Yes! I’m finally able to get a new password to my site. It’s been weeks since I could get on. If it wasn’t for my field study, I’d want to forget all about blogs for a long time. Hopefully, things go smoothly from now on. I just hope my students will have better luck. I really think there must be an easier way to do things for class blogs. If anyone has some advice, please let me know. I’m afraid you’ll have to read my other ramblings below to understand this portion. As I’ve been unable to share my thoughts on blogs until now, I’ll add them to this post.
This would be a blog if I could get into my blog site. I’m very frustrated with edublogs. I have tried several times to get a new password. There has been a problem with the site. I’ve tried every procedure to get this fixed, including emailing edublogs, as instructed. No one answered back. Unfortunately, I set up blog sites for my class using Edublogs. I was looking for another blog site, but each one I tried wasn’t active and suggested I go to Edublogs. I was a little leery because I had heard someone at TLITE mention that they really didn’t like it and that they were using another source for his blog. I didn’t hear what site though. In any case I went with Edublogs.
It took me forever to set up an account for my students and myself. I had to set up a google mail account so that I could assign a hack email account for each of the 44 students. Once I got the teacher page set up, I was able to add 15 users at a time to the class site. I received two emails for each student page. Over the course of several days (a few hours each night) I finally had each site ready to go. I went into each account and set up what looked like an easy to use theme page. At first every site had the same name, “School Blog.” This was really confusing as I was reading through my 88 emails, so I started changing the name to each by adding their account number to each title. No student name is ever used, which is a good thing as I set them up in August and didn’t know who they were anyways. Needless to say the whole process was extremely time consuming, BUT I was finally done and ready to go. I also went into the class site and set up a link to all of the other sites. I think this will make it easier for the children to comment to their “blog buddy.” Another hour or so later and I was finished.
Before starting the above procedure, my SFU blog was working. Unfortunately, it did not last long. Had I realized this before starting, perhaps I would have hesitated on using the site for my classes. Oh, do I wish I had had second thoughts. I say this because the password problem has now occurred on every site. Imagine my surprise when I went in with my class to explore their blogs only to discover they wouldn’t open! (They worked fine a week ago.) While the kids explored other programs and Internet games, I worked on trying to get at least one blog to work. Of course I started with the teacher page. As with my SFU account a new password was not emailed to me. I didn’t give up, as much as I wanted to, and I was able to get a new password for one student site. It took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to change the password to something a little more memorable than what Edublogs sent me. I thought I would remember how to change it, but the site wasn’t working properly. After logging out and back in a couple of times I was able to finally change the password. I have never been so frustrated. All I can think about is the many hours I will need to get things working again. My fear is that it won’t stay fixed. If blogging wasn’t such a large part of my field study, I would forget the whole idea altogether. I am very discouraged, to put it mildly.
Before beginning to fight with Edublogs, I thought I might be able to find another blogging source. The first one I went to wouldn’t load. The next one, “Xanga”, lists popular blogs. The title one example was not appropriate for a child to read. There are also a lot of advertisements. Of course, I knew I had a few ideas on my SFU blog, but then again I couldn’t even open that site to read what I had written. It wouldn’t load. I am definitely an unhappy camper.
I searched for other sites for another two hours. There are so many other things I need to do write now that I’m going to put things on hold. We have Meet the Teacher Night tomorrow. I think I will present the one student account that works for now. I will have to let everyone know that appearances may change. Ultimately I really need permission before proceeding in any case.
