This is a guest post written by Janet Moeller-Abercrombie.

Janet teaches at an international school in Asia. She is the author of Expat Educator and a contributing author of 1 to 1 Schools. You can follow her at @jabbacrombie.

A parent once remarked, “You do so many great things at school. I wish I could be a fly on the wall and watch my child in action.”

One of the easiest ways to give parents a glimpse of school is to give students a camera, access to Picasaweb, and a blog.

Give students a camera.

Each week, one or two students are given the classroom job of photographer. The photographer gets to carry a camera throughout the school day, snapping shots he or she finds interesting.

Why not take pictures myself? I like to see life from a student’s point of view. Parents like to see that too. What do students find interesting? humorous? entertaining? Student personalities shine on the playground, in the cafeteria, and in the library – places I don’t often supervise.

Also, my school is located in a large urban area. Students don’t have much playground space. A camera allows them to spend their free time in artistic ways. Here is a video to help students begin to take thoughtful shots:

Students who want to know more about photography can look for additional advice at the EasyPhotography or Kodak sites.

The one rule for student photographers: photography cannot interrupt teacher instruction or other students’ work time. It’s a good idea to let specialist teachers know the rule so that they can enforce it as necessary.

Pairs of students choose the final photos.

Have a pair of students look through the week’s shots and choose the 10-12 best. When pairs decide, they should discuss what makes one shot better than another. How is it framed? Is the camera focused on the subject? Authentic communication around shared experiences is great for second language learners.

Photos are uploaded into Picasaweb.

Picasaweb is free if you don’t use too much storage space. Low storage is the main reason I have students select their 10-12 best photos each week.

In the video below, I show how to upload and how to add captions. For privacy reasons, I don’t allow students to include names with a caption.

Change Picasa Viewing Permission

I once made the mistake of not changing viewing permissions. The slideshow looked beautiful from my computer. The next day, students told me the pictures weren’t visible. Oops. Click on the link to learn how to Change Picasa Viewing Permissions.

Choose slideshow mode and embed the code.

This part is the trickiest (at first). Students get the hang of it rather quickly.

The Final Slideshow…

An example can be found here.

The next week…

My student photographers teach two new student photographers. I’m a big fan of students teaching students. With a little explanation and access to the video tutorials above, students are able to upload slideshows to the class blog with limited teacher intervention.

Once students get into the routine of posting photo slideshows, you are left with posts that all students and parents want to view. Parents who travel or who live far away especially appreciate this glimpse into their child’s school life.

How else might you use Picasa slideshows in your blog?

In 2011, I went on a fantastic holiday (vacation) in Canada and U.S.A. for 11 weeks. I drove about 10.000 miles in an automatic car on the wrong side of the road without using a GPS or mobile phone. I visited about 25 different classes arranged by 12 teachers in my PLN.

I didn’t write a blog about my experiences though.

“What!”, you say, “Yet you are writing here about blogging?”

Mr. Davo Devil eating dessert!

Instead of me writing the blog, I had my travelling companion, Mr Davo Devil (#mrdavodevil) write about his adventures. Now, Mr Davo Devil is a soft toy from Tasmania. Naturally, by the name, you can tell he is a Tasmanian Devil.

He wanted students and teachers from around the world to participate in his travels, so after each post he would ask questions or have students create avatars etc. He also had a section where students could ask questions or try to answer those left by other students. A map of his journey was also included.

Since returning home (Mr Davo Devil hid in a classroom in Los Angeles), I have also created a blog for another soft toy called DUsquirrel. DU stands for down under and he will be touring Australia and New Zealand over 2012. His hashtag will be #dusquirrel.

If you are a teacher in Canada/USA and would like to have Davo visit you during 2012/2013, please fill in his booking sheet and we will try to get him to you on time. You may keep him for about a fortnight (two weeks) but he must be at his next stop by their date.

If you are a teacher in Australia/New Zealand and would like DUsquirrel to visit, please check the months he will be in your state and make a booking on his sheet.

I have also started searching the net to find other toys travelling their state, country or world. Check these out:

Tommy the travelling Teddy
Ed the bear
Eddie everywhere
Salt and Peppa
Magnie the whale
Rohi the kea

Do you know of any other travelling toys we could add to this list?

Certainly there were next to no 1-to-1 initiatives or tablets in schools – and mobile computer workstations were just starting to be used.

Getting to the point, the face of blogging in education is way different now then it was just a few years ago.

On Edublogs, the two most popular types of blogs have traditionally always been:

1. Classroom – Teachers providing updates and resources for students and parents
2. Professional – A place for educators to share ideas and collaborate with each other

But over the past couple of years, there has been a new kid in town. It’s gone from a few brave teachers here and there that have pioneered the way for others to becoming standard practice in many schools and programs.

It’s student blogging, and it is here to stay!

And we couldn’t be more excited about it. There has always been students using Edublogs in various ways, but now with more devices available and an increased focus in writing and technology use and various curricula, more and more students are finding themselves blogging in school – young and old and across all subjects.

As discussed in this Time Magazine article, research shows that there are more benefits to blogging then you might first think – including improving student self-esteem and confidence offline and outside the classroom.

What does all of this mean?

Well for starters, it means that we at Edublogs have to do an even better job of making it easy for educators to create and manage large numbers of student blogs. We have tons of great tools already in place, especially on our Edublogs Campus sites, but we definitely recognize there is room to improve.

Yesterday we announced a few new tools to help with teachers that need to moderate and approve all comments and posts on student blogs – and there’s a bunch more in the plans for 2012. We believe that the learning benefits of blogging with students is maximized when students have their own personal blogs that they can take ownership of. Our system is designed (and will continue to improve) to let that be a reality in a safe, engaging, and easy to manage way.

This also means that the online community of educators that are blogging with students is growing. Through twitter, blogs, and other means, we need to develop ways to better facilitate collaboration and connect teachers and students that share similar goals. We’ve seen some of this through blogging projects such as this and the twice-yearly Student Blogging Challenge, but putting systems in place that bring it to the masses would be truly powerful.

What do you think? Are you using blogs with your students?

What Edublogs features or community resources would you like to see?

Photo: Teacher With Students from BigStock

With so many options now available, we’ve decided to show you how easy it is to decorate your blog for any holiday or season!

We’ve also set up a demo blog so you can check out what a live blog looks like when you use different options to customise with a particular feel!

Adding a Custom Background

Most themes now allow you to set your own custom image header and custom background.

Yet most people are unaware of how easy it is to add a custom background to achieve a more customised look while adding a personalized touch to their blog.

The first step is to search for a free background you’d like to use.  Numerous websites provide a wide range of suitable free images and backgrounds.

Here’s some sites to get you started:

1. Free Christmas Wallpapers
2. Webweavers Free Clipart
3. Free webimages & Clipart
4. Background Labs
5. Layouts for Christmas
6. Christmas Free 4 All
7. Animated Gif Net
8. Cartoon Cottage

Once you’ve located an image you would like to use, all you need to do is right mouse click on the image and select Save Image As (or Save Picture as) to save a copy of the image onto your computer.

Now uploading your background is as simple as:

1.  Go to Appearance > Background inside your dashboard.

2.  Click on Choose File, select the image you want to upload and then click Upload.

3.  Once it is uploaded select your preferred display option and then click Save Changes.

And when you check your blog you should now see your new custom background!

Student bloggers often like using an animated gif for their background.  All they need to do is locate the animated .gif they want to use, save it onto their computer the same as you would save any other image, and then upload it as a background.

Of course, animated gifs can be a bit overwhelming when used as a background and Ronnie made me remove my pretty ones

Adding a Custom image header

Custom image headers, like backgrounds can really add to the look and feel of a blog.

You can easily make your own or search for a free image header to use.

Here’s some sites to get you started:

1. Guides & Tips Bogger
2. Free Christmas headers
3. Free Web headers
4. Free Header images
5. Theme headers

Once you’ve located an image you would like to use all you need to do is right mouse click on the image and select Save Image As (or Save Picture as) to save a copy of the image onto your computer.

Tip:

1. For the best quality use the recommended image header dimensions for your chosen theme (recommend size for your theme is displayed on Appearance > Header)
2. I use Snagit to resize and adjust my image headers to the correct size before uploading.

Now uploading your image header is as simple as:

1.  Go to Appearance > Header inside your dashboard.

2.  Click on Choose file, browse for the image on your computer and then click on Open.

• Only .jpeg, .gif, and .png files can be used for image headers.

3.  Next click Upload 

4.  Your image will upload and if it isn’t the exact dimensions you’ll need to select the area you want to crop and then click Crop and Publish.
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And when you check your blog you should now see your new custom image header!

Adding widgets to your sidebar

And don’t forget the longtime-favorite Let It Snow plugin on Edublogs which adds falling snow right on your blog!

Leave a link to your decked-out and holiday-trimmed blog below so we can all get in the festive mood.

Seasons greetings and happy blog decorating!

The Student Blogging Challenges have been going on for FOUR years now – all started and maintained by the fearless and hardworking volunteer, Sue Wyatt. The original challenges are all archived on her old class blog here.

For the past two years, the challenges have ran twice each year at their own URL, studentchallenge.edublogs.org, and the challenges have improved the writing, blogging, and digital literacy of thousands of students world wide.

It is never too late to use or adapt the challenges for use with your own students!

Here’s a list of 10 of our favorite activities to get you started:

1. Sept 2010 – Getting Your Blog Lookin’ Good
2. Sept 2011 – Widgets and Games (My Place)
3. Sept 2010 – Avatats, Animoto, and Voki
4. Sept 2010 – Categories, Tags, and Quality Posts
5. Sept 2010 – Images and Fair Use
6. Sept 2010 – The Comment Game
7. Sept 2011 – Digital Footprints and Digital Citizenship
8. March 2011 – Infographics
9. October 2011 – Creativity
10. May 2011 – Assessing and Reviewing Your Blog

Be sure to follow us on twitter or facebook to be kept up to date about the next round of Student Challenges – most likely to start sometime in late February.

Happy blogging!

Photo: Students On Computers from Bigstock

Doesn’t really matter what you think of the new Google Reader interface…..

What does matter is they’ve changed some of the Google Reader functionality educators like to use.

So here’s my essential guide for what educators now need to know about using Google Reader.

Click on the following links to learn more:

1. Intro to RSS and Google Reader
2. Setting up Google Reader and adding subscriptions
3. Managing Subscriptions using Folders
4. Reading posts inside Google Reader
5. Reading posts from Google Reader on an iPhone or an iPad
6. Creating a blogroll using Google Reader
7. Creating a public page using Google Reader
8. Sending an item from Google Reader to your blog

Intro to RSS and Google Reader

One of the smartest things you can do is learn how to use RSS well if you plan to work online with your students.

RSS isn’t dead, isn’t hard to learn and is an essential time saving tool for reading latest students’ work in one location quickly.

RSS is an acronym which stands for Really Simple Syndication.

In simple terms, RSS is a simple and effective way of keeping in touch when new information is added to a website without having to visit the website to check for new updates.

The most common RSS reader used is Google Reader.

How it works is you subscribe to your favorite website using the RSS feed in Google Reader.  Whenever new information is added to the website it is automatically sent to Google Reader where you can read it at your convenience.

For example, whenever your student or a favorite blogger or publishes a new posts on their blog, it is automatically sent to your Feed reader.   Or whenever a student updates on your wiki or posts in your Ning it is automatically sent to your Feed reader.

Please note :

• Blogs on all standard blogging platforms automatically include RSS feeds and don’t necessarily use words or an icon to indicate the presence of the RSS feed.
• For all Edublogs, the rss feed for posts is found by going to yourblog.edublogs.org/feed and the comment feed is located at yourblog.edublogs.org/comments/feed
• RSS readers like Google Reader automatically detect your RSS feed from your blog URL so there is no need to know the feed URL.

Setting up a Google Reader account and adding subscriptions

1.  Create a Gmail account (if you don’t have one)

2.  Go to Google Reader and sign in with your Google Account

3.  Add the blog to your Google Reader account by:

• Clicking on Subscribe
• Entering their blog URL
• Now click Add

You can also subscribe to all the comments published on student blogs by adding their student comment feed by:

• Clicking on Subscribe
• Entering their comment feed URL. For Edublogs blog you add comments/feed/ to the end of the blog URL. For example it should look like this http://theedublogger.com/comments/feed/
• Now click Add

You follow the exact same steps to subscribe to any other website that has an RSS feed.  However, you’d normally locate the RSS feed you want to add and then paste in the feed URL.

Managing Subscriptions using Folders

Folders in Google Reader are like folders on your computer.

You use them to manage the different types of blogs and websites you read.  Folders let you easily prioritise your reading and locate subscriptions.

For example, to manage student blogs you can set up different folders for student blogs from each class or a folder for Student Posts and another folder for Student Comments.

Setting up a folder in Google Reader is a simple as:

1.  Hover your mouse over the blog title to display the drop down arrow.

2.  Click on the drop down arrow to display the subscription options.

3.  Select New Folder.

4.  Name your new folder and click OK.

Adding subscriptions to your folder is as simple as:

1.  Left mouse click on a blog title.

2.  Drag the blog into the folder.

3.  Then release your mouse to place it in the folder.

Alternatively, you can bulk add subscriptions to a folder using your subscription page:

1.  Go to Options and select Reader Settings.

2.  Click on the Subscriptions tab.

3.  Select the subscriptions you want to add to a folder.

4.  Click on drop down arrow next to More Actions and select the Folder you want to add the subscriptions to.

Reading posts inside Google Reader

Latest posts from the blogs and websites you subscribe are automatically added to your Google Reader when they’re published.

You read them inside Google Reader as follows:

1.  Log into your Google Reader account

2.  Click on the folder you want to read.

3.  Make sure it is set to Expanded view so you see the full post.

3.  The number of unread posts is shown in brackets next to the folder name.

4.   Just scroll down through the posts in the folder to read all posts.

5.  As you scroll the posts will automatically be marked as read and the number of unread posts listed next to the folder name will decrease.

6.  Just click on the post’s title to visit a post to add a comment

Reading posts from Google Reader on an iPhone or an iPad

The easiest way to read posts inside Google Reader on an iPhone or an iPad is using a mobile app like Reeder.

Reeder syncs with your Google Reader account and automatically brings all unread posts into your Reeder app allowing you to quickly read through them on your  iPhone or iPad.

Creating a blogroll using Google Reader

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!”

Educators and their student commonly use blogrolls to link to all the student blogs in their class as it helps them easily locate and visit each others’ blogs.

Creating a blogroll using Google Reader is a faster way of adding a blogroll to all student blogs than adding the links inside each blog dashboard using Links > Add New.

Please note:

• Previously you could create blogroll by making a folder public
• Now you create a blogroll using a bundle

Here’s how create and add a Google Reader blogroll:

1.  Hover your mouse over the name of a folder you want to create a blogroll from to display the drop down arrow.

2.  Click on the drop down arrow to display the folder options.

3.  Select Create a bundle.

4.  Click Save.

5.  Click on Create a bundle clip.

6.  Customise the blogroll title, select your color scheme and copy all the embed code.

7.  Now go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

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

6.  Add a text widget to your desired sidebar.

• You drag by click on the widget with your left mouse and moving the widget.

7.  The widget will automatically open — just paste all the embed code for your Google Reader blogroll, click Save and then Close.

8.  Now your blogroll will appear in your sidebar.

You add new blogs or remove blogs from your blogroll as follows:

1.  Click on Browse for stuff

2.  Click on View your bundles

3.  Click on Edit underneath the bundle that holds your blogroll.

4.  Drag and drop new blogs into the bundle or remove a blog by dragging it into the trash area.

5.  Every change made in the bundle automatically updates in the blogroll on your blog.

Creating a public page using Google Reader

A public page is a place for you to collect any of your items in Google Reader that you want to share with other people.

Public pages are handy for educators who want their students to be able to read all posts from the student blogs in one location but don’t want their students to set up their own Google Reader account.

Please note:

• Previously you could create public pages by making a folder public
• Now you create a public page using a bundle
• If you’ve already added a Google Reader blogroll to your blog sidebar then the students can click on the preview link at the bottom of the blogroll to visit your public page and read the latest posts.
• To add and remove blogs from your Public page you need to edit your Bundle by following the instructions for editing your blogroll.

Here’s how create a public page:

1.  Hover your mouse over the name of a folder you want to create a public page from to display the drop down arrow.

2.  Click on the drop down arrow to display the folder options.

3.  Select Create a bundle.

4.  Click Save.

5.  Click on Add a link.

6.  Copy the URL from the address bar.

7.   Now go to Links > Add New in your blog dashboard

8.  Add a title for your Google Reader public page to the Name

9.  Add your Google Reader public page URL to the Web Address 

10.  Select Blogroll in the Categories and the click Add Link

11. Now go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

12.  Add your links widget to your sidebar.

13.  You should now see a link to your Public page and students just need to click on this link to read the latest posts.

How to send Google Reader items to your blog

There’s occasion when you might want to send interesting posts from Google Reader directly to your blog.

This is easily done using the “Send to”  feature of Google Reader.

Here’s how you do it:

1.  Go to Reader Settings in Google Reader.

2.  In Reader Settings click on Send To tab

3.  Click on Create a Custom link at the bottom of the page.

4.  Add the Name of your blog, the URL in the following format and then click Save.

http://yourblog.edublogs.org/wp-admin/press-this.php?u=${url}&t=${title}&s=${source}

5.  Now click Back to Google Reader at the top of the page.

6. You’ll now see a Send to link at the bottom of each item in your Google Reader account.

7.  To send an item to your blog select the name of your blog from the Send to dropdown menu and presto it’ll open up in quick press view on your blog.

Final thoughts

What tips would you give educators for using Google Reader or RSS?  What else would you like to know?

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She is a true pioneer in educational blogging and building global connections.

Sue, maybe better recognized by her display name of Miss W or @tasteach on twitter, is well known by thousands of students and educators from around the globe that participate in her twice yearly Student Blogging Challenges.

She works ridiculously hard organizing tasks, managing helpers, and reading and leaving comments on student blogs. She does this all as a volunteer, because she loves helping students and teachers from all over.

Right now, Sue isn’t at all enjoying the comforts of home which is in Tasmania, Australia. She is in the middle of a whirlwind trip around North America that most can only dream of!

But instead of relaxing and going quietly on her great trip alone, there are two unique things about this trip:

1. Sue will be visiting tons of classrooms, bloggers, and chat friends she’s gotten to know over the years
2. She brought along a Tasmanian friend, Mr. ‘Davo’ Devil as a mascot and travelling companion

You can follow the entire journey on Mr. Davo’s blog – complete with tons of updates and photos!

This is a true case where connections made virtually are turning into amazing experiences for all involved.

About the trip

• Left Australia in mid-September and will continue into November
• Covering more than 6,000 miles (~10,000 kms)
• All in a rental car – driving on the wrong (ie. right) side of the road that Miss W. isn’t used to!

We asked Sue a few questions about her trip, which is currently a couple of weeks in progress.

Why this trip?

Where are you staying?

How is it visiting other schools?

So far have visited four classrooms and have plans to visit at least 7 more. Teachers looked at my rough map and said, “You are coming near us – can you visit our class?” If it wasn’t too far off the route, I diverted slightly to visit them.

What else are you getting to see?

The cool things are visiting the classrooms and meeting the teachers and students, blogging about the trip, going to places I have never been before on previous trips and re-visiting Grand Canyon to see the glass walkway. I’ve always wanted to see Banff and Calgary, look at whaling on the east coast of USA, Mount Rushmore, and visit Kansas and Oklahoma to see how “country”  they are.

How do people find your accent?

Some people have noticed the accent but they often ask questions about language usage like lift/elevator, trunk/boot and so on. The students want to know more about the animals of Australia.

Getting students involved

There is a place on Mr. Davo Devil’s blog to leave questions about Australia, the US, and Canada – Mr. Davo will get around to answering any questions that are left.

Students are already asking things such as types of fruit, kinds of animals, and customs of each country.

Or even cooler is this fantastic question left on the Kids in the Mid blog of Miss W’s home town:

What do you think about Sue’s trip? 

I, for one, sure am jealous!

The good news is that our newest custom menus feature makes this even easier!

This is ideal if you want to put up a post or question geared only towards one group of your students. They will see a link for their class in the top menu navigation of your blog, and once they click on that link, they will see only posts meant for them, with the most recent at the top.

Don’t let the length of the instructions fool you – it really is easy to setup, and once it is done, it will last you all school year

Step 1 – Choose what should be shown on your “home page”

Option 1 – All posts are shown with the most recent first – this what you are most likely used to

Option 2 – A “static home page” where you place a welcome message or important announcements

What we will be doing is assigning categories to certain classes or subjects. Because of this, you may not want all posts to show on your home page – what people see when they first visit your blog.

If you are ok with all posts, no matter the subject or class, showing together on your home page, then you won’t need to do anything special and can skip right to Step 2.

If you go with the static home page (Option 2), then you will first need to create a new page, just like any other page, and put in the information you want people to see.

Then, go to Settings > Reading in your blog’s dashboard, choose ‘Static Page‘ and in the drop down, select the new welcome page you just created.

Click ‘Save Changes‘.

You will be able to go back and update this page with new announcements whenever you like – but users that have subscribed to your blog feed or by email, won’t receive any sort of notification.

You can also create a new blank page called something like “All Posts”, and choose it under the posts dropdown box so that there will be a place for all posts to be shown on your blog in one place.

Step 2 – Create categories

Go to Posts > Categories and create new categories for each class, year, or subject that you want to appear in your blog’s navigation menu.

You will need a category for every post you write if you are using the static home page from step 1.

As you publish new posts, make sure to assign them to appropriate categories. You will get an error message when you click on a category that doesn’t yet have a post assigned to it. You can also assign a post to more than one category, which is great for news you want to share with all groups.

Step 3 – Create a custom menu

Go to Appearance > Menus and create a new custom menu for your blog.

Once you do this, all of the links at the top of your blog will disappear and you will need to add them back using the custom menu.

Visit our help site on custom menus to learn more, or check out the video below:

Going from here…

If you have this up and working and would like to share, feel free to leave a comment below letting us know!

For more information on setting up a class blog, check out the ongoing Class Blog series on our Teacher Challenges free professional development blog.

In short, a wiki is a type of website or page on the web where others can easily change the text, edit it, or add to it.

A quick fact, the word ‘wiki’ doesn’t stand for anything, but was named after this bus in Hawaii. The creator of the first wiki thought  after riding this bus that wiki was a good substitute for the word ‘quick’.

From Wikipedia

And, something we’re excited about, you can now add wikis to a blog on Edublogs!

What better way to show off what this can do than with a wiki?

So please visit our very first wiki on TheEdublogger.com – Ways to use wikis in the classroom.

Jump in and add your ideas if you’d like.

Try out the ‘discussion’ tab as well to start a conversation about the wiki.

You will also find a history tab which will let you review and roll back to previous versions if you’d like.

This particular wiki is open to the public and can be edited by anyone. However, on your own blog, you can choose to only allow it to be editable by those you choose – making it great to use with students.

If you want to try this out on your own, you can get a free blog WITH WIKIS here if you don’t have one already.

What do you think!?

For an iPad to be a suitable replacement for student laptops and netbooks writing posts needs to be as easy or similar to using a computer.

So now I’ve created my blog, set up the theme and added widgets entirely using an iPad it’s time to see how easily I can write posts using just my iPad.

The iPad keyboard

But first we need to discuss the iPad keyboard.  My poor index finger still hurts remembering a week of intensive iPad use while travelling without a keyboard.

The onscreen keyboard is fine for occasional typing but you can’t sustain the same quantity or comfort achievable using a laptop or netbook.

And to be honest 99.9% of the time I never use an external keyboard because the sheer size, portability and convenience are what I love the most about the iPad.

But for serious typing on an iPad you’ll want a real, physical keyboard.

Options include:

1. Apple Wireless keyboard (US $69) – connects via Bluetooth
2. Apple iPad Keyboard Dock (English) (US $69)
3. Wireless Folding Keyboard (US $99.95)
4. Logitech Keyboard Case (US $99.95)

I use the Apple Wireless keyboard because it’s small, is a fully functional keyboard and I can still laze on my couch while typing.

Would love try the Logitech Keyboard Case as a comparison.

The Visual Editor on the iPad

Unfortunately the visual editor used by WordPress, which powers Edublogs, doesn’t work on an iPad.   This means if you write posts within your dashboard you need to be comfortable with writing the HTML code directly into your editor.

The blogging apps on iPads face the same type of issue.  Each of them use a different method to tackle the problem.

The more sophisticated apps include simple formatting toolbars for easily adding HTML code to the post while others you’ll need to know how to write the code if you want to apply more formatting like bold, italics, text alignment, links.

Blogging Apps Review

So now it’s time to write posts!

But I still need to decide with app to use?  And like with almost anything on the iPad there’s too many to choose from!

Or do I need the app?  I could always use the dashboard in iCabmobile (or Safari).

Let’s start with a review of the blogging apps and we’ll discuss the dashboard option in a web browser later in the post.

• If students are sharing iPads writing within the dashboard is the better option than using a blogging app.

Blogging apps for iPads include:

• Blogsy (US $4.99)
• BlogPress (US $3.99)
• BloggerPlus (US $1.99)
• BlogWriter (US $2.49)
• WordPress (free)

Here’s a quick comparison of the main differences between blogging apps:

There’s considerable variation between the apps in terms of the features they provide, their ease of use and how they work

Which would I recommend?  The pressure

And perhaps that’s the answer?  On a computer it’s easy.  Often you’ll find software provides the entire solution.  While on an iPad it’s more common to use several similar types of apps for slightly different purposes.

But here’s what I’m thinking as the purposes of these posts is to give advice:

Blogsy

Blogsy is ideal for educators, or more skilled students, who are wanting most features including the more advanced formatting options and functionality, and who aren’t concerned that it’ll take longer to learn how to use well.

You’re able to do the most with Blogsy including easily drag & drop of images, YouTube videos and links but it does have a steeper learning curve.

This is the app I would use if I was only blogged from an iPad even though the first time I opened it I did run away hiding for a few days.

BlogPress

BlogPress is ideal for educators and students who are looking for easy to use app that works well and makes applying simple formatting, adding images, videos and links easy.

WordPress

Personally I didn’t like the WordPress app.

To use well you’ll need to know how to write your own HTML code.  However, it’s the only app that allows you to manage comments and write/edit pages.

It’s worth considering if you want an app for those situations where you need it for these types of purposes.

Using a Blogging apps

To be able to use any blogging app XML-RPC first needs to be enable.

XML-RPC is automatically enabled on Edublogs.org blogs if you are using an Edublogs Pro blog or a blog which has had extra features enabled using an Edublogs Pro blog.

If you are using an Edublogs Campus blog you’ll need to enable XML-RPC within your blog dashboard in Settings > Writing.

You aren’t able to enable XML-RPC on free Edublogs.org blogs.

When adding your blog to any app you need to select the Self hosted WordPress blog option.

Tips for blogging with Blogsy

Blogsy is a bit overwhelming the first time you open up the app because it looks very different from all the other blogging apps.

Below’s a quick overview of the main parts of the Blogsy to help.

Best place to start is to click on the Settings icon to check out their comprehensive  ’How to”  videos and guide.

Tips for blogging with BlogPress

BlogPress is considerably easier to use but there’s a few things you need to know.

First it’s important to make sure you’ve set up the correct timezone inside your blog dashboard.   I managed to revert a post to a scheduled post when I edited a published post due to the difference between the timezone on my iPad compared my blog setting.  Possibly an issue with all blogging apps?

I’m normally too lazy to worry with my timezone but it’s a good idea in this situation!

All you need to do is go to Settings > General and select the timezone for your location.

It wasn’t obvious when I first used BlogPress that you could add categories and tags.

However, they’re easily added by clicking on the ‘i‘ to the right of the title.

To format text you just need to select the text you want to format and then click on the HTML tab.  This automatically adds the HTML needed to apply that formatting to your post.

Writing posts in your dashboard using a web browser

You don’t have to use a blogging app to write posts on an iPad.  You can choose to write posts directly within your blog dashboard.

On an iPad you have access to anything that you have available to you in the WordPress dashboard.  For the most part everything works pretty well.

Biggest pain is you can only write using the HTML editing mode; the visual editor isn’t supported by an iPad.

This means if you write posts within your dashboard you need to be comfortable with writing the HTML code directly into your editor.

• If students are sharing iPads writing within the dashboard is the better option than using a blogging app.

The other pain is most of the iPad web browser won’t let you locate images on your iPad to upload.  This is easily solved by using iCab mobile which does support this feature.

However, there’s still a trick to inserting images using iCab mobile

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Click on the ‘Add Image’ icon
2. Select and upload your image
3. Click on Show next to the image you uploaded
4. Copy the Link URL
5. Click back in the web browser toolbar to return to your post
6. Click on ‘img’ and paste your Link URL

Final thoughts

You can check out my posts written with the different blogging apps and within my blog dashboard on my iPad here (it’s messy as I did a lot of troubleshooting while reviewing the different apps).

Here’s where you’ll find the first post from my iPad series – “Blogging with an iPad: Choosing a web browser, setting up your theme and adding widgets”

Stay tune for the next post in this series!

Please let us know:

1. What have I missed?
2. What’s your favorite blogging app and why?
3. What other advice would you give?
4. Or are there any other questions you would like answered?

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