Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Removing the Navbar at the top of your Blog
1. Login to your Blogger account.
2. Click the Layout Link.
3. Click Edit HTML.
4. Scroll down (it’s likely to be WAY down) and find the section of the code that says:
]]></b:skin>
</head>
<body>
5. Insert the following code above the ]]> code:
#navbar-iframe {height:0px;visibility:hidden;display:none}
6. Click Save Template.
7. Click View Blog.
Don’t Forget! If you change templates, you will need to add the code again.
Friday, February 15, 2008
HTML in your blog
To change the text size, font, and color (if you didn't want to do all three, just eliminate that part of the code):
<span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:arial;color:purple;" >This text is larger, Arial, and purple</span>
This is how the code above will look:
This text is larger, Arial, and purple
Remember to make the font-family a common font that you can find on both Macs and Windows computers. Otherwise, the text will display as the default font. Also, use common colors.
To insert a hyperlink:
<a href="http://thewebsite.com">The hyperlinked text</a>
Thursday, February 14, 2008
What is a Blog?
Blogs in Education
Wiki History

Have you ever been to Hawaii? There are buses at the Honolulu airport that will take you between terminals called Wiki-wiki buses. They are the fastest way to get from one terminal to the next. Wiki means "fast" in Hawaiian. What does that have to do with Internet wikis? Well, everything! Ward Cunningham is the creator of the software that allows users to edit content on the Web...quickly. Wikipedia.org is one of the most famous websites that uses Mr. Cunningham's technology. Mr. Cunningham named his technology "WikiWikiWeb" after the Wiki-wiki buses in Hawaii as opposed to calling his technology "quick-web." He figured WikiWikiWeb is more fun to say than quick-web. His technology allows anyone to quickly and efficiently create content on the Internet...get it?
source: http://c2.com/doc/etymology.html
Wikis in Education
Imagine that you have a project that involves writing that is going to be a group project. What are some of the problems that arise in this situation? Finding time for the students to work together? Making sure that the members of the group contribute equally? What else? Feel free to comment.
Now, imagine being able to solve some of the drawbacks to group projects. Imagine being able to have groups of students work on a project without having to be in the same room? Imagine, as their teacher, being able to view the history of which student(s) contributed to what part of the project?
Imagine being able to create an online encyclopedia for your class…created by your students…that next year’s students can add to…and the next…and the next.
This is where wikis come in. Wikis are a type of software that allows you to edit a webpage and save the information to a server (a computer in the company’s building). There are some wikis that are private and only accessible within a company. There are some wikis that are have to pay a subscription. And, there are some wikis that are free and public (but which you can make private by requiring a password). Those are the ones we’re most interested in.
What other uses for this technology would you have in your classroom? Feel free to comment.