But Where We Live Does Not Mean We

Cannot Connect With Others. 

So here are the questions -

1. Which city, state or country do you live in?

2. What “Global Connections” do you think you could make just by thinking about yourself?

3. What does your city, state or country do to improve “Global Connections”?

4. How can you develop “Global Connections”?

5. How do you make a difference to our world by having these “Global Connections”?

In Australia, we can connect so easily because of our multicultural diverse community. You only have to go to a main street to find restaurants of many different countries, such as Indian, Italian, Thai, Japanese, Greek and so forth. You can also meet so many different people with many different heritages. That is one of the reasons Australia is known as a multicultural mixing pot.

So please answer my questions and…

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx

Registration: Is two weeks early enough for registration to begin before the first challenge?

Well I think that two weeks is a pretty good time range, but some people didn’t get to it for about three weeks, so I would probably make it a month.

Subscription: Did you subscribe by RSS or email in order to get the posts as soon as they were published?

I subscribed by email, so I could read it. I also went on the website on a Sunday or Monday to check it too.

Student and class participants: How useful are these pages in the header of the blogging challenge?

I didn’t really use them that much, but I did go on the participants a lot to see how other people were going compared to me. 

The challenges:

• Did you visit the actual challenge on the blog each week or did your teacher have a post on your class blog?

I had subscribed and checked the website each week. My teacher also gave us a checklist of what we had to do for that weekly challenge.

• Which challenges were the most useful?

I really liked Challenge Six-Global Issues, because my post on poverty received a really good response. I also thought it was good because it got the word spread about global issues. 

• Which challenges were the most interesting?

The most interesting was Challenge Nine-Favourites, because I found out a lot of people’s favourites that I wouldn’t have previously known about.

• What would be some other topics you would like included in future challenges?

I would like more personal ones like favourites because they were the most interesting.

• Are more tutorial type challenges needed? eg how to make a link in your post?

I don’t think so. I was okay with anything I had to do, and if I wasn’t I just asked my blogging teacher.

• Were the ‘Visit these’ posts useful?

Yes, because I got to see other people’s posts on what I did, but their version.

• Were the challenges where you had to embed ie polls, cartoons, wallwisher etc interesting or could you not embed due to being a free Edublogs blog or a blogging platform that didn’t allow embedding?

I found them interesting because they were fun. I had no trouble because I have a pro blog.

• Were there enough chances to visit blogs from overseas and make links with other students/classes?

I think there could’ve been a few more, as I didn’t add heaps, but only a few.

• Did you make global connections?

Yes. I made a connection from a girl in Canada named Simone.

• Anything else you would like to mention about the challenge in particular?

I’d just like to say that the challenge has really improved my quality of posts.

Activity 2: This is an audit of your blog since the beginning of September 2011.

• How many posts did you write?

Throughout the challenge I made 14 posts.

• How many were school based, your own interests or set by the challenge?

School based- One. My own Interests- Three. Challenge-Ten.

• How many comments did you receive from classmates, teachers or overseas students?

61.

• Which post received the most comments? Why do you think that happened?

The post which recieved the most comments was ‘Many Interesting Creativity Sites!’ because it had a good title and a good question at the end for people to answer.

• Which post did you enjoy writing the most and why?

I really enjoyed my poverty post because I am really proud of it and everyone liked it.

• Did you change blog themes at all and why?

No, I really like my theme because it is very customisable.

• How many widgets do you have? Do you think this is too many or not enough?

I have 24 widgets. I think that is okay, because most of them are links.

• How many overseas students do you have on your blogroll?

Three.

Well that was a lot of questions! Sorry if you got bored. I will now be back to normal posts, as the challenge is over.

Are there any questions that you would like to ask me about my blog? Leave a comment below.

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx

COMING SOON=My Inquiry Design post!

What do you love? Whats your favourite?

Firstly, sorry I didn’t post for a while. I’ve been busy with homework, inquiry (which I will put a post about on after the challenge!) and other things too.

Secondly, this is for the student challenge week 9, almost there!

In this week’s post we had to write about favourites. So favourite food, colour, and so on. I am going to do that now.

Favourite Singer-

I love a lot of singers, but I would have to choose…

Now if you don’t know who that is, that is Adele from the UK. She sings the songs ‘Rolling in the Deep’, ‘Someone Like You’, and ‘Rumour Has It’. Adele is an amazing singer who always wears her heart on her sleeve and sings her songs with passion.

Adele has been covered a lot of times on YouTube, and on Glee they have done a mash up (mix of two or more songs) of Someone Like You and Rumour Has It, and they also did a cover of ‘Rolling in the Deep’.

I love Adele because in the music world of today there is techno music, and hip hop. Adele is a ballad singer, but she still made it in the music industry. I love her amazing voice that can stop me from doing anything if I hear it, and the way she writes her own songs. I would love to be like her some day.

Click here to go to adele’s website.

Favourite Colour-

Yes, I love purple. Purple is a colour that goes with almost any other colour, and when I see, it makes me happy. Purple potrays royalty, mystery, wisdom and magic. It is basically a mix inbetween blue and red, but can come towards a dark pink, or a dark blue. It is said that purple is the perfect colour, because red is the warmest colour, and blue is the coolest. It is not seen in nature much, so people think it’s a fake colour.

Information- http://www.colorcombos.com/color-purple-article.html

Favourite Food

I like a lot of food, and I wouldn’t be able to pick a favourite, but I made a photopeach with the ones I like.
My Favourite Foods on PhotoPeach

I love cookies, pie-savoury and sweet, apricots, and gnocchi bolognaise.

So I guess that is it for my favourites post.

If you have any other favourites of mine that you would like to know, leave a comment below. Or you could answer my categories!

Attributions-

Love the word-http://www.flickr.com/photos/shandilee/5506261065/

Adele- http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexlovesmiley/6133375715/

Purple background- http://christmasstockimages.com/free/abstract/slides/purple_glitter.htm

Favourite Foods-

http://moonstarsandpaper.blogspot.com/2007/02/best-chocolate-chip-cookies.html (cookies)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/3981189328/ (Gnocchi Bolognese)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/juan-antonio-capo/4740890943/ (Apricots)

http://freeaussiestock.com/free/Australiana/slides/meat_pie_national_dish.htm (Meat Pie)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arndog/2956229319/ (Apple Pie)

I have recently hit one hundred comments, which I am very proud of. But some people have some trouble trying to get comments.

I am also about to reach 2000 hits, so be prepared for a post about that too.

Some people ask me,

“How come you get so many comments on your blog?”

So I tell them some easy few steps.

1. Make sure to write a post at least once a week to keep your regular readers interested in posts, so they will comment.

2. At the end of your posts, ask a question for your readers to answer. When I do that I tend to get way more comments than usual.

3. Go onto other peoples blogs, leave a comment with your blog link, and they might respond to you.

And that is how to get more comments.

There is also the question,

“How do you get so many hits?”

So I also give them some other tips.

1. Tell people you know that you have put a new post on, and they will probably check it out. So you will get more hits.

2. If you can, add a subscribe button so then every time you add a post, people will get a new email saying that you have put a new post on, and they will see it. So you will get more hits.

3. If you don’t think you are getting enough hits, just use word of mouth. Eventually everyone will know about your blog, and you will be getting more hits.

So these are a few easy tips to get more hits and comments on your blog!

Can you think of any other ideas that would help get comments or hits on your blog? Leave a comment below.

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx

I have been exploring a few sites which use Web 2.0 tools that the student blogging challenge provided for us, and I have picked my favourite from most of the categories. If you click on the title of the name of the website, it will send you to the link. So here we go!

ART

In art, there were so many to choose from!

I eventually narrowed it down to two websites-

The first one is:

Colour in Motion

Description-Colour in motion is an interactive video/game/instructions guide that helps you understsand colours and how to use them.

Requirements- Macromedia Flash Player.

Favourite Part- I love the video part because it is a funny and creative movie displaying all the traits the colour represents.

The second one I decided on was-

Artpad

Description- Artpad is where you can add either random paint blotches, paint that you have drawn with your mouse or laptop finger pad.

Requirements- Nothing except for a little bit of creativity.

Favourite Part- The paint blotches. They are great fun to play around with and get a result that looks really effective.

Example-

Writing

For writing I went through all the ones supplied and picked one.

FlipSnack

Description- FlipSnack is an interactive publishing device for your pdf documents.

Requirements-A pdf file, Macromedia Flash Player.

Favourite Part- The creativity of it. There are so many options that you can set your mind free!

Example-

Music and Audio

I liked a few of these, but I decided on my favourite and that was-

Voki

Description- Voki is a tool that you can use to make a customised avatar that talks.

Requirements- Macromedia Flash Player

Favourite Part- How you can customise your avatar, it makes it more original.

Science/Physics

I went through all these games, and really enjoyed a certain one that I had played before-

Magic Pen

Description- A game where you have to use the laws of physics to get a ball to a red flag.

Requirements- Macromedia Flash Player.

Favourite Part- I really like the way the creators have incorporated physics and science into a fun online game.

Animation

In this category, there was one main one that stood out to me, and that was-

GoAnimate

Description- GoAnimate-make your own animated videos. It’s free and fast. (From the GoAnimate website)

Requirements- Macromedia Flash Player

Favourite Part- Making the text to video movies. You pick your theme, characters, setting and put in the words and then you have a movie straight away.

Examples-Here are some links to posts or pages that I’ve done with a GoAnimate.

My comments page and

My post on GoAnimate

Okay, that’s it…

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx

For this, it involves a bit of your participation for it to work.

This is called zooming out of an image. What you have to do is firstly, have an image. So here’s one.

What you have to do is make a comment, and continue on the story. I will start.

Zooming out of an image is a fun activity to do on blogs, websites, or even the classroom. For example, in writing you could use a picture that you have sourced (I have used my own from my photograpy obsession) and make sure it is very basic, for example I have used a teddy bear. (Don’t worry about the babushka as it was in the image by accident.) You can go in a circle, and each person has to say a bit of a story. Or they can write a sentence or someone can follow on (You can do this on a large piece of paper or a smartboard, whiteboard or anything else you can find.) If I did this as a student I would definitely enjoy it.

So let’s start zooming out!

Make a comment, and I will start with this.

‘The teddy bear was sitting in someone’s bedroom. His name was… ‘

Comment on this post and lets see how long of a story we can get!

Stay Posted, (and comment)

Gemma xx

So you’re probably now wondering what a digital footprint is. Let me explain.

Digital Footprints store a lot about every person in the world. For example, files, online things you have either signed up for, your name has been written on or anything else, and anything to do with you that is important. 

If on Google for instance, you search your name, you will probably find something related to you. If I search for a post of mine like ‘My Excursion to Chinatown!’ it will come up with my post.

Anything you do online is kept in a digital file. From when you’re six and are signing up for Club Penguin, to when you are 36 and buying something off ebay. 

Other things can be kept in a digital footprint too. The date, time and place you were born, your full name, texts and phone calls you make, emails and photos you send, and many more.

If you want to find out more about your digital footprint, you can go to the Student Blogging Challenge 3 (I had to do this as a part of the challenge) and have a look!

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx

Geelong is the place where I live.

We don’t have many festivals, but we do have the annual Pako Festa! This festival is held around late february, and next year (2012) it will be held on Saturday the 25th of February. Pako Festa is Australia’s largest free festival of cultural difference and diversity. It is called Pako Festa because of where it is held, it is on Pakington street, the multicultural capital of Geelong.

There is however, many things to do in Geelong, so I made a glogster about it.

Have a look!

Stay Posted, and don’t forget to check out the student blogging challenge! Click here.

Gemma xx

So now I am going to tell you about my avatar.

Hair:  I always wear my hair in a bun, and my hair colour is brown, so I decided to use this hairstyle.

Tops: I really love this top, because it has music notes on it and I think it’s really good, and a top that I would definitely want in real life.

Pants/Jeans: Basic Jeans. What I wear all the time.

Shoes: Boots. They came with the jeans, and I really like them.

Extras: I added a microphone, of course. And some music notes to go with the theme.

So that’s really all, and if you see the ‘September Challenge 1′ you can have a look at the challenges.

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx

This is just going to be a really quick post.

Tomorrow, the 12th of September, the challenge starts. The student Blogging challenge, that is. You can read about it on my blog here, or you can go to the actual website here. I’m really excited, but nervous too!

Can’t wait to start!

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx