Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Syndicating Newspix

I'm a new buzznet user. Creating an account was easy. I even created two, one for personal use [but I don't think I'd be using it] and the other for my News and Current Events class [hence, the Newspix].

I managed to upload a photo from my mobile [Nokia (don't know the model)], followed the instructions on buzznet and it worked! In seconds my photo was published online. Now, my students could do something like this. But managing 50 students (X3 classes), whoah, that would be chaotic. Now, there must be something that could be done to make it more manageable. The Gallery feature should work but one photoblog, I think, would not suffice. One photoblog per class? Hmmm...

Elderbob, a technoguru Webhead, gave some useful tips on syndicating my photoblog to my blog [blogger]. The instructions were in plain English but sounded greek. I had to read it 3 times to make sense of what I was reading;-)I looked at the source code as Bob had instructed and compared his blog lay-out with mine. The script code, I found out, was also available in buzznet syndication help site. After tinkering with the codes, my newspix blog is now syndicated and I would be able to follow my students' photo publications. Thanks, Elderbob;-)

Now, I should take more [nicer] photos of Taiwan. Newspix, afterall, is news about Taiwan.

/aiden

3 comments:

Guy Jean said...

Yeah, ok. Setting up these new accounts takes time (hey! a few clicks of a mouse takes at least 10 secs!), learning how to use new blogging sites (and in some cases software) also takes time. So what's the payoff in terms of EFL/ESL? If any?
Just curious (before I invest the time and energy).

Elizabeth H-S said...

Hi Aiden--

You could have students open http://www.ofoto.com accounts to upload hundreds of pictures, then just invite the blog you have for them to Share Photos--i.e., they put in the blog address to send the link to.

Ofoto has an option to require sign in to see photos, so you can protect your students from public viewing.

I found Buzznet very clunky for posting and viewing photos, so the option to link to albums on Ofoto might give your students a better experience.

You can also view photos on Ofoto in "slideshow" mode.

Cheers--
--Elizabeth

Elizabeth H-S said...

That's

http://www.ofoto.com--Elizabeth