Monthly Archives: April 2010

The 10 Most Important Things To Figure Out About Blogging

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Nathan Toft’s response “this must be one of the top ten things to figure out about blogging” to my How To NOT Have Problems Uploading Photos And Using Up Storage Space post has me thinking.

What would my “top ten things to figure out about blogging” list be for new bloggers? And how would my tips compare to others?

Can you help us create a list of “top things to figure out about blogging” for new bloggers?

Please leave a comment to tell us:

  1. What are your 3 (or more) most important things a new bloggger needs to know?
  2. Alternatively, tell us what you don’t understand or want to know more about in terms of blogging?  So we can help you!

Thanks to Nathan Toft for inspiring this post!

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Spicing Up Your Posts: Part II Wallwisher

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Many online tools provide embed code that you can use to embed them into other web sites.  The good news is that Edublogs allows you to add almost any embed code into blog posts, pages and text widgets.

This means there are lots of online tools that you can embed to really spice up your posts — providing more variety for your readers and engaging your students!

Let me show you how easy it is to set up a Wallwisher and add it to a blog post.

About Wallwishers

Wallwisher is an online notice board creator.

It’s a really fast and easy way to create engaging activities to use with students.

It’s as simple as:

  1. Create your Wallwisher
  2. Add some sticky notes
  3. Embed into your Blog Post
  4. Add more sticky notes

The sticky notes can be as simple as text only OR very creative with images, audio, video, SlideShares, Google Presentations, blog posts (basically almost anything you can link to via their URL)!

And students don’t need to have a Wallwishers account to use it!

Here’s examples how you can use with students:

  1. Frieda Foxworth’s Wallwisher’s in the classroom – includes a great ‘How to’ Wallwisher video
  2. Ann Leaness’s Wallwisher and Stupeflix in the Classroom - make sure you check out the video at the end to see how she uses a Wallwisher to gather images to create a video with Stupeflix
  3. Tom Barrett’s 19 Interesting ways to use Wallwisher in the Classroom
  4. The Conch’s online “post-it parking lot” for pop culture points. Students earn extra credit when they make connections to what they are learning in class. Click on each post title to check out their different wallwishers.

Below is a  Wallwisher I’ve created:

I’ve set up this Wallwisher as a sandpit site.

Click on ‘Post a Sticky’ to add your own notes to the wall — why not add your thoughts on how it could be used or share links to your Wallwisher!

How To Create a Wallwisher

1.  Go to Wallwisher and click on ‘Build a wall‘

2.  Select your Wallwisher image, add your title and your subtitle

Adding your wallwisher details

2. Add your name and email address

3.  Choose your Wall URL, who can view, who can post sticky notes and decide if you want to approve every post before it is added to the wall.

Choosing your preferences

4.  Select your preferred theme and click Done.

5.  Presto!  Your Wallwisher is created and you can now start addding some sticky notes.

Adding and Viewing Sticky Notes on Wallwisher

1.  You just double click any where on the Wallwisher to add a new sticky note

2.  When the sticky note opens up add your text and/or the URL location of any images, audio, video, SlideShares, Google Presentations, blog posts etc you would like to include in your sticky note and then click OK

Creating a sticky note

Tips:

1.  To locate the URL of an image just right click on the image and select:

  • ‘Copy Image location’ when using FireFox
  • Properties and then copy the Address (URL) when using Internet Explorer

Copy Image Location

2.  When viewing a sticky note with an image embedded – click on ZOOM if you want to enlarge the image

Enlarging an image

3.  When you link to the URL location of audio, SlideShares, Google Presentations, blog posts etc it shows that link using a View icon.  Clicking on VIEW opens up the item on your Wallwisher.

Viewing links to other web pages

Embedding a Wallwisher in a blog post

Edublogs and Edublogs Campus blogs have been customised so that users can embed almost any HTML code into posts and text widgets.

This means most javascript, iframes and object code can be added e.g. videos, google calendars, vokis, Voicethreads, ebooks, widgets

To add any type of object that uses HTML embed code into a post it is as simple as:

  1. Grab the HTML embed code
  2. Click on the HTML tab
  3. Paste the HTML embed code
  4. Click Publish

Embedding a Wallwisher 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.  On your Wallwisher go to Do More and select Embed.

Select embed

4.  Copy the embed code

Copy the embed code

5.  Click on HTML Tab on your blog post.

Your HTML Tab

6.  Paste the embed code for your Wallwisher 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

Presto! Your Wallwisher is embedded in your blog post and others can view and/or add to it!

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Online Accounts: Tips for testing accounts and using Web browsers

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Frustrated by the constant logging in and out when switching between online accounts to test student accounts compared to your account?

Since a lot of what I do involves switching between different accounts — I thought it would help to share my quick and easy cheat method using multiple web browsers.

Cheats Method For Testing Online Accounts

Testing with different web browsersThe key is to run multiple web browsers, at the same time, with each web browser logged into a different accounts, and quickly switch back and forth between the web browsers while doing your testing.

For example, you might log into your account using FireFox, use Internet Explorer for a student account and Chrome for another student account.

This is considerably quicker and less frustrating than constantly logging in and out between accounts in the one web browser.

About Web Browsers

Types of web browsersA common misconception is you can only run one web browser on your computer.

Wrong! Web browsers are programs just like any other software program.

Just as you can run several word processing applications on your computer, you can run several different web browser, at the same time, without causing any problems.

Commonly used web browsers

If you’re only using one web browser now’s the time to install and check out some of the rest!

Web browsers like Internet Explorer and Safari tend to be more fussy; you’ll probably find the alternative web browsers speed up and improve your browsing experience.

Here’s a list of the most commonly used web browsers for you to try:

FireFox

Download FireFox for freeFirefox is one of the original free open source web browser and is regarded by many as the best Web browser.

FireFox and Internet Explorer are the two most commonly used web browsers.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 8 is Microsoft’s current version of Internet Explorer however some educational institutions are still using  Internet Explorer 6.

Unfortunately if you’re using Internet Explorer 6 you will experience problems because most web sites no longer support this version of Internet Explorer.

You can check which version of Internet Explorer you are using by going to Help > About Internet Explorer.

Chrome

Google Chrome is Google’s web browser.

Download Chrome for freeChrome has a more simplistic look compared to the other web browsers.  The traditional toolbar has been relocated to the end of the browser as a drop down and its tabs are along the top.

Its well organized and fairly intuitive to use; taking tab browsing to a fast new level.

Google Chrome toolbar

Flock

Download Flock for freeFlock is known as the social web browser as this Mozilla powered browser is designed specifically for the online social networkers.

It works fairly simlar to FireFox but includes inbuilt tools:

  1. That keep you informed when friends or a favorite site is updated
  2. For sharing information with your social networks

Safari

Safari is Apple’s web browser which now works on PCs as well as Macs.

Web Browser Tips

I often get emails from people whose problems relate to how they are using their web browser.

Here’s my tips for better web browsing:

#1 Use web browser tabs

All modern web browsers include tabbed browsing.

With the older web browser every time you want to open a separate website or webpage you had to launch another window of your web browser.  With modern web browsers, you can now open them in one browser using separate tabs.

Handy tabbed browsing tips include:

  1. Use the shortcut key Ctrl+T to quickly open up a new tab
  2. Use the shortcut key Ctrl+W to quickly close a tab
  3. To open the link to a website in a new tab hold your Ctrl key and then right mouse click on the link

Example of Browser tabs

#2 Use Browser Shortcut keys

Shortcut keys can speed up how you use your web browser and are considerably faster than using your mouse.

The same shortcut keys are used for most web browsers.   Here’s a list of FireFox Shortcut keys.

#3 Check out Add-ons

Add-ons are designed to make browsing easier by providing tools that assist you; they let you personalise your browsing experience.

An example of a commonly used add-on by educators is the Delicious Bookmarks add-on

Here’s where you’ll find add-ons for the common web browsers:

  1. FireFox add-ons
  2. Flock add-ons
  3. Chrome add-ons
  4. Internet Explorer add-ons
  5. Safari add-ons

Example of an add on

#4 Clearing Cachie and/or Cookies

If you are having trouble with a web site or have recently changed your password and it isn’t accepting your latest password — you could be having trouble with your web browser cookies and/or cache.

Any time you ever have trouble it is always worth checking the web site or your account in another web browser.

If it is fine in the other web browser, it means there is probably an issue with your current web browser.

Clearing private data in your current web browser often solves the problem:

  1. Clearing private data in FireFox
  2. Clearing private data in Flock
  3. Clearing private date in Chrome
  4. Clearing private data in Internet Explorer
  5. Clearing private data in Safari

Please note: This will delete stored passwords for all online accounts

Clearing private data in FireFox

#5 Clearing Stored images from your Web Browser Cache

When you visit a web page for the first time your web browser saves a copy of that page and its graphics on your computer.

The next time you visit an ‘already visited web page’ it grabs the saved copy of the page from your computer’s hard drive.

This makes the page load and render faster because it doesn’t have to grab all the information from the web server that hosts the web page.

This ’saved copy on your computer’s hard drive’ is known as your browser cache.  It’s normally a good feature unless you need to view the latest version of a web page.

However, if you have uploaded a new comment avatar or image header to your blog — the stored images in your browser cache can drive you insane making you think the image hasn’t been changed.

If this happens use the shortcut Ctrl + F5 to quickly clear your cache and refresh your page.

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