Monthly Archives: November 2009

Creating And Uploading Your Comment Avatar

Modified on by
76

Your avatar is an important part of your online identity.

It’s an online representation of you that shows up in places such as where you leave comments or forum posts and is part of how others visualize who you are.

Most schools don’t allow students to use pictures of themselves on blogs or websites.  Instead of photos most students create avatars that representative of them.

Uploading your comment avatar to your blog is easy — I’ll show you how in a second.  But first let’s discuss online tools you can use to create your avatars!

For each tool I’ve included an example of the type of avatar they create and how to save the avatars (without creating an account and/or using an email address).

Important tips

Online avatar tools often create rectangular  images while normally avatars are square.

Use an image editing program (such as MS Paint, Picture Manager or iPhoto) to make your image square before uploading.

For best results resize your image to 97 pixels wide by 97 pixels high.

Example of resizing an image

Here’s information to help you:

  1. How to crop images using MS Paint
  2. How to resize images using MS Paint
  3. How to crop and resize using MS Picture Manager

Think carefully of how you want others to visualize you when choosing your avatar – it’s all about creating a positive digital identify!

Example of Blessthischick

Bless This Chick

Bless This Chick creates really cute female avatar (and I had lots of fun creating mine).

Once finished it’s best to select jpg image option 130 x 146 pixels and then email to yourself.

How to email the saved avatar

Build YourSelf Wild

Build Yourself  Wild can be used to create fairly conservative avatars (like my example below) or you can go totally wild by adding different animal parts to various areas of your avatar’s body.

To save your image:

  1. Click on I’m Done
  2. Now click on Print Your Wild Self
  3. This will display the print version of your avatar in a new tab or window of your web browser
  4. Right click on this print version and select ‘Save Image As’ or “Save Picture as’

Saving as an image

Image size created is 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels wide.

Use programs like MS Paint or MS Picture Manager to crop your avatar into a square shape and then resize.

Example of Build Yourself Wild

DoppelMe

Example of a DoppelMe avatarDoppelMe is relatively easy to use.  Just click on each feature you want to add to your avatar and it is automatically added (or changed).

A few features are only accessible if you create a DoppelMe account and are logged in.  However you can still create cool avatars (and save them) without an account.

Image size created is 100 pixels wide by 200 pixels wide.

To use your avatar’s full body it’s best not to add a background so you can make your image square.

To save your completed avatar:

  1. Right click on your avatar
  2. Select ‘Save Image As’ or “Save Picture as’

How to save images in Internet Explorer

Example of Dream AvatarDream Avatar Creator

Dream Avatar Creator is also relatively easy to use.

Just click on each feature you want to add to your avatar and it is automatically added (or changed).

To save your completed avatar:

  1. Right click on your avatar
  2. Select ‘Save Image As’ or “Save Picture as’

Image size created is 120 pixels wide by 150 pixels wide.

Face your Manga

Example of Face your manga

A good aspect of Face your Manga is that it creates square shaped avatars so you don’t need to crop or change your image shape.

Unfortunately some of the ads on this site aren’t necessary ideal – check suitability for your student first!

To save your completed avatar:

  1. Click on the PrtScn button on your keyboard (this takes a screenshot of your entire desktop) or click on Alt + PrtScrn to take a screenshot of the web browser page Prtscn key on keyboard
  2. Open up MS Paint
  3. Hold your Ctrl key and then press V key to paste your screenshot into MS Paint Control V
  4. Now just select the avatar and crop (Image > Crop) — then Save your image

On a Mac:  use Apple (Command) Key + Shift + 4 to take a screenshot of your avatar only.

Example of Hero Factory avatarHero Factory

The Hero Factory creates action hero avatars.

Be warned the bodies of  most females hero’s may be a bit too voluptuous (my avatar covered up 8-) ).

Once you’ve completed save your avatar using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

The Mini Mixer

The Mini Mixer creates a lego avatar – ideal for your lego loving students :)

Once you’ve completed save your avatar using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

Example of a Mini Mixer avatar

Mr. PicassoHead

Mr. PicassoHead creates a more artistic like avatar – ideal for those wanting something a bit different.

Once you’ve completed save your avatar using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

Definitely fun — but I mightn’t be very artistic!

Example of Mr Picassohead

Example of Simpsons avatarSimpsons Avatar

The Simpsons Avatar is definitely for those lovers of the Simpsons.

Just create your own Simpson avatar then save it using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

WeeMee

WeeMee is also relatively easy to use.

Just click on each feature you want to add to your avatar and it is automatically added (or changed). However terms of services are for over 13 years of age.

Once you’ve completed save your avatar using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

Example of WeeMe

TizMe

TizMe is also excellent fun for creating avatars however terms of services state for over 13 years of age.

Once you’ve completed save your avatar using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

Example of Tizme avatar

Uploading your Avatar

Now you’ve created your avatar uploading it to your blog is as simple as:

  1. Go to Users > Your Avatar or Profile > Your Avatar inside your blog dashboard Your Avatar menu
  2. Click on Browse, locate your avatar on your computer and click Open Browse to locate avatar image
  3. Now click Upload Click upload
  4. Once uploaded select the part of the image you want to use as the avatar and then click Crop Image Cropping your avatar
  5. Now whenever you leave comment on your blog or (another Edublogs.org blog) your avatar will display with your comment.

Example of a comment avatar

Please note:

  1. If you have trouble cropping your avatar once uploaded – you need to upload again by click on Browse, locate your avatar and then click on the Alternative Upload button.
  2. Your new avatar mightn’t appear immediately on new comments – try holding the Ctrl key and pressing F5 to clear your browser cache
  3. For best results resize your image to 97 pixels wide by 97 pixels high before uploading.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Updated: 100 Edublogs Themes Review To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier

Modified on by
4

This is an update version of  The 100 Edublogs Themes Separated Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier post!

Given there are 100 Edublogs themes to choose from ranging from those that can’t be altered to themes that are “extremely customizable” you can spend considerable time testing themes to find the “perfect theme”.

So to help make your task easier we’ve categorizing the 100 themes based on:

  1. Layout – number of columns
  2. Color Scheme and how customizable the theme is
  3. Ability to upload custom image header – those that allow are shown as recommended header image dimensions, in pixels, to upload (written as width by height)
  4. Presence or absence of links to pages as navigation tabs at the top of the theme – as shown in page link column as Yes/No
  5. Presence or absence of tagline in blog header – as shown in display tagline column as Yes/No

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.

One Column theme list

TWO COLUMN THEMES WITH LEFT SIDEBAR

Two Column themes normally a wide column for content with a narrower sidebar.

These are the most common theme layout and location of the sidebar (left or right) is personal preference.

Two column left sidebar theme list

TWO COLUMN THEMES WITH RIGHT SIDEBAR

Two Column themes with right sidebar are the most common theme layout so we’ve separated these themes based on:

  1. Ability to upload custom image header
  2. Colour scheme

With custom image header

Two column with image header list

Without custom image header

Two Column Right Sidebar color theme list

Black, White and Grey themes without custom image header

Two column right theme list

THREE COLUMN THEMES WITH LEFT AND RIGHT SIDEBAR

Example of Three Column themeThree column themes have either:

  1. Sidebars side-by-side on one side of the blog
  2. Sidebars on either side of the wider content column

Three column left right theme list

THREE COLUMN THEMES WITH RIGHT SIDEBARS

The most appealing aspect of three column themes is the ability to place more widgets in the sidebar.

Sidebars side-by-side three column themes on one side of the blog allows you to use this aspect well.

Three column side by side theme list

FOUR COLUMN THEMES

Example of a four column themeFour column themes have one content column and three sidebars.

The content column is often the same width as the other columns. This type of layout tends to be cluttered looking and less suited to reading lengthy content.

However this category includes themes like CommentPress which is very unique.

CommentPress is ideal for writing collaborative documents or for providing resources because its Table of Content Skin places the oldest post at the top table of contents and your readers can comment paragraph by paragraph!

Four Column theme list

MOST CUSTOMIZABLE 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

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Edublogs Award 2009 Now Open For Nominations!

Modified on by
Reply

Edublog AwardsLooking to thank your favorite bloggers?

Here’s your opportunity!

Nominations for the Edublog Awards 2009 are now open!

And best of all this year we have new categories including my favorite Best Student blog…

So students, teachers, class bloggers (and everyone) start nominating your favorite blogger(s) and web sites — we’re all looking forward to learning about great blogs!

About The Edublogs Awards

The Edublog Awards is an annual event that is now in its 6th year.

Each year the Edublogs Awards creates fabulous resources to share ideas on how social networking tools can be used in different educational contexts.

To be involved all you need to do is:

1.  Nominate

Choose the sites that you want to nominate in the following categories (you can nominate for as many, or as few, categories as you like):

Best individual blog
Best individual tweeter
Best group blog
Best new blog
Best class blog
Best student blog
Best resource sharing blog
Most influential blog post
Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
Best teacher blog
Best librarian / library blog
Best educational tech support blog
Best elearning / corporate education blog
Best educational use of audio
Best educational use of video / visual
Best educational wiki
Best educational use of a social networking service
Best educational use of a virtual world
Lifetime achievement

Nominations close Tuesday 8 December!  And you MUST follow exactly the instructions explained below!

2.  Vote

Once the nomination process is complete voting will commence and you’ll be able to submit your votes for as many, or as few, categories as you like on the Edublog Awards website.

Voting ends Wednesday 16 December!

3.  Award Ceremony

Winners are announced at the Award Ceremony on Friday 18 December!

How To Nominate!

You must follow these two simple steps to nominate or your nominations won’t be counted!

Step 1: Write a post on your blog linking to:

  1. The Edublog Awards Homepage
  2. The blogs & sites that you want to nominate (you must include a link to each site you nominate!)

You can nominate for as many categories as you like, but only one nomination per category, and not yourself :)

You can nominate a blog (or site) for more than one category)

Check out these nomination posts to see how it can be done!

  • Silvia Tolisano has made her nomination post really EASY to grab her links to use in the voting process
  • Liz B. Davis’s nomination post has done an excellent job of explaining her choices

Step 2: Email the link to your nomination post as follows:

  1. Go to The Edublog Awards nomination
  2. Scroll to the contact form at the bottom of the page (The Edublog Awards nomination)
  3. Complete the contact form and click send
    • You MUST include a genuine email address (spam free, just in case we need to confirm identity)
    • You MUST include the link to your nominations post

Your complete contact form should look similar to this example below!

You can’t submit your nominations without writing a blog post — please note class blogs can submit multiple posts by different authors!

How to nominate

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Tips For Dealing With Spam Commenters

Modified on by
40

Like most bloggers I really love comments.

And it’s great to get comments that express concern such as “Sue – you’re back and…not blogging yet?:)”……. only to discover it’s a spam comments.

I’ll tell you how I minimize spam comments below – but first a little on the WHAT.

What are Spam Comments?

The reason why people write spam comments is to provide links to the spammer’s commercial web site; to get you and/or your readers to visit their site.

Common spam commenting techniques include:

  1. Adding links to their web site in the comment and their URL Image of spam comment
  2. Adding the link for their web site in URL Image of spam
  3. Creating pingbacks to blog postImage of spam pingbacks

Spammers generally write comments with minimal substance such as:

Thank you for this tips; Good Stuff!; Good job, bro; Very informative and helpful; Yes, it is very helpful; Thanks you for the information and I’ll return here often…….

If it smells like spam it normally is!

Check the URL to confirm— and DELETE!

Image of deleting spam

Refer to Managing, editing and approving comments for more info on deleting comments!

Ways of Minimizing spam comments!

An annoying aspect of spammers is they’ll often target posts with numerous comments.

So while deleting their comments helps it doesn’t prevent emails being sent to commenters who selected ‘Notify me of followup comments via email’.

The key is make it harder for spammers to leave comments so eventually they give up and move on!  And in the process reducing their spamming of your readers!

The two main methods I use are:

1.  Comment moderation

I’ve found comment moderation the most effective method because it allows me to target specific spammers.

It’s as simple as:

  1. Go to Settings > Discussion Image of Settings menu
  2. Add the spammer’s URL, email address, IP address or word(s) commonly used to the Comment Moderation field
    • Tip: For pingbacks I’ll normally include the word(s) they are using to link to my posts Image of spam moderation
  3. Click Save Changes

Now any comments written that contain any of these words in its content, name, URL, e-mail, or IP will automatically be held in your moderation queue where you can decide if to approve or delete them.

2.  Akismet

Image of AkismetAskimet is a spam commenting service designed to reduce comment and pingback spam.

It checks the content of the comment anonymously with an online server, to determine whether it is spam or not.

All comments considered spam automatically placed by Askimet in a spam queue where it is held for a month and then deleted.

Refer to these instructions for setting up and configuring Akismet!

Please Note:

  • With Akismet it is important to regularly check your spam screen to make sure Askimet hasn’t captured any legitimate comments or pingbacks.

Final Thoughts

@spammer!  Yes, I’m back from holidays and thanks for inspiring this post 8-)

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

How To Moderate All Comments and Posts On Student Blogs

Modified on by
29

I’m frequently asked ‘how to moderate all posts and comments on student blogs so that nothing is published until approved by a teacher’ because there are situations where it’s necessary.

I’ll tell you how to do it below – but first it’s important to mention educators have differing opinions on moderation and use two main approaches:

  1. Students are allowed to publish own posts and approve all comments
  2. Students posts and comments aren’t published until approved by a teacher

There are pros/cons to each of these approaches which I don’t have time to discuss in this post but would love to follow up in a later post.

So please share your thoughts on moderation by leaving a comment:

  1. Which approach do you take and why?
  2. Do you moderate all comments and posts?  Or not?

Step 1: Create the student blogs using the gmail+ method

The easiest way to moderate all the comments is for all comments from the student blogs to be sent to one email account.

You do this by creating the blogs using the gmail+ method.

How it works is 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.

If you don’t want to use your own gmail account then set up a gmail account for your class e.g. room15@gmail.com.

This means every comment that is posted on any of the blog will automatically be sent to the one gmail account making it really easier for you to read, approve or delete.

All you need to do is just click on appropriate link in the email!

Image of comment moderation email

Here are instructions for creating student blogs (Remember to add yourself as administrator to the student blogs!)

  1. For free Eublogs blog users – read Creating student blogs using the Signup page
  2. Edublogs Supporter and Edublogs Campus users – refer to Using Blog & User Creator to create student blogs

adminbloguser

Step 2: Change The Comment Moderation Settings

The default comment setting for all newly created blogs is ‘Comment author must have a previously approved comment.’ This means once you’ve approved one comment from a commenter all subsequent comments by that person will be automatically published without being moderated.

For all comments to be moderated and approved by a teacher before appearing on the blog you need to change the comment moderation setting for all student blogs to include ‘An administrator must always approve the comment’.

Changing comment settings is as simple as:

  1. Go to Settings > Discussion Image of Discusion tab
  2. Select ‘An administrator must always approve the comment’. Image of comment moderation setting
  3. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page

For more information about managing comments refer to:

  1. Engaging with readers through comments
  2. Controlling who can comment on posts
  3. Managing, editing and approving comments

Step 3: Changing the Student’s role on the blog

In most situations student blogs are created with the students automatically assigned the role of administrator.

To moderate their posts,  so it a post is only published after approval by a teacher, you need to change their role on the blog to Contributor.

Please note you must first add yourself as as administrator on the student blog as follows:

  1. Creating blogs for your students using the Signup page – free Edublogs blogs
  2. Using the Blog & User creator to create student blogs – Edublogs Supporters & Edublogs Campus only.

adminbloguser

To change their role:

  1. Go to Users > Authors & Users Image of Author menu
  2. Select the user you want to change, click on drop down arrow to select Contributor and then click Change Image of contributor role

When a contributor writes a post it is saved as a pending to await approval by an administrator or editor.

To approve a post:

  1. Navigate to the dashboard of the student blog Image of navigating the blogs
  2. Click on Post > Edit Image of edit posts
  3. Those posts submitted for review by your student will have pending next to their title.
  4. Hovering your mouse over the title of a post brings up four action links: Edit; Quick Edit; Delete and Preview.   Image of pending
  5. To publish just click on Edit or Quick Edit and then click Update Post.

For more information refer to Editing posts.

Please note:

FINAL THOUGHTS

Please share your thoughts on moderation by leaving a comment:

  1. Which approach do you take and why?
  2. Do you moderate all comments and posts?
  3. Or do you allow students to publish own posts and approve all comments?

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!