Fiona Beal ran an online blogging course for teachers in South Africa and realized what a great teaching tool blogs can be. She shares some free Web 2.0 applications that can be used in technology integrated classrooms and linked to in blogs, including Box.net to link documents, Embedit.in to embed documents, Slideshare.com to present slideshows, Screencast-o-matic for screencasts, and Vocaroo.com for audio recordings. These applications allow teachers to add rich content and instructions to their blogs.

1. A blog can be a
fantastic teaching
tool in a technology
integrated
classroom
By Fiona Beal
fiona@schoolnet.org.za
http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.com

2. Recently I have been running a free online
blogging course for teachers around South
Africa. 57 teachers signed up, and I decided to do
all the teaching from a blog to model blogging. I
suddenly realised what a fantastic teaching tool a
blog can be in a technology integrated classroom.
I’d like to share a few of the Web 2.0 applications
that can really aid a teacher in a classroom when
added to a blog.

3. 1. Use Box.net to link to
documents you have
created using
http://box.net

4. 1. Use Box.net to link to
documents you have
created using
http://box.net

5. *For example

6. *Join Box.net and upload your document.
You get 5GB of free space.

7. *Once your document is uploaded and appears in your list, click
on Share. A web address link will appear for you to copy.

8. *Copy this web address to the spot where you want it in your
blog and click on the word link at the top of your blog post to
make it an active link.

9. *The result on the blog
24 November 2012
How to add pages to your blog
Take a look at this Tipsheet for a step by step guide for adding
pages to your blog.
http://www.box.com/s/0n7mlllvp442syfhqnr1

10. 2. Use Embedit.in to link
to documents you
have created
Embedit.in is a fantastic application that allows you
to embed all sorts of different documents on your
blog by creating an embed code.

11. *For example

12. *Go to http://embedit.in

13. *Go to My embeds and sign in using one of your accounts – I use
my Google account

14. *Go to Select Files and find the file you want on your computer.

15. *Copy the embed code into your blog post

16. *Make sure you put it into the HTML part of the blog post

17. *This is the result.

18. 3. Use Slideshare.com
for more detailed
instructions
Slideshare is a fantastic way to present a ebook type
of instruction to a class. You create each page in
PowerPoint.

19. For example…

20. *Go to Slideshare.com, join and click on Upload to find the
Powerpoint or PDF you want to use.

21. *When your document appears click on embed to get the code
to add to your blog in the HTML section of the post.

22. *Here is the embed code

23. 4. Use Screencasts to
explain something
more complicated
My favourite screencasting programme is
definitely Screencast-o-matic

24. *Join and log in. Start recording by following the instructions.

25. *This is what it looks like when you are finished. You can embed
it, upload it to YouTube, or download it as a movie file.

26. 5. Use verbal
instructions on your
blog using
Vocaroo.com
Vocaroo.com is so easy to use. You can
download the result as a .wav file, or you can
simply embed it in your blog.

27. *Join Vocaroo.com, click to record and start speaking when
prompted.

28. *Paste the embed code into your blog

29. *This is the result

30. These are just a few of the ways you can make
your blog a great teaching tool. What’s more
they are all free! Perhaps you have tried out
others that you would like to share?