Blogging with an iPad: Choosing a web browser, setting up your theme and adding widgets

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My iPad is a significant part of my life.  It goes almost everywhere with me and is the one device I can’t live without for both work and leisure.

With more educators looking at iPads as a replacement for student laptops and netbooks, we’re regularly being asked for blogging tips using iPads.

So I’ve decided the best way to provide advice is build a new blog using just my iPad and post about it as I go!

Web browsers on the iPad

Lets start by talking about web browsers since you’ll need to use one as you’re setting up your blog.

While Safari is the default web browser on an iPad there are apps that provide considerably better browsing with greater functionality than Safari.

Alternative web browsers for iPads include:

I’ve decided to use iCab mobile because:

  1. It has the richest feature set
  2. It supports tab browsing so you don’t have to keep zooming in and out of your browser to move pages
  3. I’m able to access more blog features inside my dashboard than any of the other browsers

You can choose to use Safari rather than purchase an app like iCab mobile however support of tab browsers makes the process considerably easier and quicker.

Tab browsing in iCabmobile on an iPad

Here’s a quick comparison of the main differences between these browsers:

Quick iPad Browser comparison

Tip:

  • The iPad’s dock at the bottom of the screen where you can ‘stick’ icons of your favorite apps so they remain accessible from all other Home screens can hold up to six different apps.
  • To add more icons to the iPad dock, or replace existing apps, just touch and hold any Home screen icon until the icons begin to wiggle.
  • Now drag the app you want to add from the Home screen into your dock.  When complete, press the Home button to save.

The most annoying aspect is Safari is the default browser and, unlike a computer, you can’t change this on an iPad.  So instead I’ve added iCab Mobile to my iPad dock to make it easier to access.

dock41

Creating the blog

Now it’s time for me to create the blog.

I’m creating it via the Edublogs sign up page using  iCab mobile however:

  1. If you’re new to blogging start by reading these things to consider before creating your blog
  2. If you’re setting the student blogs follow these instructions

Tip:  A handy shortcut is to doubletap on your home button. This brings up a toolbar which makes it easy to navigate around your iPad apps.

Accessing your iPad toolbar

Setting up the theme

Now my blog is created it’s time to give it my personal touch by choosing a new theme.  Last thing I want is it to look like all the other newly created blogs!

Changing the theme was simple.

All I needed to do was:

  1. Log into my blog dashboard using iCab mobile (or you can use Safari)
  2. Go to Appearance > Themes
  3. Click Activate below the theme I wanted to use

If you’re struggling to decide on a theme it’s best to activate a theme you want to check out and then view your blog in another tab, than to use Preview — it’s less time consuming.

Changing your theme

Here’s where you’ll find more information to help you choose your theme:

  1. What to consider when choosing your blog theme
  2. The 137 Edublogs Themes Separated Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier

I’ve decided to use PrimePress because it’s a nice clean theme that suits my purpose.

Uploading the custom image header

While changing the theme was simple, uploading a custom image header wasn’t. It’s definitely something that’s considerably less painful using a computer.

But it can be done and here’s what you need to know:

  • The easiest option is to use a free image header that is close to the image header size you need to upload
  • You need to use iCab Mobile as most iPad web browsers won’t let you locate images on your iPad to upload
  • You need to make sure the image is exactly the size recommended on the Appearance > Custom Header page because you can’t crop images in the dashboard on an iPad

Here’s how I did it:

1.  Downloaded a free image header from FreeWebPageHeaders

  • Images from FreeWebPageHeaders are a standard size of 800 pixels wide by 200 high which means for most themes you’ll need to resize and crop.

Downloading an image on an iPad

2.  Resized the image to 920 pixels wide using iResizer (Us$1.19).

  • There’s lots of image resizers you can choose from.
  • I just found this app the easiest of the ones I already have and it’s handy to have a good image resizer.

Resizing an image on an iPad

3.  Opened up the resized image in PhotoGene (US$2.49):

  • cropped to 920 pixels wide and 150 pixels high (size required for uploading)
  • Added text
  • Saved the image

There’s lots of image editors you can choose from.  This app is easy to use and is handy for cool image editing.

Adding text to an image on an iPad

4.  Then reopened my new custom image header in iResizer to check:

  • it was definitely 920 pixels by 150 pixels
  • otherwise I wouldn’t be able to upload.

5.   Next I logged into my blog dashboard using iCab mobile

6.  Went to Appearance > Custom Header

7.  Clicked Select File, selected image from Camera Roll and clicked Upload image.

Presto!

My new image header is now on my blog!

You can check out the progress of my blog building on an iPad here!

Changing the tagline

The concept behind a blog tagline is to create a memorable phrase that sums up the tone and premise of a blog.

Changing the tagline was simple.

All I needed to do was:

  1. Log into my blog dashboard using iCab mobile (or you can use Safari)
  2. Go to Settings > General
  3. Add my new tagline and click Save Changes.

Adding a new tagline

Changing Widgets

You can’t drag and drop widgets on an iPad.

You can, however, still add widgets with relative ease using the following steps:

1.  Select ‘screen options’ from the tab at the top.

Click on Screen options

2. Enable accessibility mode

Enable accessibility mode

3.  Click add on the widget you want to add

Add the widget

4.  Add the information

  • In my situation I need to add an attribution for the image I’ve used

Adding information to the widget

5.  Then decide where it goes

Choose sidebar and location of widget

6.  Click Save Widget

You can learn more about working with widgets here!

Final thoughts

My blog is now set up ready for me to start adding content.  You can see how the blog is going here (if you can bear it’s current messy state!)

The next post in this series is all about creating and editing posts and pages using an iPad.

Please let us know:

  1. What have I missed?
  2. What other advice would you give?
  3. Or are there any other questions you would like answered?

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

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How to get Chrome OS for FREE and put older computers to good use

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As you may have heard, the brand new Chromebooks running Chrome OS are being rolled out by Google this week.

These netbooks are the first devices marketed towards the average user, schools, and students that don’t run the more familiar Windows or Mac operating systems. It really pushes the whole cloud computing concept to limits we haven’t before experienced.

google-chromium-os-hardware

But what if you want to try out the operating system before shelling out the $380+ for a new device or committing to the education subscription model of $20 per device per month?

You can download the open-source version, called Chromium OS, for free and boot it up on your computer!

Since we expect at least some of our users to begin using Chrome OS in the near future, I thought I should test it out. Plus, I wanted an excuse to give Chrome OS a spin. So I set out to get my own copy, and have written this entire blog post from the new operating system on an older laptop I had lying around. :)

For the record, since Edublogs is completely web-based, the blogging experience is pretty much the same. The only tricky parts come when editing and uploading images, as the file system is not at all what you will be used to (but it’s also fun to figure out).

Chromium OS vs. Google Chrome OS vs. Chrome Browser

First, the title of this post is admittedly a bit deceitful. You see, there are two versions of the Google Operating System (OS) out there.

This can get even more confusing because there is also the Chrome browser available for Windows and Mac machines! That’s a lot of different but similar Chromes.

1. Google Chrome OS – this is what comes pre-loaded on the new chromebooks and offered to schools in the subscription packages.

2. Chromium OS – this is what we can download and use for free on any machine we like. It’s open-source and supported by the development community.

3. Chrome Browser – a web browser, like Firefox or Explorer, which looks almost identical to what you see when you load up either of the operating systems.

Chrome OS and Chromium OS share the exact same code-base – in fact they are much more alike then different. However, Chrome OS comes with automatic-updates and more reliability since it is built specifically for certain machines. There is also a PDF application that is only available on Chrome OS.

Why Chromium OS may be huge for schools!

We’ll get to the play-by-play on how to test out Chromium, but first, a discussion on why school technologists and teachers might be interested in trying this out.

More than likely, there are more than a few older laptops and desktops that have been fazed out at a school or that are now running so slowly they practically aren’t usable. Installing Chromium OS could breath in new life to out-dated computers.

Why?

  • A much lighter OS that doesn’t use as many resources – on my laptop it takes nearly four minutes to fully launch Windows 7 to the point that I can use a web browser. On Chromium, that time on the same laptop was right at two minutes. On a true chromebook, that time is supposed to be around 10 seconds!
  • With no further software to install, no need to worry about licensing fees or updates. Supporting these devices over the long-term should be easier and less time consuming.
  • Similarly, virus protection is built in and if a problem arises, a fresh install of the OS can fix any problems without losing any user data.
  • If you are already using Google Apps for Education, then existing login names and accounts work immediately and seamlessly – or users can always login as a “Guest” and data is wiped away after they log out.

This is perfect for library computers to give access to the web for research or in older computer labs running clunkier operating systems that are causing problems. Or even better for a couple of extra classroom computers for students to use for blogging ;)

Possible roadblocks and barriers

It’s not all roses and bliss.

The first time I booted up Chromium OS everything froze. I restarted and things have been good, but it is temperamental with buttons strangely disappearing and fonts that don’t look right on some websites.

It also isn’t compatible with all hardware. Some searching shows that a common problem is not being able to use a wireless connection on many laptops – but an Ethernet connection usually works. The wireless adapter did work without any problems for me. I haven’t tried to troubleshoot, but my webcam doesn’t seem to be working currently.

Chrome OS and Chromium OS will not be good solutions in situations where special software is needed. For example, while there are some online video and photo editing apps and websites, they aren’t as powerful as the desktop versions. Same with Microsoft Office products like Word and PowerPoint.

I’m still experimenting with this and very new at it, so please leave any comments with other points or advice that you may have!

How to download Chromium OS and run from a USB drive

This may sound scary at first – but don’t worry, the process isn’t too bad on a Windows machine.

*You will need a USB flash drive with at least 2GB of memory on it. It must be one that you don’t mind deleting everything else off of it!*

1. Go here to get the latest version of the Chromium OS.

2. Scroll down and click on the latest build’s icon of a USB stick. This is a pretty big file so it may take some time to download.

usb

3. Be sure to save the file to your desktop or to a folder that you can easily find again.

4. You will need an extraction software such as WinRar (free!) to extract the file you just downloaded.

5. Unzip the .tar.gz file you just downloaded in step 2.

6. You will now need another piece of software called Image Writer for Windows (also free!). Download it here – you want the one on top that ends in binary.zip. After unzipping this file, click on Win32DiskImager.exe to run the program.

7. Once running the Disk Imager program, click on the blue folder to choose the .img file you extracted in step 5. Choose the file letter associated with your clean and empty USB drive, and click on ‘Write‘. Accept the warning that shows up.

diskimager

8. Put the USB drive in any computer that you want to test out Chromium OS on. Restart the computer and choose the boot settings before Windows launches. On most machines, this is done by hitting f12 as soon as you turn on or restart a computer. You have to move quick here and other f keys may be needed depending on your computer.

9. Select the option to boot from USB.

10. Login using your Google account or Google Apps account. Welcome to Chromium!

What about ditching the USB drive?

It is possible to install chromium on a machine and not require the USB drive and extra steps to boot from USB. However, this process is a bit more involved and unique to the device you are using. It also requires either erasing your existing hard drive or partitioning one to allow for a dual boot option.

With some work, it could be made so that Chromium OS is the only option users have when hey start up a computer – ideal for school and classroom use. Hopefully the tutorial above will let you try out the operating system first to see if that is a route you want to consider. It should also give you a similar experience to see if you are interested in purchasing one of the new chromebooks as well. Though I imagine the speed and easy of use will be better on those native Chrome OS devices.

So what do you think?

Is Chrome OS a game-changer in education?

Can Chromium OS salvage a few more good years out of older machines?

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A free widget to enhance collaboration and discussion right in your blog!

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We recently came across CollaborizeClassroom and think that anyone with a blog will love what they offer!

CC_logo

Like blogging, CollaborizeClassroom makes it easy to have discussions online. And best of all, there is a widget that lets you embed questions and polls right into your blog!

Anna and the team from CollaborizeClassroom was nice enough to set up a site just for edubloggers – you don’t need to even be an Edublogs user to use it. You can also set-up your own online space and the service is completely free either way!

So play around with the following directions and let us know what you think!

Step One: Visit the Edublogs Collaborize Community. Click Ask a Question. When the window pops up, it’s time to set up your poll.

Screen shot 2011-04-27 at 11.11.59 AM

Step Two: This is the form where you’ll create your poll. In the first field, type in the topic (or title) of your poll. Add any other information you would like to include in the description area. We recommend using this space to explain how you would like people to use your poll. Next, select a category. If you don’t see a category that is specific to your poll, you can use the “Other” category. You can also add an end-date or attach an image, video or document.

AskForm

When you are done, click Publish.

Step Three: Once you see your topic displayed in the topic listing, click Make Widget (the link with the gear icon next to it). You will be taken to a wizard that guides you through the process of customizing your widget’s appearance.

MakeWidget

Step Four: Once you have customized your Widgets appearance, click Next then click Grab Code at the bottom of the page.  Copy the Widget Code.

Screen shot 2011-04-27 at 11.25.56 AM

grabcode

Step Five: From your Edublog site, in a New Post – Click on the HTML Tab and Paste in your Widget Code.

Screen shot 2011-04-27 at 11.30.06 AM

Step Six: Click Publish and view your new widget in action!

Screen shot 2011-04-27 at 11.33.57 AM

Thanks CollaborizeClassroom for putting together this site for our community and for helping with the directions above!

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Teaching is the cushiest and most overpaid job, right?

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currency_dollar_red

Earlier today I was introduced to one of the coolest ideas I’ve come across in a long while.

With education reform debates raging on – and the unfortunate cuts being felt by education budgets, something that often comes up is that teachers are overpaid.

Especially since they have summers off!

For anyone that has actually spent anytime in the classroom teaching, we know this is absolutely false. And this guy is out to set the record straight!

Charles Ripley is a high school English teacher that has started a new blog to record all of the hours he spends related to teaching over the next year.

Watch his video or read his introductory post here.

For anyone that is equally inspired to do the same, leave a comment or email support@edublogs.org and we will hook you up with a free Pro blog for the year so you can join in!

We love the creative use of blogs here and wish Charles luck over the next year!

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Adding the NEW twitter follow button and other twitter widgets to your blog

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Just yesterday Twitter launched a new “Follow” button that will make life easier for all of us twitteraholics.

follow

Before now, you had to put a link to your twitter page and then potential fellow tweeters had to click “follow” there. Now, they can do it all from your site with one single click.

He’re an example for my account. Go head – click follow – I won’t mind!


So how do you add one to your blog?

Twitter makes it easy to grab embed code for your own personal follow button here.

We’ll walk you through the steps, but if you want to know more about embedding, you should check out the in-depth post here from our Teacher Challenge blog.

1. Visit the Twitter Resource page for the Follow button

2. Choose from the available options and then copy the code that appears on the right side
twitter

3. Paste the code into the HTML tab of a page or post. A popular place might be to put it on your Contact or About page.

How To Embed In a Sidebar

You can see that we’ve embedded the follow button into the sidebar of this blog on the left side under our photos.

Here’s how to this:

1. Complete steps 1 and 2 from above (which is to go here)

2.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

Appearance > Widgets menu item

3.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the 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 for your follow button or widget, click Save and then Close.

Adding HTML embed code to voki

6.  That’s it!

What other twitter widgets can you add?

Using the exact same steps as embedding the follow button, you can also add several other twitter widgets too!

All of the different widgets and options can be found here.

Here are a few on display for you too see:

The Profile Widget




The Search Widget




Edubloggers List Widget



Other Twitter Resources

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