Here is a thorough screencast tutorial on how to use BlipTV on the Community Walk map.

http://blip.tv/file/31472 

After my first full day of working with my high school students on the CommunityWalk Map, "Entry Points," I'm pretty excited about some of the possibilities -- especially since I figured out a way to link between particular map views and that student's profile on the elgg. See my post of examples, "First Entry Points." I need to get these examples broken down into step-by-step instructions.

I'm also realizing that any teacher involved in this project will probably want to be able to edit his/her students' work on the map. A couple of weeks ago I emailed Jared Cosulich, the developer of CommunityWalk, and I asked him if there is any way to give a group of users administrative access to a map. He answered that this was in the works, but that he couldn't promise when it would be ready.

Anybody who wants the administrative username and password for my CommunityWalk maps should let me know: allisonpr@gmail.com

Please let me know how it is going, and let's get together on Wednesday evening!

The mapping project and elgg are getting my students really fired up. We have settled in and gotten all our usernames for our moodle, quia, student accounts at school, and now -- finally they get to start their elgg and communitywalk's - Personal Learning Map - Entry Points!

It is interesting to see the list of interests being added to profiles in elgg. One student wanted to be sure others would find him with the following interests... fish, fishing, fisherman, fiy fishing, surf fishing...As the class noticed his interest list the question came up as to how effective that type of repetition would prove to be. Frankly, I do not know. Yet! 

I am working on getting things unblocked at school..especially the broadcasting port so we can start a webcast for all the elgg and Entry Points students. We called it Spacecast last year and it was wonderful to hear how the student hosts handled the interview process. I will edit the recordings from last year and post them again to share with all of you. 

So our year begins and I am just as anxious to learn the nuances of the apps I am using this year as my students are to get involved in their new 21st century connections!