This week’s Student Blogging Challenge asks us to think about how our blogs connect us to the world at large.  How they take us from being one tiny, lonely little individual to finding others out there with similar thoughts, interests and activities.  And what a vast pool of international fishies (classes and students) there are to swim around with!

First, we are asked to track the number and locations of visitors to our blog.  I have a ClustrMap in our sidebar that does just that.  Right now, it shows that we have had:

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/athomeinscottsdale/4659168595/

1,262 visits from the United States

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imuttoo/2628589070/sizes/m/

103 visits from Canada

Photo Credit: freeaussiestock.com

62 visits from Australia

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalwallpapers/2695521868/sizes/m/

and 46 visits from the U.K.

as well as many more countries around the world.

Some other recommended trackers are FlagCounter, Feedjit,  and Revolver Maps.  Take a look at each of these and then come back and tell me if you think we should try one of these other trackers instead.

I just love that there is a new automatic pop-up in my web browser (Chrome) that asks me if I want a page that is not in English translated so I can read it.  This means I can interact with people of various languages, whether I know their language or not.  Of course, if I leave a comment in English, I hope their browser will translate it into their language so they can know what I’ve said.

Notice a new addition in our left sidebar?  Yup, that’s right, I was inspired by the challenge to add a translator widget so other people who visit our blog but don’t speak English can now have it translated into their home language.  This means even more people can join our circle of blogging buddies!

Parlez-vous une autre langue que l’anglais?  If you speak a second (or third, etc.) language in addition to English, why not try writing a post in your other language(s)?  That could expand your audience to other people who also speak that language.  (Can you guess what language that question was in?  That is my second language, although I’m a bit rusty….)

Okay class, there is much more to this challenge (investigate Earth Hour, tally languages spoken by the class, visit ten blogs from different countries) than I have time for.  So, I will leave it up to you to tackle those parts of the challenge on Thursday morning.  Good luck, or should I say, bonne chance, and don’t forget to tell me:

• What kind of tracking widget should we use on our class blog?
• What is Miss Nichols’ second language?
• What other language(s) do you speak?
• What are you doing for Earth Hour?
• What other blogs have you visited?

P.S.  Here is the lantern I made for Earth Hour!