Monthly Archives: January 2010

Step 8 – Add your student blogs or links to helpful websites to your blogroll

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bloggingstep8We’ve designed a series of nine steps, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.

This step  to add your student blogs to your blogroll (if you have student blogs).

Alternatively you can follow these directions to add links to helpful websites.

What is a Blogroll?

A blogroll is a list of links that you display on your blog.

Bloggers commonly use blogrolls to list their favourite blogs.  Blogrolls help readers locate other blogs worth reading — you are saying “these are some blogs I like – which are worth checking out!”

Blogrolls on class blogs are used slightly differently.

Your class blog is the central hub that connects your student blogs together; making it easier to share their learning, interact with each other and a global audience.

The blogroll on your class blog is what links together all the blogs — helping you, your students and others locate the student blogs easily.

Here’s an example of a blogroll on a Huzzah‘s class blog:

Example of a blogroll on a class blog

How to Add Links To Your Blogroll

Every newly created Edublog has the same default widgets in its sidebars — including a blogroll.

You add links to your student blogs as follows:

1.  Go to Links > Add New

Links > Add New page

2.  Add the first name of your student (and initial of last name if necessary) to the Name Module

Tips:

  • Normally only first names of students are used online.
  • This is the text that will be clickable and takes you to their blog

Adding name to Name Module

3.  Add the student’s blog URL to the Web Address Module

Add blog URL to web address module

4.  Select Blogroll in the Categories Module and click Add Link

Creating a link in a blogroll

How To Use Link Categories To Organise Your Student Blogs

You can sort students from different classess into separate categories as follows:

1.  Click on Add A New Category in the Categories Module

Click on Add new category

2.  Add the Class name then click Add

Creating a new link Category

3.  Now instead of selecting blogroll you just choose the correct category for their Class and click Add Link

Adding student blogs to link categories

Check out Huzzah to see how categories can be used to sort links in blogrolls:

  • Student blogs are listed using the catgeory Class Blogs
  • Class blogs they read are listed using the category Our Blogroll

How To Edit Links

After adding links, you may want to edit them or delete the default links included on the blogroll of newly created Edublog.

1.  Go to Links > Edit

Links > Edit page

2.   To delete a link, hover over the link name and click the Delete option that appears below it.

Deleting a link

3.  To delete multiple links, select several links and then choose Delete from the drop down Bulk Action menu, and click Apply.

Deleting mutliple links

4.  To edit a link, hover over the link name and click the Edit option that appears below it.

Editing a link

5.  An edit screen will open — just edit the link details and then click Update Link

Adding your Blogroll to Your Blog Sidebar

The Links Widget  is used to display the links you added to your blogroll in your sidebar.

Every newly created Edublog has the same default widgets in its sidebars — including a blogroll.  However,  when you add any widget to a newly created blog (via Appearance > Widgets) it automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets.

You add your blogroll back into the sidebar as follows:

1.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your Dashboard

Appearance > Widget page

2.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

3.  Drag the Links Widget from the Available Widgets area into the Sidebar area on the right

Adding Links widget to sidebar

FINAL THOUGHTS

These steps were created as part of the preparation for the Student Blogging Challenge — the next challenge starts in September 2010.

You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

  1. About the student challenge
  2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

And here’s where you find the other steps for setting up your class blog:

Please a comment on this post if you need help setting up your class blog just — I’m always happy to help!

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Setting up Feedburner RSS and Email subscription for your blog

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Lots of people have been asking me about RSS feeds and Feedburner over the past few weeks.

So I’ve decided it’s time to update my ‘how to’ Feedburner info so that:

  1. All the required instructions are in one post
  2. It is current for the latest version of Edublogs and Feedburner

What is RSS?

The easiest way to receive latest posts from your favorite blogs is to subscribe to RSS using feed readers such as Google Reader, Bloglines, NetVibes.

RSS (means Really Simple Syndication) retrieves the latest content from the sites you are interested and pulls them into your feed reader where you can read them all in one location rather than visiting each site separately.

Watch RSS in Plain English to learn more!

The presence of the orange RSS icon indicates a site has an RSS feed and means you can subscribe to it using a feed reader.

What is FeedBurner?

Most blogs have RSS feed which is detected automatically by commonly used feed readers when the blog URL is added to the reader.

However, if you want to make it more obvious and easier for readers to subscribe using RSS, or want to know exactly how many people subscribe to your blog  then the best option is to add a Feedburner RSS feed and email subscription to your blog.

Feedburner is a free web service which enhances bloggers and podcasters ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers. Subscriber overview inside a Feedburner account

Setting Up Your Feedburner Feed

1.  Go to Feedburner and sign in to Feedburner with your Google Account (create a Google Account first if you don’t have one!).

2.  Add your Blog URL to the Burn a Feed Right This Instant and click Next.

Burning a Feedburner Feed

3.  Leave RSS 2.0 source selected and click Next.

Selecting the RSS feed source

4.  On “Welcome” page, make sure you are happy with the title and FeedBurner address (URI) of your new feed and then click Next. Feedburner title and URL

5.  On the Congrats! page click Next

6.  On the stats configuration page select Clickthroughs and I want more! and then click Next.

Selecting your Feedburner Stats options

Adding Your Feedburner Feed To Your Blog

This is used to add the RSS icon and easy subscribe options to your blog side bar using a text widget as explained below:

Example of Feedburner RSS feed in a blog sidebar

1.  Click on the Publicize Tab > Chicklet Chooser in your Feedburner account and copy the HTML code.

Copying the HTML code for your Feedburner Feed

2.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

3.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets) Please note: In new blogs sidebars in your dashboard are empty and adding widgets automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets

4.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

5.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from FeedBurner, click Save and then Close.

Adding Feedburner HTML to Text widget

Adding a FeedBurner Email Subscription

It’s important to add an email subscription option to your blog sidebar as some readers prefer to receive latest posts from blogs using email subscription.

1.  Click on the Publicize Tab > Email Subscription in your Feedburner account and click on Activate.

Activating FeedBurner Email subscription

2.   Copy the HTML code.

Copy Feedburner email HTML code

3.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

4.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

5.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

6.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code for Feedburner email subscription, click Save and then Close.

7.  Now readers simply enter their email address and then click on “Subscribe” and Feedburner emails your entire post to them on the day after it has been published on your blog.

Redirecting All Your Blog Feed To Feedburner

Unless you redirect all your blog feed to Feedburner you won’t get accurate subscriber numbers because some of your readers subscribe using your original blog feed.

If you’re an Edublogs supporter you can redirect your blog feed  as follows:

1.  Go to Settings > Feedburner in your blog dashboard

2.  Add your Feedburner address and click Save Changes.

Redirecting feed to FeedBurner

3.  Now all your feeds is automatically redirected through FeedBurner and you’ll be able to track subscriber numbers accurately.

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Step 6 – Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar

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bloggingstep6We’ve designed a series of nine steps, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.

This step is to add a visitor tracking tool to your blog sidebar.

Why Use Visitor Tracking Widgets?

It’s likely that your blog gets visitors from around the world.

But unless you find ways of displaying visitor numbers and their geographical locations, your students won’t appreciate that they’re publishing posts for a global audience.

Benefits include:

  • Knowing you’re writing for a global audience is incredibly motivating for students.
  • Realizing people from other countries are reading what they’ve written increases their interest, excitement and motives them to blog.
  • It also provides built-in geography lessons — as most students constantly check for new visitors and enjoy finding out more about the countries where their visitors are from.

There’s numerous different types of visitor tracking widgets you can use, and it isn’t uncommon for teachers and students to use more than one type on their blogs.

Below are the most commonly used ones with instructions on how to install.

Please note:

All visitor tracking widgets require you to add embed code to a text widget

To be able to add the embed do you need to be either using:

Each Edublogs Pro blog can upgrade up to 50 student (or other blogs).  Once upgraded these blogs:

  • Will have absolutely no advertising displayed on them
  • Access to and full use of all 100 + Premium themes
  • The ability to embed videos, JavaScript and other third party code

ClustrMaps

ClustrMaps is a thumbnail hit counter map widget that shows the geographical location of all visitors to your blog. Number of visitors from a location is indicated by the relative size of the dot.

Clicking the ClustrMaps thumbnail takes you to a large World map so you can examine your traffic sources more closely.

There is a ClustrMaps widget in the left hand side bar of this blog.

Here’s comprehensive ‘how to’ add a ClustrMaps to Your Sidebar Using:

  1. A Text Widget – free Edublogs blogs which have been upgraded using a Pro blog to enable embedding of HTML code
  2. The ClustrMaps widget – Edublogs Pro blogs only

Flag Counter

Flag Counter widget shows the total number of visitors from each country next to the country’s flag. Every time someone from a new country visits your site, a new flag will be added to your counter.

Clicking on the flag counter takes you to your Flag counter page which provides more detailed charts and information about your visitors.

See it in action on Technology in Our Classroom!

Example of a Flag counter

Here’s how to add a Flag Counter:

1.  Go to Flag Counter

2.  Choose the maximum flags to show, number of columns of flags and your color scheme then click Get Your Flag Counter

Please Note: most blog sidebars will only fit 1 or 2 columns of flags.

Customizing your Flag Counter

3.  Copy the HTML embed code

Grabbing HTML Embed code for Flag counter

4.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

5.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

Please note: In new blogs sidebars in your dashboard are empty and adding widgets automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets

Expand your sidebar area

5.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets or Inactive Widgets areas on the left into the Sidebar area on the right.

Adding a text widget to your sidebar

6.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Flag Counter, click Save and then Close.

Adding HTML code to the text widget

7.  You should now see your Flag Counters in your blog sidebar and the flags will start appearing after 24 hours.

Feedjit Live Traffic

Feedjit Live Traffic Feed displays visitors to your blog in real time and includes:

  • Which city and country your visitors are in
  • Which website they arrived from, if any
  • Which page they visited on your website
  • Which external link they clicked to leave your site, if any

Your traffic feed is updated as each visitor arrives on your site. This update occurs before it loads so each of your visitors can see their own location displayed.

Clicking on the Feedjit Live Traffic counter takes you to your Live traffic page which provides more detailed information including the countries associated with web visitors’ IP addresses, the web browser, computer operating system, and referring website.

See it in action on Technology in Our Classroom!

Example of Feedjit Live Traffic widget

Here’s how to add a Feedjit Live Traffic Widget:

1.  Go to Feedjit Live Traffic Feed

2.  Click on Click here to Customize It! below Live Traffic Feed

3.  Choose your color scheme and width (ideal size for most sidebars is less than 170)

Customize Live Traffic Widget

4.  Once finished customizing, copy the HTML embed code

Copying Live Traffic Feed HTML code

5.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

6.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

7.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

8.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Live Traffic Feed, click Save and then Close.

9.  You should now see your Live Traffic Feed in your blog sidebar and visitor data will immediately start appearing.

Feedjit Live Traffic Map

Feedjit Live Traffic Map displays real-time visitor tracking by showing the geographic locations of the last 100 visitors to your blog.

If you move your mouse over any point on the map the city and country for that visitor will be displayed.

Displaying city and country on a Feedjit map

Clicking on the Feedjit Live Traffic Map takes you to your Live Traffic Map page which provides more detailed information.

See it in action on Technology in Our Classroom!

Feedjit detailed live feed map

Here’s how to add a Feedjit Live Traffic Widget:

1.  Go to Feedjit Live Traffic Map

2.  Click on Click here to Customize It! below Live Traffic Map

3.  Choose your color scheme and width (ideal size for most sidebars is less than 170)

Customizing your Feedjit Map

4.  Once finished customizing, copy the HTML embed code

Grab embed code for Feedjit Map

5.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

6.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

7.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

8.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Live Traffic Map, click Save and then Close.

9.  You should now see your Live Traffic Map in your blog sidebar and visitor data will immediately start appearing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

These steps were created as part of the preparation for the Student Blogging Challenge — the next challenge starts in September, 2010.

You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

  1. About the student challenge
  2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

And here’s where you find the other steps for setting up your class blog:

Please a comment on this post:

  1. If you have any problems or questions while setting up your class blog just — I’m always happy to help!
  2. If you have advice for other educators on visitor tracking widgets — would love to hear stories of how you use them with your students!

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Spicing Up Your Posts: Part I PhotoPeach

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Adding your own digital media content to blog posts isn’t hard and it does spice up your posts — providing more variety for your readers!

Let me show you how easy it is to create a PhotoPeach and add it to a blog post.

About PhotoPeach

PhotoPeach is probably one of the fastest and easiest ways of creating a story or quiz using photos.

It’s as simple as:

  1. Uploading your photos
  2. Adding music
  3. Adding your captions.

Presto!  You’ve created a story that you can embed as a slideshow into your blog post.

Here’s Examples!

  1. Look What’s Happening in Room 102! (Grade 2) PhotoPeaches:
  2. Mrs. Nessman’s class (Grade 1)

    • The Mural has arrived – excellent example of using it to increase cultural awareness between collorabive classrooms in different countries

Below is a quick quiz I created with PhotoPeach:

How To Create A Quiz

Creating a PhotoPeach Quiz is really easy.

Here’s how it’s done:

  1. Click on Edit once you’ve created your PhotoPeach
  2. Then click on Edit Captions and PhotosClick on Edit Captions and Photos
  3. Now click on each photo and then Quiz to add your questions Creating a Quiz
  4. When finished click OK

Disabling Comments

As Linda Yollis points out you can’t moderate comments on PhotoPeach.

You can turn off comments (if your prefer) by:

  1. Click on Edit once you’ve created your PhotoPeach
  2. Then click on Manage Comments  Managing comments on PhotoPeach
  3. Change setting to Don’t allow comments  Changing setting to not allow comments

How To Embed A Photo Peach

Embedding a PhotoPeach is the same as any other embed HTML code:

  1. Completely write your post including adding title, text, images, tags and categories.
  2. Click on Save Draft, previewed your post and make all necessary edits. Previewing your post
  3. Go to your completed PhotoPeach and hover your mouse over the PhotoPeach to bring up the menu items on the left hand side of the PhotoPeach.
  4. Click on Embed in Blog. Click on Embed in Blog
  5. Copy the Embed HTML code. Copy the Photopeach embed code
  6. Click on HTML Tab on your blog post.  Your HTML Tab
  7. Paste the embed code for your PhotoPeach into your post where you want it to appear then immediately click Publish
    • Don’t click back to Visual Tab before hitting Publish as it can break the embed code.
    • Immediately close your post once you’ve published.
    • Change back to Visual Editing mode when you write your next post by clicking on the Visual tab.

Adding PhotoPeach Embed code to a post

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is part of a series of spicing up your blog posts using digital media content.

Please share your cool examples of digital media that you’ve used in posts as we’d love to check them out!

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Step 2 – Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

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bloggingstep2We’ve designed a series of nine steps, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.

This second step is to set up blogging rules and guidelines on your class blog.

Why Have Blogging Rules and Guidelines?

An important part of using an online tool with your students is educating them on appropriate online behavior.  Just because your students grew up with technology doesn’t mean they appreciate or understand what is/isn’t appropriate to post online.

Your class blog provides an excellent opportunity to educate students, parents and other readers on proper online behavior such as:

  1. Types of identifying information that is appropriate in posts and/or comments e.g., What are your rules about use of last names, IM, images and personal information?
  2. What should/shouldn’t you write in posts and/or comments?

Deciding On Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

This is the type of task where you could decide on the rules and guidelines yourself or do as a whole of class activity (where you actively involve your students in the entire process).

Here are examples of different ways they are used on class blogs to help you with the task:

The Two Page Blog Guide For Parents by Kathleen McGeady is an excellent idea for a parent resource.

If you want to include Online Safety activities as part of the process then, Larry Ferlazzo’s The Best Sites For Learning Online Safety post is a good starting place to identify suitable resources.

Setting Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

Once you’ve decided what you want to include in your rules and guidelines it is now just a case of publishing them on your blog.

You would normally publish them on a Page rather than in a post because pages are ideal for important information like this that you don’t expect to update frequently. However, if you also wanted to discuss your rules with your students and readers you might write a post like Miss W. has done.

Here’s information to help you with working with pages:

  1. Differences between Posts and Pages
  2. Writing Pages
  3. Most class blogs use blog themes that have navigational links to Pages at the top of the theme e.g., Mr. Salsich’s blog. Links at the top of the theme make it easier to navigate pages. Example of a blog with navigation links at top of theme
  4. The 137 Edublogs Themes Separated Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier
  5. Taking The Agony Out Of Using Custom Image Headers
  6. Use the Pages widget for blog themes that don’t include navigational links — here is how you change your sidebar widgets!

FINAL THOUGHTS

These steps were originally created as part of the preparation for the Student Blogging Challenge (the next challenge starts September, 2010).

You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

  1. About the student challenge
  2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

And here’s where you find the other steps for setting up your class blog:

Please a comment on this post:

  1. If you have any problems or questions while setting up your class blog just — I’m always happy to help!
  2. If you have advice for other educators on setting up their blogging rules and guidelines or have resources we should check out!

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider feed-icon32x32 Finding and Adding Creative Commons Images To Your Blog PostsSubscribing For Free!