists.

Mastering the tech skills of blogging, in my opinion, is a lot easier than mastering the art of blogging/writing/communicating. The biggest challenge of blogging is not clicking the mouse and tapping the keys, it's figuring out what you want to say and how you want it to be said.

So, fellow DPS Tech Challenge bloggers, before you get lost in the minutiae of blogging technology, find a purpose for your blog.

If you need any inspiration, Time.com just released their list of top 25 blogs for 2011. Maybe one of us or our students will be on their list next year if we can master the ART of blogging.



http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2075431,00.html

Following Blogs

I grew up in a time before the Internet.  Growing up in the 1980's I loved reading newspapers and magazines.  I loved getting up in the morning and stepping out to our newspaper box, grabbing the paper, and reading while I ate my Wheaties.  Once I was in high school (still in the time before the Internet) and was able to earn some money working part-time jobs, I was able to buy subscriptions to a few magazines (Rolling Stone, Running Times) that spoke to my interests and passions.  They arrived conveniently in our mailbox every few weeks.  On those special days, I would swing open the tiny mailbox door and, voila,  there would be the latest edition in glossy, pristine condition ready to poured over and absorbed until the next edition arrived.

Twenty years later we live in an era increasingly dominated by the Internet.  I still get my magazines the old fashioned way in the mail- each edition as glossy and pristine as I remember twenty years ago.  But I also love reading a number of web sites and blogs.  And like my beloved magazines, they arrive in a mailbox, so to speak.  The mailbox in this case is called an "aggregator".  Instead of walking down the driveway to get to this mailbox, however, I just need to get on my computer and open a web site.

When I subscribe to a magazine, I do not go to the bookstore everyday to see if the newest edition has arrived.  I know it will be sent to me.  The same is true for the blogs I subscribe to.  Using a little feature that all blogs have called a "feed", I can quickly subscribe to any blog I like.  Again, blog mailboxes are called "aggregators".  This is how you subscribe to blogs using my favorite aggregator, Google Reader:

Commenting on Blog Posts

One of the essential features of blogs is the ability for readers to comment on posts.

Although there are several blog programs to choose from (Blogger, Word Press, etc.) and each has its own unique features, most blogs use roughly the same format for accepting reader comments.

In the demonstration video below, I will show you how it is done using Blogger.



If you want to comment on a post in a Blogger blog, follow these steps.

• First, obviously, read the post.
• At the bottom of the post will be a "Comments" link. The link will tell you the number of comments that have been made to the post thus far. Click on the link so it will take you to a page with only the post on which you are commenting.
• Enter your comments in the text window.
• You may need to enter in some identifying information depending upon if the blog administrator wants their to be anonymous comments or not. If you are required to enter some identifying information, choose an account such as Google from the "Select Profile…" drop-down window.
• Click on the Post Comment button.
• You will be taken to the selected account's homepage so you can sign in if you are not already.
• Once you sign in, you will have to click the Post Comment button again.
• Your comment will be posted!