Creating Student Blogs and Wikis on an iPad

[Sam Gliksman]

Many members want students to post blogs and collaborate on wikis but it's a little more difficult to manage that whole process on iPads than it is on laptops. Do you have students blogging and/or using wikis on their iPads? Here are your core questions (please distinguish between blogs and wikis):

1. What software and/or apps are students using to create and edit the blogs or wikis?

2. Are they adding images and video and if so, how it is being done? In the case of video, where is the video being stored and how is it being moved there?

3. How are you managing the process?

4. What limitations have you encountered?

 

Add your comments below. Your answers are likely to help others so please include detailed information on processes and apps. 

 

Sam Gliksman

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Twitter: @samgliksman

 

 

[Melissa Scott]

Yes, we have our students blogging on their iPads using Kidblog. Adding images and video has been a bump in the road, but students can also access their blog from home, so they can add there or check out a MBA.  Not ideal, but a start for now...As for wikis, they can add to their wikis, but all the features are not accessible until we upgrade our Apple wiki server.

[Kristin Thomsen]

Yes, my 6th grade students use their iPads to post to their Kidblog page. We use the Blogsy app to write and post to the blogs so students are able to include video, images, and other projects they've created on the iPad and saved to their camera roll. The Blogsy app is fantastic!

[Melissa Scott]

Kristen,

You do not have any problems with the app? Do they have to have an individual email address to post to the kidblog page?

Melissa

[Sam Gliksman]

Does Blogsy upload video directly from the camera roll and store it online or does it require you to upload it to a video storage site and then link to it?

Sam

Kristin Thomsen said:

Yes, my 6th grade students use their iPads to post to their Kidblog page. We use the Blogsy app to write and post to the blogs so students are able to include video, images, and other projects they've created on the iPad and saved to their camera roll. The Blogsy app is fantastic!

[Kristin Thomsen]

Yes, my students upload the video project they created to our class YouTube account. Then the student just drags the video they want to use over to the post. If they want to use a video from another site, then they need the embed code.

[Kristin Thomsen]

Hi Melissa,

The Blogsy app works very well. We first had to link our Kidblog page to Blogsy. You do this by copy/paste the student's URL, username, and password. Students do not need an email to set up Blogsy.

Kristin

[Melissa Scott]

This is great, thanks for the information. Will have to look into it. Do you think it is worth 4.99?

[Kristin Thomsen]

Yes! For the students to post their projects to a blog and receive comments from others outside of class is a huge motivator for my students! I really don't think you'd be disappointed with Blogsy.

[Tina Wilkinson]

Hi Kristin
Thanks for all your tips here. I am just trying to link my kidblog to Blogsy and cannot make it work - could you possibly give some more detail about the linking process? Would really appreciate it

Tina :)



Kristin Thomsen said:

Hi Melissa,

The Blogsy app works very well. We first had to link our Kidblog page to Blogsy. You do this by copy/paste the student's URL, username, and password. Students do not need an email to set up Blogsy.

Kristin

[Kristin Thomsen]

Hi Tina,

Did you enable the mobile publishing checkbox in the settings tab?

Tina Wilkinson said:

Hi Kristin
Thanks for all your tips here. I am just trying to link my kidblog to Blogsy and cannot make it work - could you possibly give some more detail about the linking process? Would really appreciate it

Tina :)



Kristin Thomsen said:

Hi Melissa,

The Blogsy app works very well. We first had to link our Kidblog page to Blogsy. You do this by copy/paste the student's URL, username, and password. Students do not need an email to set up Blogsy.

Kristin

[Tina Wilkinson]

yes Kristen, I did.
Am I correct in thinking I use the "metaweblog" platform option?



Kristin Thomsen said:

Hi Tina,

Did you enable the mobile publishing checkbox in the settings tab?

Tina Wilkinson said:

Hi Kristin
Thanks for all your tips here. I am just trying to link my kidblog to Blogsy and cannot make it work - could you possibly give some more detail about the linking process? Would really appreciate it

Tina :)



Kristin Thomsen said:

Hi Melissa,

The Blogsy app works very well. We first had to link our Kidblog page to Blogsy. You do this by copy/paste the student's URL, username, and password. Students do not need an email to set up Blogsy.

Kristin

[Kristin Thomsen]

No, you want to use the Wordpress platform. Choose the self hosted Wordpress.