There is a lot to learn in this challenge so it will be running for a two week (fortnight) period. The next challenge will be posted on April 2nd. It is also a chance for classes that have been on Spring break or holidays to do some catching up.

Please read this before doing the activities:

This week’s activities are going to be fun but first, there are some things you need to know so please read carefully.

I have been visiting many blogs over the last few weeks. Some students new to blogging have been writing some great posts while others who have been blogging for a bit longer have started adding videos and images to their posts.

Yes, this week we deal with using images, music, and sounds in your posts.

• But can’t I use any image, music or sound that is on the internet?
  No, you must use creative commons or in some cases the fair use rule.
• But where can I find these images, music and sounds? Can’t I use anything when I google an image?
  No, your blog is public so you must use creative commons images, sounds, music and videos.

Read the fantastic post that Sue Waters has written about images, copyright, and creative commons.  She explains about creative commons and the licenses, attribution, how to find images for your blog and how to upload images to your blog. Most of this would be appropriate whether you are using Edublogs, blogger or any other blogging platform. This might be very wordy, but Sue uses lots of images and how to do sections in her posts.

Check out these sites to find additional information on creative commons

• Head to the creative commons website.
• Check out the CC wiki to find out what is happening in your country. What are the different licenses used?
• Check out the education section of creative commons.
• Youtube allows creative commons for videos.
• A fantastic guide to copyright, fair use, and creative commons has been written by Ronnie Burt and I would suggest you read this to understand more about using images, music, and video on your blogs. This also includes what might happen if you use an image etc incorrectly.
• Larry Ferlazzo also has a great “Best List for images” that you might want to check out as well.

Sites to find images:

• Read this article!
• Morguefile
• Open ClipArt
• Pics4learning
• Photosforclass including a review by CommonSense Education and how to cite

Make sure you check out the links under creative commons in the sidebar of the challenge blog.

Sites to find music and sound effects:

Jamendo, CCMixter, post with 14 websites for music, post with 20+ websites for music, post with 55+ sites with sound effects

Now for the activities for this fortnight
You need to do at least one of the green activities in addition to the one in red.

Activity 1. Do some more research on the topic of attribution and licenses and perhaps create your own group video about using images, music, and videos.

This video is the reaction of students in Mrs. Yollis’ class when she mislabelled their artwork. How would you have felt?

Activity 2. Find an image or piece of music. Add it to your post (with attribution) and write a poem relating to the image or music. Invite your readers to write their own poems. Here is Fernando’s example, Samantha is confused

Activity 3. Similar to activity 2. Find an interesting landscape image (include attribution).  Write the beginning of a story relating to your image. Remember to include a conflict of some sort between your characters. Invite your readers to finish the story. How many different endings can you get? Which ending do you prefer? You might need to visit some other bloggers and invite them to finish your story. Remember to leave the URL of your post for them to click on.

Activity 4. Write a sentence using just images – no words OR find 5 images that create a story – again no words only the attribution for each image.

Activity 5. Create a slideshow, photo gallery or poster about your interests to add to your about me page or as a separate post. Your final slide should include attribution for each image.

Activity 6. Create your own images and add to a post of your choice. In your post add a link to the website or tool you used to create your image.

Other options for creating your own images include:

1. Comic Generators like MakeBeliefsComix.com,  ToonDoo
2. Photo Editors like Befunky, fd’s Flickr Tools
3. Tag Cloud Creators such as Wordle

Mixing up your images using these types of tools can really spice up your posts! Leave a comment on Miss W’s post, if you or your class can recommend some other image sites to add to this list.

Activity 7.  Zoom out from an image

We first tried this activity in the challenge in September 2010. Choose a picture, and have your readers zoom out, so to speak, by leaving comments.  Check out the example from Huzzah who finished their story. If doing this activity, include the word ‘zoom’ in your title so I can find it easily. Remember to give attribution. Most important here is to read previous comments so you can add to the story.

Check out these zoom pictures: Becky, Jacqueline, Abbey

Activity 8.  Go back to previous posts

If you have used images in any previous posts you have written, then you are ethically obliged to give the correct attribution or take the image out of the post if it does not have the right creative commons license.  Samudra wrote a great post about using Wikipedia commons.

Activity 9.  Create a jigsaw from your image. Mrs. Schmidt’s class has done this using Jigsaw Planet. Here is her explanation

Last week (2014) my students made some jigsaw puzzles about famous places in our area.  First each student created one Power Point Slide showing a photo and some facts about a location in our area.  They saved the slide as a JPEG and then uploaded it to Jigsaw Planet.  Once the puzzle was created, they published a link to it on their Kidblog. Click on Niamh’s puzzle link.

Activity 10. Write a post about different websites to find creative commons images. Are there any widgets you can add to your blog to make this easier?

Most important learning from this fortnight’s challenge is:

Use creative commons images, not just any image on the net. Always include attribution of where you found the image. Compfight plugin does this for you.

P.S. If you have done the blogging challenge before, you will find these activities are nearly the same each time. If you have ideas for different activities please leave a comment on Miss W’s post.

Still got time left this fortnight (two weeks):

1. Visit other student and class blogs – leave some quality comments
2. Reply to comments on your own blog
3. 
   Start using tags and categories with each post you write to make it easier for people to find posts on certain topics. Make sure you have the tags and categories widgets in your sidebar.
4. Have at least five other student blogs linked on your sidebar – students from other classes and schools – not your own. We will need this for a game we play in a couple of weeks. Try to have a few different headings like:”My Blogging Friends” or “Other Class Blogs.” Having lots of links to student blogs from other countries will help spread the game. Here are the instructions for adding links to your sidebars.

Still got time to visit more posts that couldn’t be flipped to the magazine

Chloe (Australia), Madison (Australia), Katelyn (Australia), Skye (USA), Lily (Australia), Jessica (Australia), Jennifer (USA), Mikayla (USA), Mia (USA), Jose (USA), Trinitty (USA), Noor (USA), Anneliese (Australia), Beck (USA), Andrew (USA), Jared (USA), Dom (USA), Dulce (USA), Nelly (USA), Deondray (USA), Sarah (USA), Iqra (USA), Kennedy (USA), Autumn (USA), Lisbeth (USA), Bryanna (USA), Emily (USA), Sabrina (USA), Madison (USA), Keith (USA), Gavin (USA), Georgia (Australia), Madison (USA), Cicely (USA), Haley (USA),
Kim (USA), Abby (USA), Lily (Australia), Justin (USA), Casey (USA), Brooklynn (USA), Marina (USA), Mohamed (USA), Lexie (USA), Ralphy (USA), Mahmoud (USA), Kenaysha (USA), Yahshua (USA), Makaela (USA), Sarah (USA), another Sarah (USA), Raya (USA), Mari (USA), Charlotte (Australia), Taelor (USA), Leah (USA), AJ (USA), Erandi (USA), Kira (USA), Marshall (USA), Fern (USA), Angela (USA), Chris (USA), Ava (USA),

• These students have been leaving comments on blogs: Jena and Chloe
• Tawnie and Giselle  created a great post about commenting
• Angela has used images to help show how to comment on her blog
• FluffyWhiskers and Emily created a powtoon about commenting
• Raynen, Mikaylah, and Charlize created a video
• George (Excellent post on comments recommended by a teacher)
• 
  Riley asked me to publicize this story about alpacas, Brady writes posts about superheroes, would you prefer this or that by Tayne, Austin tells us about a setter, Jessica loves glittery things, Everett loves writing about household items!
• Have you checked out the continent song by Mrs Amri’s class?
• Mrs. Smith’s class have an alphabet soup with lots of links to student posts.
• Mrs. Lehane’s class tell you about themselves and Melbourne
• Did any of Mrs. Wong’s students visit your class blog and leave a comment?

 Flipboard Magazine

I will only be adding posts to the Flipboard magazine that:

• are written in paragraphs
• have been proofread
• include an image, sound or video with attribution

So make sure you have taken note of this week’s learning about creative commons.

Miss W visiting your blogs

From this week onwards, I will only be visiting blogs where students or classes have left the URL to the post in a comment with an explanation. If your teacher is moderating your posts, you will need to wait until it has been published before giving me your URL. Check out the difference between a blog URL and a post URL.

Blog URL: http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org

Post URL: http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2015/10/10/raise-your-voice/

UPDATE  UPDATE   UPDATE

The next challenge will be about global issues and on March 25 there is an easy activity youcould take part in called Earth Hour. Visit their website and add their badge to your sidebar if you are going to write a post relating to their theme or activity. I suggest using the 160×600 if adding to the sidebar. If adding as a logo or banner in a post, use the 728×90 version.

Earth Hour began in Australia ten years ago so we are having a special celebration. Check it out here. They also have special posters you can use on your blog.

Here are Activities for kids to do at home and school relating to Earth Hour.