Sometimes, someone just leaves a great impression. On the PowToon website, users have a way to request work/consulting from me. Many of the messages I get are either "please do this for me for nothing…", or personal insults. Last week, someone contacted me, wanting help with a school project - they wanted help adding "cool stuff" to a project. Normally, I would just reply with a pleasant reply, explaining it was not a support line, or a "fee help line", but this email was different. Apart from wanting "cool stuff", (which I suggested was not the right thing…), they obviously wanted some HELP, (and had also asked about my prices). So - I started an email exchange. During last week, that person and I exchanged ideas, concepts, and what I saw was someone GROWING, someone with an open mind willing to learn, and also being appreciative of the advice I was giving. I love working with people who show some enthusiasm: Thanks you so much! That really helped me Thanks for all the help !! I really appreciate it.  I added all your suggestions. Thank you!  In between each of these was another question, and I really hope that I helped someone grow in their skillset. Just occasionally, you FEEL that doing something for nothing is a good thing to do. It makes so much more sense than answering the emails that mean nothing. Today I got an email from the same online form that had 3 words in it - "Philosphy of Education". If they can’t be bothered to read the form, or use full sentences, and realise what it is for then why should I? I’d rather reserve my efforts for the Stephanies of the world, and Stephanie - I hope that project went brilliantly, it was fun working with you.

Jeff sits down with Patricia Hillyer and Richard Ginn of BlackRocket to discuss how BlackRocket is helping students create amazing video games and learn the art of coding! About Black Rocket This year Black Rocket served almost 20,000 students nationwide through their unique Creative Technology Programs offered during school, after school, and through summer enrichment. Engaging every student, easy enough for any teacher Black Rocket’s new universal game-based learning software is in use in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Ohio and beginning in January in California. For any student, any subject  any grade and any ability, the company’s co-owner Richard Ginn, a teacher of the year award winner from a recent "Number One School in America" according to US News and World Reports, says: "If you can engage a child you can teach them anything. And if you can’t engage them it doesn’t matter what you are trying to teach." Empowering students to write their own video games about the learning goals their teachers establish is based on three decades of research from leading edge Stanford University and is the epitome of individualized learning as much as standardized testing is not. With six levels of assessment built in, this new software makes teachers lives easier! Imagine that. "Every student improved" according to the first teacher to use the software with her students, JoAnn Devito. For more information, visit www.blackrocket.com/edu or email bill@blackrocket.com. Links of Interest @BlackRocketLLC www.blackrocket.com www.blackrocket.com/edu thegrid.blackrocket.com About our Guests About Richard Ginn Black Rocket’s president, Richard Ginn, is a former teacher of the year from High Technology High School in Monmouth County, NJ. US News and World Report recently ranked "High Tech" as America’s number one high school, and as a school known for integrating technology. Richard is also a former administrator in Freehold. Today, Richard leads the company’s highly regarded Professional Development arm which specializes in mainstreaming Technology, Innovation and Game-ification into today’s classroom so that it is easy for the teacher to use and students to leverage. Richard recently returned from speaking to VTEAA, the Virginia Technology Educators Association which represents every Tech Coordinator in Virginia with high marks and he is scheduled to speak to leading California Superintendents in the Fall. Email Rich via rich@blackrocket.com<mailto:rich@blackrocket.com>. About Patricia J. Hillyer Patricia has been in education for over 25 years. She received her Bachelors of Science degree in Biology from Fairleigh Dickinson University-Madison and went on to receive her Masters of Arts in Teaching from Monmouth University. Currently, Patricia is teaching seventh-grade science at Matawan-Aberdeen Middle School, where she has been instrumental in training teachers in technology as well as in the forefront of bringing new technology to the classroom for her students.  Patricia has been performing physics and engineering research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory for over 20 years. Patricia models her teaching by using project-based learning. She has presented her best practices at the New Jersey Science Convention, NJEA convention and at the National Science Teachers Convention. She has been awarded multiple grants and awards from PPPL and NASA for supplies and technology in her classroom. Through PPPL and NASA, Patricia flew in zero gravity, experimenting on the effects of microgravity on soap bubbles. Though her research experiences at PPPL, which included tracking tritium though the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, developing a plasma-based nanotechnology laboratory, using plasmas to convert biomass to biofuels and invented a way to increase solar panel efficiency through evaporative mist (patent-pending), Patricia has brought her research to her classroom. Seeing the importance of hands-on research for students, her students conduct their own research during the course of the school year. She currently is certified to borrow lunar rocks and meteorites from NASA.  You can find out more about her adventures at www.iHillyer.wordpress or follow her @iHillyer on Twitter or @mrshillyer on Instagram or like her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/hillyerscience . The post Learn how @BlackRocketLLC teaches your students the art of VIDEO GAME creation! | #HourofCode appeared first on TeacherCast.net: Educational Blogs, Podcasts, App Reviews and more. … Read more

TeacherCast Needs Your Help! Dear Valued Educator, For the last 3+ years, I have built TeacherCast as a "Place for Teachers to Help other Teachers" and as a free resource to the educational community.  I am writing this blog post to ask that you please consider taking a moment to help us out.  I am thrilled and proud to announce that TeacherCast has made the final round for the 2014 EduBlogs Awards.  Please take a moment and vote for TeacherCast below and help us by tweeting to your PLN and sharing on your social networks.  Together we can show the world how valuable a recourse TeacherCast has become. Thank you for your time and consideration. Jeff Bradbury How to Vote You vote as follows: 1.  Log into List.ly using one of your social media credentials. 2.  Click on the  Thumbs Up icon on the blog, website or person you want to vote for. 3. If the boxes below do not work, PLEASE visit the official page to vote. That’s it! If you aren’t already logged in to list.ly, you can do so using a facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+ account.     Best Educational Use Of Media - 2014 Edublog Awards View more lists from Edublogs The post Please vote for @TeacherCast in this years @EduBlogs Awards for Best use of Media! | #Eddies14 appeared first on TeacherCast.net: Educational Blogs, Podcasts, App Reviews and more. … Read more

Jeff sits down with John Sessler from PBSLearningMedia to discuss this years Digital Innovators program and also learn how more than 1.5 MILLION educators and students are using their amazing FREE resources. About PBS LearningMedia As America’s largest classroom, teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. PBS LearningMedia, a partnership of PBS and WGBH Educational Foundation, is a free media-on-demand service offering educators access to the best of public media and delivers research-based, classroom-ready digital learning experiences to engage students in exploring curriculum concepts that align with National and Common Core State Standards. Nationwide, more than 1.5 million teachers have registered access to more than 87,000 digital resources available through PBS LearningMedia. More information about PBS LearningMedia is available at www.pbslearningmedia.org or by following PBS LearningMedia on Twitter and Facebook. Links of Interest Website/Social media: www.pbslearningmeda.org https://www.facebook.com/pbslearningmedia https://twitter.com/PBSLrnMedia About our Guests John Sessler serves as the Manager of Program Engagement for PBS LearningMedia, an award-winning and trusted destination for educators that aggregates the best of public media for the classroom. John designs professional development and engagement activities to support educators who are integrating technology and digital media into their teaching. Prior to joining PBS, John spent ten years teaching and managing literacy and arts programs that partnered with schools throughout the Midwest. John’s graduate coursework focused on the design and implementation of blended learning environments and digital curricula for pre-K - 12th grade students. He holds an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.S. from Northwestern University.       The post Learn how to be a @PBSLrnMedia Digital Innovator in 2015! | @TeacherCast App Spotlight appeared first on TeacherCast.net: Educational Blogs, Podcasts, App Reviews and more. … Read more

Jeff sits down with the creators of TouchCast, an AMAZING app that allows you to create awesome video projects on the iPad! About TouchCast TouchCast is the leading interactive video platform, selected by Apple as "App of the Year" for 2013. TouchCast is an authoring app for the iPad and PC desktops that thousands of educators and students have used since we launched in June 2013. It is a great content creation tool for teachers that elevate the flipped classroom concept, active learning and online learning to a new level. Different from prior examples, a TouchCast is not just a static video of a lecture. It offers a simple way for the teacher or the student to include a wealth of related content and interactivity within the video itself. A five minutes video turns into a one-hour session when the viewer interacts with the supplemental material such as webpages, images, pdfs, polls, quizzes, and much more. Educators and students around the world can now easily create comprehensive and engaging interactive videos and have fun doing it, using it for communication, active learning, and engaging instruction. You can find lessons plans aligned with the Common Core Standards, teachers training presentations, and an educator guide with examples of many best practices here: www.Touchcast.com/education About our Guests Charley Miller is a New York City-based game designer, software producer, and part-time teacher and consultant with a focus on helping non-game products develop long term user engagement strategies. He has led design and production on games that range from reimagining toys like Nerf Hoops, to 3D iPhone experiences, to training simulations, to urban games, to tabletop games. His projects have included work for Hasbro, the New York City Office of Emergency Management, and the Center for Health and Learning. His urban games have been featured in The New York Times and he was commissioned by New York University for their "No Quarter" Exhibition. Twitter: @Superfection @TouchCast Email: charley@TouchCast.com Dr. Ayelet Segal is Head of Education at TouchCast. With over 20 years experience in exploring problems in the realm of Cognitive Psychology, Education and HCI (Human Computer Interaction). Dr. Segal holds a Master and PhD in Cognitive Psychology, Education and Technology from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Master of Arts in Interactive Media from Middlesex University in London. Dr. Segal is the co-author of the chapter Embodied Cognition and Learning Environment Design of the book Theoretical foundation s of student- centered learning environments. (New York: Routledge. By D. Jonassen and S. Lamb). Her research on Learning with the iPad was recently published at Journal for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Twitter: @AyeletSegal @TouchCastEdu Email: ayelet@TouchCast.com Here is an example of a GREAT video created using TouchCast The post Learn how to create AMAZING Video projects using @TouchCast for iPad and PC | @TeacherCast App Spotlight appeared first on TeacherCast.net: Educational Blogs, Podcasts, App Reviews and more. … Read more

The TechEducator Podcast is a weekly round table discussion about current topics in educational technology.  For more information, please visit www.techeducatorpodcast.com. Many great ways to participate in the TechEducator Podcast. TechEducatorPodcast.com Follow us Live on Video: http://www.TeacherCast.tv Leave a Voice Mail: http://www.TeacherCast.net/voicemail Email: feedback@Teachercast.net Twitter: @TechEdShow (http://www.twitter.com/techedshow) Hashtag: #TechEducator Hosts: Jeff Bradbury - TeacherCast.net - @TeacherCast Jeff Herb - InstructionalTechTalk.com - @InstTechTalk Sam Patterson - MyPaperlessClassroom.com - @SamPatue Chris Nesi - Education the Nesi Way - @MrNesi David Saunders @DesignSaunders Josh Gauthier @mrgfactoftheday About our Guests: Crescerance: @crescerance Alefiya believes that involved communities result in higher academic and social outcomes, stronger values, and increased future success for students. Her degree in psychology and education from Emory University, along with her training and experience as a Montessori teacher, power her passion for wide-scale education improvement. It is this passion that led her to start her company Crescerance (cris-seer-unce) in 2011. In Crescerance’s short lifespan of just over 3 years, Alefiya has enabled over 150 educational institutions in America and throughout the world to better communicate with and engage their communities through the growing power of mobile. Alefiya is passionate about making mobile an easily available and powerful channel to thousands of schools worldwide. She is now focussing on brining the concepts and tools of app development to students as young as the 3rd grade by enabling them to build mobile apps with the newly launched MAD-learn program. In her spare time, she enjoys touring the world, meeting new people, learning new languages, and experiencing new cultures. She is also a closet adrenaline junkie who loves the occasional sky or sea dive expedition. Crescerance began its journey in 2011 with the simple idea of wanting to make it easier for schools to connect and truly engage with their parents, staff, students, alumni, and community at large. Through working with schools in creating their school apps (so that everyone could be connected through Mobile and have quick, easy access to the information they needed), we met students that had a keen interest in not just using the app that we created for their school, but in wanting to learn about the creation process of that app.  "How did you make our app?" was a question that we got asked through numerous in person or Skype calls from teachers wanting to bring an App Developer perspective to their students. This is where MAD-learn was born. It was born from the curiosity of our students. From their quest to know more and absorb more. From our passion to feed that curiosity. MAD stands for Mobile App Development and MAD-learn is a program that is teaching students how to be Creators of Technology, instead of just Consumers of it. To learn more about MAD-learn, watch this video: MAD-learn.com StoryboardThat: @StoryboardThat Aaron Sherman is the founder and creator of Storyboard That.  As the creator he loves watching people expand their creativity and problem solving skills as they create Storyboards.  Prior to starting Storyboard That Aaron worked in senior roles in both technology and marketing in Boston, Barcelona and Sydney. www.storyboardthat.com PledgeCents: @pledgecents Bio - Andyshea is a social entrepreneur from Houston, Texas. He attended Rhodes College for his undergraduate studies and later attended the Conrad Hilton College (at University of Houston) for his graduate degree. Andyshea worked over 8 years in the hospitality industry both international and domestic. He comes from a family that has always emphasized the importance of a great education and philanthropy. Andy’s mission in life to is to make a difference and leave the world a better place than he entered. Andyshea@pledgecents.com PledgeCents is Bake Sale 2.0. We are democratizing K-12 educational fundraising by allowing schools to raise funds faster, easier, and reach a larger audience. The secure platform has helped put over $115,000 back into classrooms in 27 states and impacting more than 26,000 students. The PledgeCents team has one focus - to help provide every student with more educational resources. JettPakk: @katherinejetton Katherine Jetton is the founder and CEO of Jettpakk, a education technology platform that will enable teachers to more effectively help their students learn Common Core material and offer grading tools. Katherine worked with middle school students through the Teach For America program and her students outperformed their peers on Dallas Independent School District Semester Exams by 25 percent during her second year of teaching. After experiencing first hand the difficulties of teaching students who have been previously underserved, Katherine saw the need for Jettpakk, a tool that can save teachers their time, money and energy. Katherine is actively involved in the startup and technology community in Raleigh, NC and is a project manager and product manager of Triangle’s Code for America. Katherine graduated from University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Psychology with honors. Jettpakk is a platform that will aide teachers in educating their students and set up a Culture of Achievement. Jettpakk provides teaching content such as quizzes and lesson plans through a Teacher Wiki in addition to an analytics platform which can help with grading and parent-student-teacher communication. Jettpakk won 3rd place in Raleigh’s Triangle Startup Weekend for Women. Jettpakk is currently in the process of incorporating with CT and seeking funding to build out additional features. Recommended Reading  The Lean Startup The Founder’s Dilemma http://www.amazon.com/The-Founders-Dilemmas-Anticipating-Entrepreneurship/dp/0691158304 Please join the TechEducator Podcast LIVE every Sunday night at 7:00 P.M. EST on http://www.TeacherCast.tv Please contact TeacherCast with any Questions or to become a guest on the show Host: Jeff Bradbury @TeacherCast Email: info@teachercast.net Voice Mail: http://www.TeacherCast.net/voicemail YouTube: http://www.TeacherCast.net/YouTube iTunes: http://www.TeacherCast.net/iTunes Watch LIVE: http://www.TeacherCast.tv | Broadcasting Schedule (http://www.teachercast.net/showcal) TeacherCast Broadcasting Community: http://www.TeacherCast.net/broadcastingcommunity Interested in starting your own podcast? Check out our Educators Guide to Podcasting today! | Video | Slideshare Presentation Hire TeacherCast to Speak or Broadcast at your conference Jeff Bradbury (@TeacherCast) is available as a Keynote Speaker, Presenter, or to Broadcast your conference LIVE!  Contact Jeff Today! Check out more TeacherCast Educational Broadcasting Network Shows TeacherCast Podcast (http://www.teachercast.net/education/teachercast-broadcasting/) TeacherCast App Spotlight (http://www.teachercast.net/education/teachercast-broadcasting/the-teachercast-app-spotlight/) The TechEducator Podcast (http://www.techeducatorpodcast.com) The post Learn how to create an #edtech startup w/ @PledgeCents @Crescerance @StoryboardThat| #TechEducator Podcast appeared first on TeacherCast.net: Educational Blogs, Podcasts, App Reviews and more. … Read more

You just cannot ignore the fact that when you think about searching online for your assignments and projects, the first name that comes to your mind is Google. However, when it comes to academic research, Google search engine does not serve the purpose as it does in most cases. Its search results are not perfect some times. This doesn’t mean that it is the end of the world for students trying to collect academic data online. Apart from Google, there are a number of search engines that are especially designed for the purpose of academic research. They can help you get your hands on relevant information without going through irrelevant or low-quality pages. Given below is a list of some of the best academic search engines that will help you get the research material you want quickly and easily, and without compromising on quality. Academic Info Academic Info contains an in-depth directory of the most useful links and resources within a specific subject area. You can browse through this website to get a list of useful academic websites for research. This site also offers online degrees, online courses and distance learning information from a selection of online accredited schools. iSeek Education iSeek is easily one of the best and widely used search engines for academic research on the internet. It has been especially designed keeping the students, teachers and scholars in mind. This search engine only shows reliable and relevant results that ultimately save your time and enable you to get your work done quickly. You can find safe, authoritative, intelligent and time-saving resources with iSeek. Virtual LRC Virtual LRC or The Virtual Learning Resources Centre allows you to explore educational sites with high-quality information. It has indexed thousands of academic information websites. On top of that, with custom Google search, you will be able to get more refined results, which will help you complete your research in less time. It has been organized by teachers and library professionals around the world to provide students with great resources for academic assignments and projects. In short, Virtual LRC is the best place to start looking for research material that can help you in your studies.   Refseek Refseek is an academic search engine which is simpler than Google even in appearance. Refseek does not claim to offer more results than Google. Instead, it removes results that are not related to science, academia and research. The best thing about Refseek is that you can search for information related to your subject without getting distracted by sponsored links.With a database of over 1 billion documents, web pages, books, journals, newspapers, online encyclopedias and articles, Refseek is your ultimate companion for academic research. Google Scholar As the name suggests, Google Scholar is an academic search engine from the house of Google. Especially designed to search for scholarly literature, it helps you find relevant information from the world of scholarly research. With Google Scholar, you can exploremany sources such as books, dissertations, articles and abstracts from various academic publishers, professional societies, universities and other websites. In May 2014, third-party researchers estimated that Google Scholar database contains roughly 160 million documents. Microsoft Academic Search Microsoft Academic Search is a great search engine from the software giant Microsoft. It gives you the ability to explore more than 38 million publications. One of the best features of this search engine is that it provides trends, graphs and maps for your academic research. It contains more than 40 million publications and 20 million authors. Conclusion If you want your work to be of high quality, then you certainly need to gather information from genuine and reliable sources. The sources mentioned above can be of great help to you in making your research powerful. Ultimately, they will enable you to submit quality projects and assignments. About the Author Liana Daren is a teacher by profession specialising in the field of Arts. Currently, she’s serving her expertise at Coursework Point offering arts coursework help to learners and educators around the globe. The post The 6 BEST Search Engines for Academic Research appeared first on TeacherCast.net: Educational Blogs, Podcasts, App Reviews and more. … Read more

Thanks for watching our video " An Introduction to Kidblog" from TeacherCast University. In this first video of a new Online Course from TeacherCast University entitled "Kidblog: An Introduction to Blogging with your students" we will take a look at the brand new Kidblog.org and discuss some of the reasons why your class and your students will enjoy creating their digital portfolios using Kidblog. Throughout this series of videos we will be looking at the newly redesigned Kidblog.org and demonstrating to you how you can sign up for this free blogging platform and teach your students how to be safe and secure digital citizens. How to find Kidblog The first thing we want to do is visit http://www.Kidblog.org.  Kidblog is the home to more than 5 MILLION student blogs. It is Safe and very simple to use and can be used by students of all grade levels and subject areas. In addition to being used a robust blogging platform, Kidblog is being used today as a way of teaching students about Creative Writing, Problem Solving in the Math Class, Digital Communication with Pen Pals across the miles, and so much more. About our Online Course The complete video series to this online course can be found on our website TeacherCast.net/LearnKidblog. I hope you take a moment to browse this and all of our online tutorials over at TeacherCastUniversity.com and TeacherCast.net I hope you liked this video and found it helpful.  If you did, click on the LIKE button below and leave us a comment.  If you wish to receive more videos from TeacherCast, please click the subscribe button on the top left of this video box and visit TeacherCast.net for more information about google and other great educational tools.  Don’t forget to catch TeacherCast LIVE every Sunday night at 7pm as we bring you the TechEducator Podcast on TeacherCast.tv. The post Learn how the new Kidblog teaches students create their digital portfolio! | (@KidblogDotOrg) appeared first on TeacherCast.net: Educational Blogs, Podcasts, App Reviews and more. … Read more

Thank you for watching todays screencast from TeacherCast University.  This is the second video in our online learning series called "Kidblog: An Introduction to Blogging with your students" Today we will look at Kidblog.org and show you how to create an account to get started using this amazing digital portfolio creation tool. Getting Started The first thing we want to do is visit Kidblog.org.  Creating an account in Kidblog is very easy.  There are two ways of creating your free account.  First, you can create an account by choosing a display name and providing a  password and email address.  The second method, and one that may be preferable to teachers using the Google Apps for Education system in their school is to sign up using their Google credentials. How to Log-in to Kidblog Once you have your Kidblog account created, there are two simple ways of logging into your account. The first method is for users to visit Kidblog.org… click the Log In button, and type in an email address. From here you will be given a list of all of the class blogs under your account. The second method is to enter the url of your class blog directly and you will be taken to your blog where you can then log in as either a teacher or a student. The complete video series to this online course can be found on our website TeacherCast.net/LearnKidblog. I hope you take a moment to browse this and all of our online tutorials over at TeacherCastUniversity.com and TeacherCast.net About our Online Course I hope you liked this video and found it helpful.  If you did, click on the LIKE button below and leave us a comment.  If you wish to receive more videos from TeacherCast, please click the subscribe button on the top left of this video box and visit TeacherCast.net for more information about google and other great educational tools.  Don’t forget to catch TeacherCast LIVE every Sunday night at 7pm as we bring you the TechEducator Podcast on TeacherCast.tv. The post Learn how to create an account and class blog using Kidblog | (@KidblogDotOrg| appeared first on TeacherCast.net: Educational Blogs, Podcasts, App Reviews and more. … Read more

Hello there, thank you for watching todays screencast from TeacherCast University.  This is the third video in our online learning series called "Kidblog: An Introduction to Blogging with your students" About This Lesson In todays look at Kidblog.org we will examine the dashboard area and show you how to set up your class blog.  We will discuss some great new features to Kidblog and show you how to customize your Kidblog account to fit your individual class needs. Here I have my class blog. You can see that Kidblog features a very simple and easy navigational structure.  On the top we have our header featuring our class name and class avatar.  You can view your class posts and comments by clicking on these tabs.  To the right are three buttons where you can choose how you wish to view your student posts an to the right of that is a button where you can choose to hide or show your blogs customizable sidebar widgets. Once you have logged into your Kidblog account, access the dashboard by clicking on either the big K on the top left or clicking on the word SETTINGS in your blog header. The Dashboard In the Dashboard area, you will see your class information.  This information on top shows your class avatar, your blog title and tagline.  Below this you you can view the number of posts and comments your blog has as well as links to access your settings, privacy controls and the ability to add or modify users. We will first look at the settings panel Changing Your Avatar In the settings panel Kidblog provides assess to the inner workings of your blog. You can customize these features however is best for your class.  Here we will discuss the features that will allow you to create a visually dynamic learning experience for your students. The left of the screen presents you with the ability to change your class avatar.  To do so, click on the Choose Avatar button.  This will bring up your Media Library.  You may choose a new avatar from a variety of methods. You may select an Avatar from images that have already been placed in your Kidblog media library or choose from a selection of preset icon images provided by Kidblog. If you have an image you would like to add from your hard drive, you can select My Computer and either drag the image files into the screen, or click Choose File to select the appropriate image. If you are interested in using an image already on the web, you can find that image and copy it’s URL and past it in the LINK (URL) section. A popular feature for helping students choose photos is by using the camera built into their computers.  This is probably the most enjoyable method for your students. The can be as creative as can be. Lastly, Kidblog provides the opportunity to connect your account to your Google Drive.  This feature is one of the many options if you choose to upgrade your account. The box next to the Class Avatar is your User Accounts. When you sign up for Kidblog you are given a class size of 40 students.  If you wish to sign up for the amazing Teacher Premium account, you can unlock the great Unlimited Students feature for larger class sizes. On the right are your class settings.  Here you can modify your class name, class description, and add a location for your blog. Changing Your Theme After modifying the features in your General Settings tab, click on the Theme/Sidebar button to choose a visual cover for your blog. Kidblog provides students more than 20 visually pleasing themes.  Students can have fun changing these themes at any time without effecting their content. You can see here that the Retro theme is activated.  To change themes, simply click on another theme and hit the Activate button. To see your corrections, simply refresh your blog in a second tab. To the right of the themes are the controls for your blogs sidebar widgets.  There are several great features to the new Kidblog sidebar area.  Because this feature is so dynamic and robust, we will be discussing these options in a separate video in this course. Next to the Theme/Sidebar button on the top is your Users Menu Adding and Modifying Users The users menu allows you to create, edit, and remove the students in your class.  This menu is the heart of the Kidblog dashboard because it is the one menu you will be coming back to when your students need to have their passwords reset or if you need to add or delete students quickly throughout the year. The Users menu will be discussed in great detail in a future video in our online course. Customizing Privacy Next to the Users tab is the Privacy menu.  In this section, you have the ability to customize your Kidblog account for your students. One of the new features in Kidblog is the ability for students to choose their audience. Students can now select who gets to see their posts and comments. Once you have your privacy settings selected, scroll to the bottom and click on the Save button. To the right of the privacy menu is the Categories tab. Adding Blogging Categories In the Manage Categories section, you will have the ability to set up the various categories which your students will be blogging from. These categories can be for example: Homework, Classwork, Tests or perhaps Chapter 1, 2,3. To create a new category, select the New Category button and type in the name of a new category and hit the Create Category button. To the right of the Categories tab is the new Conections tab. Connecting to Other Classes Perhaps you and another classroom are both using Kidblog and you wish to share posts.  While logged into your Kidblog account, you can visit another users blog and click on the Follow button.  This is a great new feature that will help you teach your students about digital citizenship and digital content sharing. After hitting the follow button, you can choose which of your classes is attempting to follow that blog. You can then leave a message for the owner of that blog to say hello. The Class Connections tab works very similar to Facebook and Twitter in the respect that you can have the option of following another blog, but that blog’s class does not have to necessarily have to follow your class’s information. There are many new options available in the Dashboard section of Kidblog.  These options can be edited and modified at any point throughout the year. About our Online Course The complete video series to this online course can be found on our website TeacherCast.net/LearnKidblog. I hope you take a moment to browse this and all of our online tutorials over at TeacherCastUniversity.com and TeacherCast.net I hope you liked this video and found it helpful.  If you did, click on the LIKE button below and leave us a comment.  If you wish to receive more videos from TeacherCast, please click the subscribe button on the top left of this video box and visit TeacherCast.net for more information about google and other great educational tools.  Don’t forget to catch TeacherCast LIVE every Sunday night at 7pm as we bring you the TechEducator Podcast on TeacherCast.tv. The post Learn how to setup your new class blog in Kidblog | (@kidblogdotorg) appeared first on TeacherCast.net: Educational Blogs, Podcasts, App Reviews and more. … Read more