Monthly Archives: July 2008

Embedding Wordles Into Blog Posts

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Have you become addicted to Wordle like me? The Wordle addiction is definitely spreading but embedding Wordles you create to your blog post can be tricky.

What is Wordle?

Wordle is a free web site for easily creating beautiful word clouds from text, URLs, RSS feeds or del.icio.us account. They are a great way of visualizing the importance of particular word in text since the more frequently a word is used the larger it appears in the Wordle. You don’t need to sign up for an account — just go to the Wordle create page to get started!

I used a Wordle recently in a conference presentation to emphasize the key reasons why educators use Personal Learning Networks by creating a Wordle using reader’s comments on “Why is your personal learning network important to you?”.

Below is a “How to Create Word Cloud Text Art With Wordle“ 

Embedding Wordles in Blog Posts

Once you have created your Wordle you can save it to their Gallery and Wordle provides you the HTML code for embedding it into your blog post. Unfortunately this embeds a thumbnail image (170 pixels by 132 pixels) which is too small to clearly see the words. Dragging this thumbnail to increase size results in an image with blurred text.

The best option is to take a screenshot of your Wordle using Jing, SnagIT, MWSnap or Skitch (read this post to learn about screencapture tools). Alternatively, instead of using screencapture tools, you can:

  1. Windows – Click on the Print Screen button on your keyboard to capture desktop screen, paste (CTRL+V) the image into Paint, crop and then save image.
  2. Mac – Captures images and saves to desktop
    • Command+Shift+3 – screencapture of your entire screen.
    • Command+Shift+4 – Drag the cursor out over the area you want to capture.

Now all you need to do is upload your screenshot and insert the “Full Size” (NOT “medium”) image into your blog post! The “Full Size” image provides the best quality image for viewing the text.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There has differing opinions on the educational benefits of Wordles. What are your thoughts on Wordle? What are some of the creative ways you have used Wordles? How have you used them with students?

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Image Width In Blog Posts

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When you upload an image you are given three versions that you can insert into the post:

  • Thumbnail (150 x 150 pixels)
  • Medium (300 x 300 pixels)
  • Full Size

Image sizes

If you are like me and prefer specific sizes of images in blog posts you are able to change the size of thumbnail and medium sized images under Settings > Miscellaneous.

Changing Image Sized

What you mightn’t have realized is that when you insert an image into a post using the “full size” option, the image is automatically resized to a maximum width of 500 pixels. This has been done to prevent the problem of wide images in blog posts caused when people post photos straight from digital cameras.

It is important to realize how wide an image can be depends on your blog theme. Some themes 500 pixels is too wide and the image will flow into your sidebar area. While other themes can cope with images wider than 500.

Maximum image width for the following themes are:

Maximum image width for blog themes

Resizing imagesYou also need to remember that image size in posts isn’t affected when you change blog themes so the image width you used on your old theme may be too large for your new theme e.g. go from Cutline (480 px) to Quadruple Blue (400 px).

You can increase the width of an image by clicking and dragging the image to the required size. DON’T insert a “medium size” image and drag to the larger size because this affects the quality of the image.

Compare the quality of this “Medium Sized” image dragged to 500 pixels wide:

Medium Size image

With this “Full Size” image:

Full Size image

FINAL THOUGHTS

While the “full size” option does automatically resized to a maximum width of 500 pixels its not a good idea to upload images directly from your digital camera to your blog posts. Resizing before uploading is the better option which I will cover in my next post.

If you currently resize images please tell us about what tool(s) you use and why? And any links or information that would help others understand about resizing and image quality.

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Creating Student Accounts Using One Gmail Account

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Image of blog email addressWhen you set up blogs with multiple users the comment notifications are only sent to the email address that was used to set up the blog.

So if you’ve set up student blogs with your student’s email address using Edublogs Blog & User Creator feature comment notifications will be sent to your student. This is a problem if you wanted all comments sent to you for moderation.

While you can change the email address in blog settings (Settings > General) a simpler solution is to set up the student blogs using one Gmail account.

Using Gmail To Create Student Accounts

Gmail (or Google Mail) is Google’s free web email service with tons of storage space and lots of great features e.g. ability to easy search mail messages, threaded messages, built in chat.  Create your gmail account here.  I recommend choosing a name that people can identify easily as being you e.g. mine is my name with the s missing from the end of waters.

Educators can use one Gmail account to set up student blogs or sign up for different online services using gmail’s support of plus addressing. How this works is simple! Gmails ignores anything in the first half of an email address after a plus sign so if you create each email with the format username+studentname@gmail.com all emails will be sent to the inbox of username@gmail.com. You can use both text and numbers in the student names.

Image of using gmail to create blogs

FINAL THOUGHTS

Remember when using Edublogs Blog & User Creator feature to create student blogs the students are automatically added as Administrators (here is an explanation of the different roles you can assign users).  Also don’t forget to change selection to Yes in the Add Admin field if you wanted to add yourself as co administrator when creating the student blogs.

NOTE: to have access to the Edublogs Blog & User Creator for batch creating 15 blogs at a time you need to be an Edublogs supporter.

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What Are The Different Roles Of Users?

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When you set up an Edublogs blog with multiple users you have the ability to assign and control what other users can do in the blog depending on the tasks you want each user to be responsible for. You need to consider carefully what role you assign other users since Administrators are able to remove other users, including you, and editors can delete content.

The five roles a user can be assigned in decreasing level of responsibility are:

  1. Administrator – can do everything including complete power over posts, pages, plugins, comments, choice of themes, imports, settings, assign user roles and are even able to delete the blog.
  2. Editor – is able to publish posts/pages, manage posts/pages, upload files, moderate comments as well as manage other people’s posts/pages.
  3. Author – can upload files plus write and publish own posts.
  4. Contributor – can write own posts/pages but can’t publish them.
  5. Subscriber – can read comments and write comments.

The diagram below summaries the responsibilities of each role:

Image of user roles

Please note when using Edublogs Blog & User Creator feature:

  • Users are automatically added as Administrators.
  • To create multiple student blogs you add yourself as co-administrator by changing selection to Yes in the Add Admin field.

To be able to access Edublogs Blog & User Creator Feature you need to be an Edublogs supporter.

Image of adding co-admin

Changing User Role

You change the role of users in your blog dashboard by going to Users > Authors & Users.

Image of how to change user roles

FINAL THOUGHTS

Setting up blogs for your students? You may find these posts useful:

What role(s) do you assign the different users when setting up class and student blogs, and why?

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The 100 Edublogs Themes Separated Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier

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Given there are 100 Edublogs themes available for you to use ranging from themes that can’t be altered to themes that are “extremely customizable” you can spend quite a bit of time testing themes to find the “perfect theme”. So I’ve decided to help make your task a bit easier (I hope) by categorizing the Edublogs themes based on:

  1. Layout – number of columns
  2. Color Scheme
  3. Ability to upload own image header
  4. Presence or absence of page links in blog header
  5. Presence or absence of tagline in blog header
  6. Ability to customize theme

Image of assessing blog themes

One Column Themes

Single Column themes have a central post area with no sidebar. These theme appeal to people who like to keep their theme simple by preventing the clutter often created by sidebar widgets. All widgets are located at the bottom of the blog on one column themes.

  1. Image of a one column theme72 Classes – Minmalist white theme with black trim
  2. Ambiru - light grey theme and able to upload your own custom image header (500 x 225 pixels)
  3. Day Dream – offers four different headers to choose from pink with flowers, blue, grey or green leaves
  4. GreenDay – Olive green theme with content located on left of page; doesn’t look anything like supplied screenshot in theme selection area
  5. Roundflow – Extremely customisable theme. Able to change width of column, type of font used on blog and colors of header, background & text
  6. Simplr – This theme allows you to configure some variables to suit your blog such as font size, font type
  7. Striped Plus – Extremely customisable theme that allows you to change width of blog, type of font used on blog, colors of header, background & text and upload own images to use for header and background

One column themes with additional features:

  1. Links to pages in blog header - Ambiru, Day Dream, Green Day, Roundflow and Simplr.
  2. Includes tagline in blog header – Day Dream, Green Day, Roundflow and Simplr

Two Column Themes with Left Sidebar

Image of Two column theme with left sidebar

  1. Anarchy - Black theme with red headings and white text.
  2. Benevolence – Simplistic theme which allows you to upload your own custom image header (700 x 225 pixels).
  3. Borderline chaos – Theme has funky modern color scheme
  4. Fauna - theme has a light grey background image with patterns and allows you to upload your own custom image header (780 x 200 pixels). Posts have a white background.
  5. Pink Kupy – Very pretty in pink with pink patterns in the header. The post column is really narrow with the post background color of pink and the text written in darker pink.
  6. Solipsus – Black and grey tones theme with simple pattern header. The post column is quite narrow and the post background color is grey.
  7. Suhweet – Minmalist purplish theme with the background colour of post light purple.
  8. Tarskei - White simple feeling theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header (720 x 180 pixels)
  9. White as milk – Extremely white theme with a white header and felt too white for me.
  10. WordPress Silver II – Clean white theme that allows you to customize your image header using a Flickr tag.
  11. Heminway – Black theme that can be changed to white. Technically speaking it is a two column theme but is unusual in that it columns display posts and the widgets are located below like a one column theme. Didn’t partially like this theme because it displays the latest post as a partial post and you have to click on a link to read the full post.

Two column themes with left sidebar additional features:

  1. Links to pages in blog header - Fauna, Suhweet, Tarskei and WordPress Silver II
  2. Includes tagline in blog header – Pink Kupy, White as Milk, Suhweet, Tarskei and WordPress Silver II

Two Column Themes with Right Sidebar

Two Column themes with right sidebar are the most Edublogs most common theme layout so it has been necessary to break these themes into several categories based on: those that allow you to upload your own image header; and then the remaining themes were categorized based on the theme’s color scheme.

Those that allow you to upload your own image header are:Image of Two Column with right side bar

  1. Blix – 690 x 115 pixels. Blue Green simple theme.
  2. Connections – 741 x 142 pixels. Stylish theme.
  3. Contempt – 750 x 140 pixels. Blue grey professional theme.
  4. Cutline – 770 x 140 pixels. White theme.
  5. Fleshy – 780 x 95 pixels. Grey theme with black trim.
  6. Greenery – 740 x 171 pixels. Extremely vivid green theme with trees in default image header.
  7. Jakarta - 480 x 200 pixels. Sandstone color theme and post background color is tan.
  8. K2 – 780 x 200 pixels. Light grey theme.
  9. Letoprime – size of image not specified. Wide range of default image headers to choose from plus the option to upload your own image header with light blue feel.
  10. Mandigo – 800 x 250 pixels. Lots of options for customizing this theme.
  11. Misty Look – 760 x 190 pixels. Very light green toned theme that includes Post and Comment RSS feed in the blog header.
  12. Ocean Mist – 736 x 200 pixels. Gentle blue toned theme.
  13. Press Row – 770 x 200 pixels. White Simplistic theme.
  14. Redoable – 730 x 180 pixels. Deep grey theme and the background color of posts is grey. Default header is strong red.
  15. Regulus – 730 x 140 pixels. Very customisable theme with ability to change color tones.
  16. Rubric – 215 x 150 pixels. Light grey toned theme.
  17. Seashore – 900 x 180 pixels. Light grey toned theme.
  18. Sumenop – 480 x 150 pixels. Dark theme with curly flowers.

Those with additional features:

  1. Links to pages in blog header - Greenery, Press Row, Blix, Connections, Cutline, Fleshy, K2, Letoprime, Mandigo, Misty Look, Ocean Mist, SeaShore and Redoable
  2. Includes tagline in blog header – Connections, Fleshy, K2, Letoprime, Mandigo, Misty Look, Ocean Mist, SeaShore, Contempt , Jakarata, Rubric and Sumenop

Green Themes

  1. Almost Spring – Simple theme with light green tones
  2. FrameFake – Nice green tones and the post area is scrollable. Links to pages in its blog header.
  3. Green Mairnee – Black header with green tone theme.

Blue Themes

  1. CleanTidy – top post has deep blue background and older posts have grey background color. Links to pages in its blog header.
  2. Deep Blue – strong blue tones
  3. Flex - Blue and grey tones that includes tagline in its header
  4. Fresh Bananas – Light blue simple theme.
  5. Glossy Blue – Vibrant blue with green tones theme which links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline in its header.
  6. Nikynik BlueMU – Simple blue theme which links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline in its header.
  7. Ocadia - light blue with grey tones theme which includes tagline in its header
  8. Pool - Gentle calm blue theme which links to pages in its blog header.
  9. Steam – Gentle blue and grey theme with wide post area.
  10. Waterlilly – Blue grey toned theme with water lilly image header and includes tagline in blog header.

Yellow Themes

  1. RadMod - Red header with background area of posts yellow.

Brown Themes

  1. Batavia – Simple brown theme with post background color light fawn which links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline in its header.
  2. Quentin – brownish red toned theme which includes tagline in its header

Pink Themes

  1. Daisy Rai Gemini - Very soft pinkish tones with a soft flower image header and includes tagline in its header.
  2. Dixie Bell – Soft pink with a pink flower on the right handside of the blog plus includes tagline in its header
  3. Sweet Blossoms – strong pink theme with flowers and includes tagline in blog header.
  4. Twilight – Pink and grey toned theme that includes tagline in blog header

Black Theme

  1. Black Letterhead – Black theme with yellow titles and white text.

White Themes

  1. Copyblogger - strong black header with red highlights and titles giving it strong tones of black and red which links to pages in its blog header.
  2. Crop Circles – white and soft grey tones with an alien crop circle influence which links to pages at the top of the blog plus includes tagline in its header.
  3. Letterhead – Extremely white theme (was a bit too white for me) plus includes tagline in its header.
  4. Man`ja – Simple yellow thin header with white theme which links to pages in its blog header. Very different look and feel from a traditional blog (wasn’t for me).
  5. Simpla – White grey minimalist theme which includes tagline in its header.
  6. Trevilian Way – White minimalist theme. Links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline. Not a fan of its default setting which doesn’t display full post on blog.
  7. Veryplaintxt – incredibly white theme which includes tagline in blog header.

Grey Themes

  1. Blue Moon – Deep blue grey theme which links to pages in blog header plus includes tagline in header.
  2. Deichnetz – Grey tone with a Bavarian forest floor image header
  3. Falling Dreams – Grey pavement theme with pavement image header. Post area is quite narrow.
  4. Gentle Calm – Greyish green minmalist theme which includes tagline in its header.
  5. Gridlock – Able to change the way posts are displayed however wasn’t a fan of this theme.
  6. Kubrick – Able to change the color of the header plus includes tagline in its header.
  7. Light 1.0 – Grey, blue and navy toned theme which links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline in its header.
  8. Northern Web Coders – grey, orange pink tones with sun coming through clouds image header which links to pages in its blog header.
  9. Terrafirma – Grey, green, orange toned theme with plant image header. Links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline.
  10. Thoughts – Strong grey theme with speech bubble like image header. Includes tagline in image header.

Patterned Theme

  1. Vistered Little – Post area is transparent so when scrolling you see the image behind the post. Readers can also change the look and feel of the image by clicking on the links in the header. Personally I found this theme too busy and makes it hard to read posts.

Three Column Themes with Left and Right SidebarImage of a three column theme with right and left sidebars

  1. Andreas09 – This theme provides 14 different options for changing the color of the blog header. Links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline.
  2. Anubis - green toned theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header (970 x 150 pixels).
  3. Blue Zinfandel Enhanced – White theme with links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline.
  4. Cordobo Green Park – Fluoro green theme with rounded edges and inks to pages in its blog header.
  5. Edublogs Default – White theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header (970 x 140 pixels) with links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline. This is the default theme for all new Edublogs blogs.
  6. Garland – This theme provides the ability to change the color of the blog header, background, text and links using font color codes. Has links to pages in its blog header.
  7. Newportal – Blue theme with links to pages in its blog header.
  8. OceanWide – Extremely customisable theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header (980 x 198 pixels), change font types and theme colors with links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline.

Three Column Themes with Right Sidebars

  1. Image of Three Column with Right sidebarsBluebird – Blue and brown aligned theme with bluebird sitting on a branch in the blog header and links to pages on right hand side of header. Post background color is light blue. Includes tagline in blog header.
  2. Blue Green – This theme has a blue header with green contrasts. Post background color is very light grey blue.
  3. ChaoticSoul – Brownish grey theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header (760 x 151 pixels). Post background color is brownish grey with white text in the posts and yellow post titles. Includes tagline in blog header.
  4. Fadtastic – Blue theme with green highlights with links to pages in its blog header. I didn’t like this theme because the default post isn’t a full post i.e. you have to click on link to read full post.
  5. GenkiTheme – Greenish blue feeling theme which Includes tagline in blog header.
  6. Glorious Day – Bluish and greenish tone theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header ( 900 x 180 pixels). Has links to pages in its blog header plus includes tagline.
  7. Reaching Darkness – Grey tone theme that allows you to upload your own custom image header ( 900 x 180 pixels) with links to pages in its blog header.
  8. Twenty eight thirteen – Minimalist white theme which Includes tagline in blog header.
  9. Vertigo – Minimalist white theme.

Four Column Themes

  1. CommentPress – Incredibly unusual blog theme. It offers two skin options:
    • Table of Contents skin – which would work well if you wanted to use it for writing a document or wanted to just use the site for providing assignment information (link to the oldest post appears at the top table of contents)
    • CommentPress Skin – provides readers the ability to comment paragraph by paragraph in the margins of a text.
  2. Fjords – Bluish grey tone theme with all four columns the same width which means that the post column is excessively narrow and not well suited to lengthy content. It does allow you to upload your own custom image header ( 900 x 200 pixels ).
  3. Quadruple - Navy blue header with blue tone theme with one sidebar on left and two on right. The post area is slightly narrower due to having four columns.

Most Customisable Themes

These themes provide greater opportunity for customizing if you want to change color of your blog based on font color code or change font type.

  1. Roundflow - One Column. Can change the colors on the blog, width of column and type of font used.
  2. Simplr - One Column. Able to change width of column and type of font used.
  3. Striped plus – One Column. Able to change colors on the blog and type of font used.
  4. Mandigo – Two Column. Extensive range of image headers to choose from and able to change colors on the blog using font color codes.
  5. OceanWide – Three column

FINAL THOUGHT

With 100 Edublogs themes there is a chance I accidentally made a mistake like missed your theme, got a color wrong etc. I’d really appreciate it if you could check the information I supplied for your theme and let me know if I need to make any corrections or missed a theme off the most customizable list. Would also like to hear which theme(s) you like/dislike and why.

You might also find What To Consider When Choosing Your Blog Theme and Edublogs Themes That Allow Comments on Pages! helpful

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